Sydney Jay Mead (July 18, 1933 – December 30, 2019) was an American industrial designer and neo-futurist concept artist, widely known for his designs for science-fiction films such as ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...

'', '' Aliens'' and ''

Tron ''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action- adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer ...

''. Mead has been described as "the artist who illustrates the future" and "one of the most influential concept artists and industrial designers of our time."

Life

Early life

Mead was born on July 18, 1933, in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...

. His father was a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

minister, who read him pulp magazines, such as ''

Buck Rogers Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan first appearing in daily US newspapers on January 7, 1929, and subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, books ...

'' and '' Flash Gordon'', sparking his interest in science fiction. Mead was skilled in drawing at a young age. According to Mead, "by the time I was in high school I could draw the human figure, I could draw animals, and I had a sense of shading to show shape. I was really quite accomplished at that point with brush technique and so-forth." He described himself as being an "insular child." 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 Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred ...

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

), where he graduated in June 1959.

Career

In 1959, Mead was recruited to

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

's Advanced Styling Studio by

Elwood Engel Elwood Paul Engel (February 10, 1917 – June 24, 1986) was Chrysler Corporation's design chief from 1961 until 1974. Early days Engel first joined General Motors as a student under Harley Earl's watchful eye at GM's school of design. In 1939 ...

. From 1960 to 1961, Mead worked in Ford Motor Company Styling in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

. Mead left Ford after two years to illustrate books and catalogues for companies including

United States Steel United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...

Celanese Celanese Corporation, formerly known as Hoechst Celanese, is an American technology and specialty materials company headquartered in Irving, Texas. A Fortune 500 corporation, the company is the world’s leading producer of acetic acid, prod ...

Allis-Chalmers Allis-Chalmers was a U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various industries. Its business lines included agricultural equipment, construction equipment, power generation and power transmission equipment, and machinery for use in industrial set ...

and Atlas Cement. In 1970, he launched Syd Mead, Inc. in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

with clients including

Philips Electronics Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

. With his own company in the 1970s, Mead spent about a third of his time in Europe, primarily to provide designs and illustrations for Philips, and he continued to work for international clients. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Mead and his company provided architectural renderings, both interior and exterior, for clients including

Intercontinental Hotels Intercontinental is an adjective to describe something which relates to more than one continent. Intercontinental may also refer to: * Intercontinental ballistic missile, a long-range guided ballistic missile * InterContinental Hotels Group (IH ...

, 3D International, Harwood Taylor & Associates, Don Ghia, Gresham & Smith and Philip Koether Architects. Beginning in 1983, Mead developed working relationships with

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It made the first integrated aut ...

Dentsu Dentsu Inc. ( ja, 株式会社電通 ''Kabushiki-gaisha Dentsū'' or 電通 ''Dentsū'' for short) is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is currently the largest advertis ...

, Dyflex,

Tiger Corporation Tiger Corporation ( ja, タイガー魔法瓶株式会社, translit= Taigā Mahōbin Kabushiki Gaisha, lit= Tiger Vacuum Flask agic-jarCorporation) is a Japanese manufacturer that applies vacuum insulation and heat control technology to consum ...

, Seibu,

Mitsukoshi is an international department store chain with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. It is a subsidiary of Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, which also owns the Isetan department store chain. History It was founded in 1673 with the (shop name) , sell ...

Bandai is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...

, NHK and

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

. Mead's one-man shows began in 1973 with an exhibit at

documenta 6 documenta 6 was the sixth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 24 June and 2 October 1977 in Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hess ...

in Kassel,

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. His work was later exhibited in Japan, Italy, California and Spain. In 1983, Mead was invited by Chrysler Corporation to be a guest speaker to its design staff. He created a series of slides to provide visuals to the lecture, and the resulting presentation was a success. It was later expanded and enhanced with computer-generated images specifically created at the requests of several clients, including

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, Carnegie Mellon University,

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

, Pratt Institute and the

Society of Illustrators The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. History Founding The Society of Illustrators was founded on ...

. In March 2010, Mead completed a four-city tour of Australia. In 1993, a digital gallery consisting of 50 examples of his art with interface screens designed by him became one of the first CD-ROMs released in Japan. In 2004, Mead co-operated with Gnomon School of Visual Effects to produce a four-volume "how-to" DVD series titled ''Techniques of Syd Mead''. In 2018, Mead published his autobiography, titled ''A Future Remembered''. Regarding his work, Mead said, "the idea supersedes technique," and that "I've called science fiction 'reality ahead of schedule.'"

