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The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist
Syd Mead is one of the most accomplished and widely respected artists and industrial designers alive today. His career boasts an incredible array of projects from designing cars to drafting architectural renderings, but he is most famous for his work as a concept artist on some of the most visually arresting films in the history of cinema. Since working on Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1978 as a production illustrator Syd Mead has always aimed to render “reality ahead of schedule,” creating evocative designs that marry believable content with a neofuturistic form. It is this ability to predict technological potential that has helped Mead create such a distinctive and influential aesthetic. From his work with Ridley Scott on Blade Runner, to his striking designs for the light cycles in Tron, to his imposing concept art for the U.S.S. Sulaco in James Cameron’s Aliens, Syd Mead has played a pivotal role in shaping cinema’s vision of the future.
The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist represents the most extensive collection of Mead’s visionary work ever printed, compiling hundreds of images, sketches and concept arts from a career spanning almost 40 years, many of which have never been seen in print before. Each entry provides a unique insight into the processes involved in Mead’s practice as well as illuminating the behind-the-scenes work involved in creating a fully realized, cinematic depiction of the future. With such a plethora of images from the many genre-defining films Mead has worked on, this is essential reading for film fans, artists and futurologists alike.
The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist represents the most extensive collection of Mead’s visionary work ever printed, compiling hundreds of images, sketches and concept arts from a career spanning almost 40 years, many of which have never been seen in print before. Each entry provides a unique insight into the processes involved in Mead’s practice as well as illuminating the behind-the-scenes work involved in creating a fully realized, cinematic depiction of the future. With such a plethora of images from the many genre-defining films Mead has worked on, this is essential reading for film fans, artists and futurologists alike.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 19, 2017
About the author
Syd Mead
38 books21 followersSydney Jay Mead, commonly Syd Mead (born July 18, 1933), is an American industrial designer and neofuturistic concept artist, widely known for his designs for science-fiction films such as Blade Runner, Aliens and Tron. Mead once said, "I've called science fiction 'reality ahead of schedule.'"
Mead's work has received wide note, and, in 2017, Curbed called Mead "the artist who illustrates the future".
Born on 18 July 1933 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Mead graduated from high school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1951. After serving a three-year enlistment in the U.S. Army, Mead attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles (now the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena), where he graduated in June 1959. He was recruited by Ford Motor Company's Advanced Styling Studio by Elwood Engel. Mead left Ford after two years to illustrate books and catalogues for companies including United States Steel, Celanese, Allis-Chalmers and Atlas Cement. In 1970, he launched Syd Mead, Inc. in Detroit with clients including Philips Electronics.
In 1979, Mead worked with major studios on the feature films Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, Tron, 2010, Short Circuit, Aliens, Timecop, Johnny Mnemonic and Mission: Impossible III.
Mead's work has received wide note, and, in 2017, Curbed called Mead "the artist who illustrates the future".
Born on 18 July 1933 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Mead graduated from high school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1951. After serving a three-year enlistment in the U.S. Army, Mead attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles (now the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena), where he graduated in June 1959. He was recruited by Ford Motor Company's Advanced Styling Studio by Elwood Engel. Mead left Ford after two years to illustrate books and catalogues for companies including United States Steel, Celanese, Allis-Chalmers and Atlas Cement. In 1970, he launched Syd Mead, Inc. in Detroit with clients including Philips Electronics.
In 1979, Mead worked with major studios on the feature films Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, Tron, 2010, Short Circuit, Aliens, Timecop, Johnny Mnemonic and Mission: Impossible III.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
September 30, 2017
A little history now - my brother has always been the creative one and while at college he was introduced to the works of Syd Mead. Now a lot of these books he borrowed are now fantastically expensive collectors items (oh don't I know as I have spent years tracking them down for him but that is another story) - but Syd Mead is a legend in some circles - not an artist of science fiction is a futurist - much of his work was done behind closed doors as he did a lot of commissioned work for various people (from designers to car manufacturers) his work has subtly shaped and guided our view of modern technology and design in a myriad of ways.
So when I found out that a book was coming out that celebrates his work in the movies -from the famous (I know his work on the flying car in Blade Runner - the spinner - and the creation of the Sulaco in Aliens) to the never been seen before - I just had to have a copy of it.
Now the style of Syd Mead is incredibly distinctive and yet when you look through the book you realise how many of his designs shaped the "feel" of the film and to be honest I am not sure how many of them really did credit him for that. After all you can see the character of Johny 5 in Short Circuit really coming out in his work.
This book is an amazing catalogue of work that Syd Mead has done - I just wish it went in to more depth but then again is that not the sign of a great book that what ever they give you are left wanting more.
The real question is how long is it before my brother tries to steal the book?
So when I found out that a book was coming out that celebrates his work in the movies -from the famous (I know his work on the flying car in Blade Runner - the spinner - and the creation of the Sulaco in Aliens) to the never been seen before - I just had to have a copy of it.
Now the style of Syd Mead is incredibly distinctive and yet when you look through the book you realise how many of his designs shaped the "feel" of the film and to be honest I am not sure how many of them really did credit him for that. After all you can see the character of Johny 5 in Short Circuit really coming out in his work.
This book is an amazing catalogue of work that Syd Mead has done - I just wish it went in to more depth but then again is that not the sign of a great book that what ever they give you are left wanting more.
The real question is how long is it before my brother tries to steal the book?
December 30, 2022
Worth it for just the peeks at projects Mead worked on but which never made it to fruition.
December 19, 2018
Despite the cool artwork and amazing designs that are jam-packed with detail and innovation that set the standard for everyone else, this is a disappointing book.
Most of the film and TV show (and one amusement park) designs are given short shrift, many of them only a single page. The one truly deep dive, from Blade Runner, is stuff that’s been showcased before. The new things are too brief to get a handle on, with the possible exception of never-filmed live-action The Jetsons TV series.
Another issue this book has is need of a fact-checker and a proofreader. A few examples: Star Trek: The Motion Picture is dated as “1999” when it was 1979. Ridley Scott is identified as the director of Aliens, which was James Cameron. Scott directed Alien. Douglas Trumbull’s last name is spelled “Trumbell”. And so on.
If you’re not concerned with accuracy or completeness, the book is a large coffee table tome with full pictures of Mead’s lovely pictures. As a 40-year fan of his work, though, I was disappointed.
Most of the film and TV show (and one amusement park) designs are given short shrift, many of them only a single page. The one truly deep dive, from Blade Runner, is stuff that’s been showcased before. The new things are too brief to get a handle on, with the possible exception of never-filmed live-action The Jetsons TV series.
Another issue this book has is need of a fact-checker and a proofreader. A few examples: Star Trek: The Motion Picture is dated as “1999” when it was 1979. Ridley Scott is identified as the director of Aliens, which was James Cameron. Scott directed Alien. Douglas Trumbull’s last name is spelled “Trumbell”. And so on.
If you’re not concerned with accuracy or completeness, the book is a large coffee table tome with full pictures of Mead’s lovely pictures. As a 40-year fan of his work, though, I was disappointed.
June 11, 2022
The art work/illustrations from the legendary Syd Mead totally make this weighty coffee book table. I knew about his contributions to the Blade Runner films but that was all. Some work in here is for film/television concepts which never got beyond the planning stage. I would have liked more about the man himself but, as it says in the title, it is all about his artwork.
November 11, 2021
A very nice collection of movie work from the great Syd Mead, marred by shallow, often waffly, and frequently inaccurate text. I lost all respect for the author when he attributed Dali and Bunuel’s legendary Un Chien Andalou to Cocteau.
December 26, 2021
WOW!! Travel the brilliant ART movie world by this iconic concepts of the future.
November 6, 2017
This book is both a triumph and disappointment.
I absolutely love Syd Mead's work and was excited when this book was announced, as I was thrilled to get what I hoped would be a very complete record of his futurist-styled movie design and concept work. Other previous volumes are expensive and out-of-print, so I pre-ordered this sight-unseen, expecting that it would be the definitive monograph of the artist.
Sadly, that's not so. It was a great collection of many films (both released and cancelled) but there were plenty of holes. This book does no justice to the comprehensive work he did on TRON and on Blade Runner 2049. I'd assume these were just barely covered because of competing volumes and licensing issues, but the omissions were glaring.
Also, I don't know much about author Hodgetts' background, but his text is so incredibly glowing of Mead as too border on the ridiculous. At one point he writes that Mead has "a career unparalleled by any living artist." I adore Syd's work, but that's just preposterous. Also, Hodgetts seems to be talking out of his depth in some areas of art history where he mentions that the airbrush was new technology in 1965 (its origin is more than 50 years earlier!) and he suggests that anthropomorphic depictions of robot visages have never been done well, when WALL-E is still fresh in our collective pop-culture consciousness. Those are just a couple of the bits that ground down his credibility, and I would have preferred much less of the author's hyperbole and more direct insights and quotes from Syd Mead himself. Maybe that wasn't possible, but I would have liked to see it.
This will remain on my bookshelf on the strength of Syd's art, but I will have to seek out additional books to complete my look at his amazing work in more detail.
I absolutely love Syd Mead's work and was excited when this book was announced, as I was thrilled to get what I hoped would be a very complete record of his futurist-styled movie design and concept work. Other previous volumes are expensive and out-of-print, so I pre-ordered this sight-unseen, expecting that it would be the definitive monograph of the artist.
Sadly, that's not so. It was a great collection of many films (both released and cancelled) but there were plenty of holes. This book does no justice to the comprehensive work he did on TRON and on Blade Runner 2049. I'd assume these were just barely covered because of competing volumes and licensing issues, but the omissions were glaring.
Also, I don't know much about author Hodgetts' background, but his text is so incredibly glowing of Mead as too border on the ridiculous. At one point he writes that Mead has "a career unparalleled by any living artist." I adore Syd's work, but that's just preposterous. Also, Hodgetts seems to be talking out of his depth in some areas of art history where he mentions that the airbrush was new technology in 1965 (its origin is more than 50 years earlier!) and he suggests that anthropomorphic depictions of robot visages have never been done well, when WALL-E is still fresh in our collective pop-culture consciousness. Those are just a couple of the bits that ground down his credibility, and I would have preferred much less of the author's hyperbole and more direct insights and quotes from Syd Mead himself. Maybe that wasn't possible, but I would have liked to see it.
This will remain on my bookshelf on the strength of Syd's art, but I will have to seek out additional books to complete my look at his amazing work in more detail.
July 17, 2021
Syd Mead’s vision is exemplary, offering an artistic and highly believable approach to architectural and industrial design that few could ever hope to match. His technological reality is one you’d desperately want to spend extended time in, so that you can investigate, touch and conceptually grasp all of the small details together with the much bigger picture – experiencing the intrigue and excitement of something familiar reshaped with an expert’s eye.
Mead creatively fuses streamlined shapes, light, shadow, volumes and futuristic iconography with myriad accessories; a personal style that defines form and function, illustrating user interfaces and personal- or task-based spaces that show mechanical understanding working in conjunction with human considerations.
This oversized book rightly presents Mead’s artwork without too much distraction. In presenting many images as full-page or double-page spreads, it allows a clear view of incredible details, and enhances the epic scale of many of the fascinating items and worlds he visualised. Sketches, commentary and general information about the included film projects sufficiently supports the impressive art.
Mead creatively fuses streamlined shapes, light, shadow, volumes and futuristic iconography with myriad accessories; a personal style that defines form and function, illustrating user interfaces and personal- or task-based spaces that show mechanical understanding working in conjunction with human considerations.
This oversized book rightly presents Mead’s artwork without too much distraction. In presenting many images as full-page or double-page spreads, it allows a clear view of incredible details, and enhances the epic scale of many of the fascinating items and worlds he visualised. Sketches, commentary and general information about the included film projects sufficiently supports the impressive art.
September 4, 2019
Originally published online at BORG.com.
Syd Mead, the famed “artist who illustrates the future,” is an icon of visionary design and illustration. No other creator has shown the world a utopian vision of a possible future in so many ways. At the same time he has created a world we want to see develop that lies ahead, we have seen his future begin to be realized. His aerodynamic designs have influenced auto design in recent decades from car makers including Chrysler, Ford, and GM. He has created the look of space technology that we all accept as believable thanks to his concept art–art that has influenced the art direction of films for four decades. A new book published this month provides an in-depth intellectual review of Mead’s style, influences, and impact on the history of design. The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist is a college level, art design course book of sorts that takes movie concept art to an entirely new level, a serious look at his style that will appeal to serious artists in any field, and a popular work for fans of the films he has inspired.
“What makes Syd’s vision so compelling,” says the book’s author, architect/designer and professor Craig Hodgetts, “is not only the means he employs to convey it, but the acute physical and environmental awareness: the endless curiosity about how the world works; the precise level of detail and the practical engineering knowledge that he brings to even the most fantastic devices.” Beginning with the look of the both geometric and organic mechanical villain V’ger from the year 2273 in 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture to a mid-21st century casino and hotel in this year’s Blade Runner 2049, Mead’s sketches, drawings, illustrations, and paintings have inspired and influenced the art design of dozens of movie productions.
Mead’s most groundbreaking and memorable cinematic visionary creations came in the 1980s with four films. Returning to our theme of celebrating 1982 films, for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner Mead was influenced by Edward Hopper’s desolate cityscapes. To translate author Phillip K. Dick’s writings into visual form, Mead and Scott took an idea of sculpture artists Robert Rauschenberg and Richard Stankewicz and author William Gibson. The filmmakers lay claim to be the first to use their ideas of “retro-fitting” on film–the process of creating a unique object by means of a strategic assemblage of allied components; by harvesting parts from abandoned or obsolescent “donors” and re-assembling them, a new entity is created. In the same year as Blade Runner, Mead saw his designs realized in the very different world of Tron, modelling a convincing digital world by extrapolating from the patterns of computer motherboards and other now obsolete technology of the era. The giant screen-filling image of Master Control, the labyrinthine pathways for the lightcycles, and Sark’s hefty transport vessel all hailed from the mind and pen of Mead. Taking the look of James Cameron’s original Alien film and modifying it significantly, Mead skipped the “slick shapes of Star Trek” and the “greeblies of Star Wars” to create what he envisioned as a “highly-engineered, purposeful vessel” where each feature could have a function, in the 1986 sequel Aliens. In the same year, Mead created what would become an iconic image of the 1980s, Number Five the robot, the friendly star of the film Short Circuit.
Most recently audiences saw Mead’s designs realized on the big screen throughout 2013’s dystopian sci-fi tale Elysium, as Mead created the interiors and exteriors of the film’s orbiting paradise. He also designed the prosthetic replica head carrying case in 2006’s Mission: Impossible III.
Like many creators, much of his original work never made it into final form and onto the big screen. Some of his most amazing pieces in The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist were created for a cancelled reboot of the classic animated series The Jetsons. In only the past five years Mead designed a fully fleshed-out future world for a film called Topeka, which never was green-lighted after the development work was completed, but would have delivered a unique hodgepodge of hot rod-steampunk-junkyard motorcycles and classic cars in a city the evokes a mix of post-modern Asian metropolis and Logan’s Run.
At 256 pages, cannot include all of his imagery, but it also is not complete in scope–movies Mead designed the large time machine and weaponry for 1994’s Timecop and concept art for 2015’s Tomorrowland, which are not mentioned. My biggest quirk with The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist is the somewhat artistic arrangement of films explored. They are not presented in chronological order and some provide neither the dates that Mead designed the images nor the dates of the film release, so it takes some work on the part of the reader to piece together this information and attempt to identify any differences or changes in style in Mead’s work over time or from project to project. Still the book is a great overview of original concept art presented for its own sake and without the need to reference any finally realized images or screen stills.
Artists, art historians, designers, and architects–and film fans–will all appreciate Mead’s style and influence in The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist.
Syd Mead, the famed “artist who illustrates the future,” is an icon of visionary design and illustration. No other creator has shown the world a utopian vision of a possible future in so many ways. At the same time he has created a world we want to see develop that lies ahead, we have seen his future begin to be realized. His aerodynamic designs have influenced auto design in recent decades from car makers including Chrysler, Ford, and GM. He has created the look of space technology that we all accept as believable thanks to his concept art–art that has influenced the art direction of films for four decades. A new book published this month provides an in-depth intellectual review of Mead’s style, influences, and impact on the history of design. The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist is a college level, art design course book of sorts that takes movie concept art to an entirely new level, a serious look at his style that will appeal to serious artists in any field, and a popular work for fans of the films he has inspired.
“What makes Syd’s vision so compelling,” says the book’s author, architect/designer and professor Craig Hodgetts, “is not only the means he employs to convey it, but the acute physical and environmental awareness: the endless curiosity about how the world works; the precise level of detail and the practical engineering knowledge that he brings to even the most fantastic devices.” Beginning with the look of the both geometric and organic mechanical villain V’ger from the year 2273 in 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture to a mid-21st century casino and hotel in this year’s Blade Runner 2049, Mead’s sketches, drawings, illustrations, and paintings have inspired and influenced the art design of dozens of movie productions.
Mead’s most groundbreaking and memorable cinematic visionary creations came in the 1980s with four films. Returning to our theme of celebrating 1982 films, for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner Mead was influenced by Edward Hopper’s desolate cityscapes. To translate author Phillip K. Dick’s writings into visual form, Mead and Scott took an idea of sculpture artists Robert Rauschenberg and Richard Stankewicz and author William Gibson. The filmmakers lay claim to be the first to use their ideas of “retro-fitting” on film–the process of creating a unique object by means of a strategic assemblage of allied components; by harvesting parts from abandoned or obsolescent “donors” and re-assembling them, a new entity is created. In the same year as Blade Runner, Mead saw his designs realized in the very different world of Tron, modelling a convincing digital world by extrapolating from the patterns of computer motherboards and other now obsolete technology of the era. The giant screen-filling image of Master Control, the labyrinthine pathways for the lightcycles, and Sark’s hefty transport vessel all hailed from the mind and pen of Mead. Taking the look of James Cameron’s original Alien film and modifying it significantly, Mead skipped the “slick shapes of Star Trek” and the “greeblies of Star Wars” to create what he envisioned as a “highly-engineered, purposeful vessel” where each feature could have a function, in the 1986 sequel Aliens. In the same year, Mead created what would become an iconic image of the 1980s, Number Five the robot, the friendly star of the film Short Circuit.
Most recently audiences saw Mead’s designs realized on the big screen throughout 2013’s dystopian sci-fi tale Elysium, as Mead created the interiors and exteriors of the film’s orbiting paradise. He also designed the prosthetic replica head carrying case in 2006’s Mission: Impossible III.
Like many creators, much of his original work never made it into final form and onto the big screen. Some of his most amazing pieces in The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist were created for a cancelled reboot of the classic animated series The Jetsons. In only the past five years Mead designed a fully fleshed-out future world for a film called Topeka, which never was green-lighted after the development work was completed, but would have delivered a unique hodgepodge of hot rod-steampunk-junkyard motorcycles and classic cars in a city the evokes a mix of post-modern Asian metropolis and Logan’s Run.
At 256 pages, cannot include all of his imagery, but it also is not complete in scope–movies Mead designed the large time machine and weaponry for 1994’s Timecop and concept art for 2015’s Tomorrowland, which are not mentioned. My biggest quirk with The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist is the somewhat artistic arrangement of films explored. They are not presented in chronological order and some provide neither the dates that Mead designed the images nor the dates of the film release, so it takes some work on the part of the reader to piece together this information and attempt to identify any differences or changes in style in Mead’s work over time or from project to project. Still the book is a great overview of original concept art presented for its own sake and without the need to reference any finally realized images or screen stills.
Artists, art historians, designers, and architects–and film fans–will all appreciate Mead’s style and influence in The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist.
January 29, 2023
4 Stars/
78%
Tl;dr: Mead's art is genre defining and highly recommend this book for that, the let down was in the writing. Absolutely worth getting and sitting with a big cup of tea and immersing yourself in some of the best science fiction art of all time, you're going for the art not the writing.
So this was a little bit of a weird one. Syd Mead is undoubtedly one of the most influential artists of science fiction and filmmaking, and yet.....I'm not sure it entirely came across. The book is crammed with a whole host of film concept art, of productions made and not made, but the tour was so fast across some of them (Blade Runner: 2049 being one of the shortest chapters in the book). I feel there could have been so much more time and art to have been inserted here. Instead of one fast tour around his work, maybe it should have been split into tour - to give a real insight into his thousands of drawings across hundreds of thousands of hours. The art in here is astounding but...it needed...more?
The other thing that jabbed me a little during this book was the words by Craig Hodgetts. I understand, after doing a bit of research, he is a successful California architect and therefore that would give him a good amount of scope to really analyse the artistic language behind the art. Brilliant! A lot of it gave a new angle I could view a lot of science fiction art with. HOWEVER, across the book he seemed to look down upon science fiction language with a little bit of distain. I got the impression that multiple long words, constructed in a typical winding description about motive and comparison to more spiritual and ethereal drives behind the work would be suitable instead of the word "cyberpunk" or "noir" or a whole host of other little helpful devices, and so ultimately I felt him trying to distance himself from the people that used that language. By convolutedly attempted to avoid the genre defining/ sub-genre nametags, he one one hand allowed a fresh take on the work without the reader coming in with previous expectation (I grant this was interesting), but on the other hand Hodgetts seemed to distance himself from the community of popular science fiction, and filmmaking in general. There were obvious nods to other brilliant science fiction works in some of Mead's concepts and yet were not mentioned or given a confused description. I don't know Hodgetts, I don't know his preferences, and it full well might be me missing something from the aim of his when he was writing this, but it seemed that he missed some key points to really bring the reader in.
But also this wasn't about the words (although I do think Mead deserved more in terms of descriptions and writing). This was about the incredible genre defining art of Syd Mead, art which has, unbeknownst to me, followed me throughout my childhood and furnished my imagination for a very long time. His art is timeless, gathering it into a single place made me realise it is a reminiscence of the past, and a prediction of the future. There will always be something in his work which is years old, that can connect you to it, and then something which defies our current technology and capability, making us wish to see a glimpse of what the future of the human race may hold.
Read it, or don't, to make up your own mind on the words, but don't miss out to immerse yourself in the brilliant illustrated multiverses of Syd Mead's mind.
78%
Tl;dr: Mead's art is genre defining and highly recommend this book for that, the let down was in the writing. Absolutely worth getting and sitting with a big cup of tea and immersing yourself in some of the best science fiction art of all time, you're going for the art not the writing.
So this was a little bit of a weird one. Syd Mead is undoubtedly one of the most influential artists of science fiction and filmmaking, and yet.....I'm not sure it entirely came across. The book is crammed with a whole host of film concept art, of productions made and not made, but the tour was so fast across some of them (Blade Runner: 2049 being one of the shortest chapters in the book). I feel there could have been so much more time and art to have been inserted here. Instead of one fast tour around his work, maybe it should have been split into tour - to give a real insight into his thousands of drawings across hundreds of thousands of hours. The art in here is astounding but...it needed...more?
The other thing that jabbed me a little during this book was the words by Craig Hodgetts. I understand, after doing a bit of research, he is a successful California architect and therefore that would give him a good amount of scope to really analyse the artistic language behind the art. Brilliant! A lot of it gave a new angle I could view a lot of science fiction art with. HOWEVER, across the book he seemed to look down upon science fiction language with a little bit of distain. I got the impression that multiple long words, constructed in a typical winding description about motive and comparison to more spiritual and ethereal drives behind the work would be suitable instead of the word "cyberpunk" or "noir" or a whole host of other little helpful devices, and so ultimately I felt him trying to distance himself from the people that used that language. By convolutedly attempted to avoid the genre defining/ sub-genre nametags, he one one hand allowed a fresh take on the work without the reader coming in with previous expectation (I grant this was interesting), but on the other hand Hodgetts seemed to distance himself from the community of popular science fiction, and filmmaking in general. There were obvious nods to other brilliant science fiction works in some of Mead's concepts and yet were not mentioned or given a confused description. I don't know Hodgetts, I don't know his preferences, and it full well might be me missing something from the aim of his when he was writing this, but it seemed that he missed some key points to really bring the reader in.
But also this wasn't about the words (although I do think Mead deserved more in terms of descriptions and writing). This was about the incredible genre defining art of Syd Mead, art which has, unbeknownst to me, followed me throughout my childhood and furnished my imagination for a very long time. His art is timeless, gathering it into a single place made me realise it is a reminiscence of the past, and a prediction of the future. There will always be something in his work which is years old, that can connect you to it, and then something which defies our current technology and capability, making us wish to see a glimpse of what the future of the human race may hold.
Read it, or don't, to make up your own mind on the words, but don't miss out to immerse yourself in the brilliant illustrated multiverses of Syd Mead's mind.
January 14, 2022
К артбуку меня цепочка случайностей: изначально я не знал, who is Mr. Mead, однако его имя вначале упомянулось в артбуке по Homeworld и, кажется, промо-ролике по Homeworld 3 по поводу источников вдохновения; затем, на ютюбе XYZ-школы появилось крайне симпатичное видео о самом художник, ну и наконец, в книжном внезапно обнаружился здоровенный артбук. Ну, Бог троицу любит, что поделать.
Оказалось, что этот художник трудился над многими культовыми фильмами, так что, открыв книжку, я так и долистал её до конца, с большим удивлением, восхищением и уважением разглядывая концепт-арты от мастера прошлого бескомпьютерного века, читая про то, как он работал над культовыми фильмами вроде "Бегущий по лезвию", "Чужие", "Трон"... Очень точные линии, идеальные перспективы, механизмы словно с чертежей, просто невероятно. После последней страницы хотелось ещё, больше концертов по классике. И было даже несколько грустно на это смотреть, ведь ты так никогда. Нарисовать такое наброском, пусть и с очевидной линейкой, - видимо, это родиться с правильной инженерно-изобразительной конструкцией мозга надо. Столько деталей, видно, что маркером затрачено, но зато как!.. Целый мир расчётом, что особенно видно на примере "Бегущего по лезвию" - ему и места больше выделили...
Короче, художник потрясный. И главная проблема артбука - он показывает всего по чуть-чуть по самому существенному из наследия мастера, галопом по европам, образно говоря, а хочется больше, причем, по культовым фильмам, а не тем, что ушли в стол. Но, в общем, любителям такого советую :)
Оказалось, что этот художник трудился над многими культовыми фильмами, так что, открыв книжку, я так и долистал её до конца, с большим удивлением, восхищением и уважением разглядывая концепт-арты от мастера прошлого бескомпьютерного века, читая про то, как он работал над культовыми фильмами вроде "Бегущий по лезвию", "Чужие", "Трон"... Очень точные линии, идеальные перспективы, механизмы словно с чертежей, просто невероятно. После последней страницы хотелось ещё, больше концертов по классике. И было даже несколько грустно на это смотреть, ведь ты так никогда. Нарисовать такое наброском, пусть и с очевидной линейкой, - видимо, это родиться с правильной инженерно-изобразительной конструкцией мозга надо. Столько деталей, видно, что маркером затрачено, но зато как!.. Целый мир расчётом, что особенно видно на примере "Бегущего по лезвию" - ему и места больше выделили...
Короче, художник потрясный. И главная проблема артбука - он показывает всего по чуть-чуть по самому существенному из наследия мастера, галопом по европам, образно говоря, а хочется больше, причем, по культовым фильмам, а не тем, что ушли в стол. Но, в общем, любителям такого советую :)
January 10, 2020
A nice collection of Syd Mead's later work done for motion pictures.
While I'm a big fan of Syd Mead's early work, it's often hard to obtain books of those periods. This book had the advantage of still being in print and thus inexpensive. It contains samples of Mead's work for movies including Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, Aliens, 2010, Tron, Short Circuit, Elysium, and Johnny Mnemonic. There's also art from lesser known movies and movies that never made it past the proposal stage including a Jetsons reboot, a Forbidden Planet remake, and others.
It's all beautiful, fascinating art printed in large format on high quality paper. Recommended for all Syd Mead fans and lovers of science fiction artwork in general.
While I'm a big fan of Syd Mead's early work, it's often hard to obtain books of those periods. This book had the advantage of still being in print and thus inexpensive. It contains samples of Mead's work for movies including Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, Aliens, 2010, Tron, Short Circuit, Elysium, and Johnny Mnemonic. There's also art from lesser known movies and movies that never made it past the proposal stage including a Jetsons reboot, a Forbidden Planet remake, and others.
It's all beautiful, fascinating art printed in large format on high quality paper. Recommended for all Syd Mead fans and lovers of science fiction artwork in general.
February 18, 2020
Amazing coffee table book of futurist Syd mead's design work for Blade Runner, Star Trek and countless others. He designs vehicles, buildings, logos, clothing and imaginary tech like fake face mask machines for Mission Impossible 3. he's a stunning artist but also a thoughtful, analytical engineer with background in real design. His complex output is mind bogglingly prolific. Fun if you're a design nerd and filmmaker. Only caveat some of the print is kinda small. I really dug the smart explanations as well as the visuals. Very inspiring for future projects.
December 18, 2022
The art is simply inspiring. I didn't like the text too too much. The art just speaks for itself. Rephrasing in language the feelings that the visuals generated is difficult and the text didn't really do it for me. I would also have loved to see much more historical or contextual background information instead of the descriptions of what we see. Also some images were way too big for the detail they contained and therefore were tiring to look. Though still, in the final analysis a book I love to have in my library.
January 25, 2018
Remarkable visual overview of cinema icon Syd Mead's design work for decades of film, with complementary text. Beautifully designed, with thorough coverage of his well known, important projects alongside brief but enlightening sections on lesser known and cancelled or never produced films. Essential for followers and lovers of genre film design.
July 8, 2019
Not a complete work nor a great mix of Mead's amazing and groundbreaking concept art pieces, but this is the most affordable (and easy to find) book, comprehensive of the most important movies (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Aliens, Blade Runner, Tron, etc.)
If you don't have anything else of Syd Mead for the above mentioned reasons, consider this a must buy.
If you don't have anything else of Syd Mead for the above mentioned reasons, consider this a must buy.
January 29, 2020
The only other person I have seen use shapes and space the way Syd Mead does in the fiction medium is Nihei tsutomi. The precision in Mead's work is mind blowing. The man is a true genius and the world has lost a one of a kind type talent.
June 26, 2020
A great testament to Mead, but also not complete by any means and is in dire need of an expanded edition.
Also, I didn't realize that Mead was at heart an industrial artist, so his robust scenes make absolute sense. Really loved this, even if we didn't get as big of an explanation.
Also, I didn't realize that Mead was at heart an industrial artist, so his robust scenes make absolute sense. Really loved this, even if we didn't get as big of an explanation.
July 12, 2020
There needs to be a bigger, more complete survey of Syd Mead's genius, but this is a decent enough place to start. His influence on the design of future-tech/vehicles in film is immense and his drawings and sketches capture the 'just right' reality of a world not so very far from reality.
June 21, 2022
A little lack luster. Hard to read captions paired with other art with no explanation makes most of the book skipable but some of his well known projects (Aliens, Tron, Blade Runner) worth the read. Also depicted are some cool projects that never got past the drawing board.
June 30, 2023
The art itself is fabulous of course, but the book was flicked over in 24hrs. I thought it was hard to read. Like a comic. Although if anyone was keen to look at the book, I would encourage them. I wish I had Syd’s level of talent and dedication.
August 26, 2018
Not quite the flavor of futurism I wanted, but cyber-punk interesting nonetheless.
January 5, 2020
Nice overview of Mead's production artwork for films and theme parks, including unfinished projects.
January 25, 2020
Starloss because: something of a rehash —and— written by someone else, someone lacking Sydney's wit.
March 3, 2020
Every designer interested in science fiction and machine aesthetic should know Mead’s work.
March 6, 2020
A great selection of Syd Mead’s works. I am always left wanting more and going over and over each image. Simple shapes in great composition. Form delivering function. He will be missed.
May 26, 2020
Marvelous!
August 31, 2021
Great artist, fascinating approach. My favourite pieces were not in the book, but still nice to look at.
September 2, 2021
Very reasonably priced book about what its title says it's about; reproducing a lot of high-quality artwork and designs for movies, mostly Sci-Fi, some of which have massively (re-)defined the genre.
September 28, 2021
Pretty art and design details!
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