In film

Mead worked with major studios on the feature films: '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', ''

'', ''

'', '' 2010'', ''

Short Circuit A short circuit (sometimes abbreviated to short or s/c) is an electrical circuit that allows a current to travel along an unintended path with no or very low electrical impedance. This results in an excessive current flowing through the circui ...

'', '' Aliens'', '' The Spirit of '76'', ''

Timecop ''Timecop'' is a 1994 American science fiction action film directed by Peter Hyams and co-written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden. Richardson also served as executive producer. The film is based on '' Timecop'', a story created by Richar ...

'', ''

Johnny Mnemonic "Johnny Mnemonic" is a science fiction short story by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It first appeared in '' Omni'' magazine in May 1981, and was subsequently included in ''Burning Chrome'', a 1986 collection of Gibson's short fiction. ...

'', '' Mission: Impossible III'', '' Elysium'', ''

Tomorrowland Tomorrowland is one of the many themed lands featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions t ...

'' and '' Blade Runner 2049''. George Lucas created the

AT-AT All Terrain Walkers are armoured fighting vehicles from the ''Star Wars'' universe that traverse the landscape on mechanical legs. They are used by the Old Republic, the Galactic Empire, and the First Order for ground assault, reconnaissance ...

for his '' Star Wars'' saga based on art by Mead. Mead also contributed to the Japanese film '' Solar Crisis''. In the 1990s, Mead supplied designs for two Japanese

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series, ''

Turn A Gundam , also stylized as ''∀ Gundam'', is a 1999 Japanese mecha anime series produced by Sunrise, and aired between 1999 and 2000 on Japan's FNN networks. It was created for the ''Gundam Big Bang'' 20th Anniversary celebration, and is the ...

'' and the unfinished ''

Yamato 2520 was Yoshinobu Nishizaki's attempt at a sequel to ''Space Battleship Yamato'', set several hundred years after the original series. However, Nishizaki was sued by Leiji Matsumoto for breach of copyright. Ultimately, ''Yamato 2520'' was left un ...

''. In May 2007, he completed work on a documentary of his career with the director Joaquin Montalvan entitled ''Visual Futurist:The Art & Life of Syd Mead''. The short 2008 documentary film'' 2019: A Future Imagined,'' also explored his works. Mead also appears in movie documentaries such as ''Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner'' and Mark Kermode's ''On the Edge of Blade Runner'', and promotional materials such as the DVD extra for ''Aliens'' and a promotional short film about the making of ''2010''.

Personal life

Mead was in a personal relationship with partner Roger Servick; the couple married in 2016. They established a publishing extension, OBLAGON, Inc., in Hollywood and relocated in 1998 to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, where Mead continued to work.

Death

On December 30, 2019, Mead died in his Pasadena home at age 86, after three years of

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enla ...

. Shortly after his death, tributes to Mead's life were posted on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Gallery of works

File:American Police Hall of Fame - Blade Runner Car.jpg, Blade Runner Car at the American Police Hall of Fame File:Blade Runner - 47102816054.jpg, A police spinner from ''Blade Runner'' File:Spinner3.jpg, A car Mead designed for the film ''Blade Runner'' File:Cyberrace sled plastic model 4 sides.PNG, A plastic representation of a Cyberrace vehicle File:Police car from “Blade Runner” - 5192543459.jpg, Rick Deckard's car from ''Blade Runner'' File:Blade Runner - 47102815404.jpg, The interior of a car from ''Blade Runner''

References

External links

* *
Syd Mead entry at Anime.com

Blogs in JPN

* ttp://www.pcecp.com/index.php?mode=catalog&action=info&gameid=762 Entry for Syd Mead's Terraforming at PC-Engine Catalog Project
Event Recap: "An Audience with Syd Mead", Brisbane, March 2010
* *
The Gnomon Workshop video tutorials with Syd MeadSyd Mead
at Find a Grave

Interviews

* Ed Naha, " Blade Runner's Syd Mead: An Artist With Designs on the Future", '' Starlog'' (USA) May 1982, Iss. 58, pg. 36–39,+61 * Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier, " Detective Future Past", ''Starlog'' (USA) November 1992, Iss. 184
The future came true – An Interview with Syd Mead

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mead, Syd 1933 births 2019 deaths Artists from Saint Paul, Minnesota Artists from Colorado Springs, Colorado Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Military personnel from Minnesota Art Center College of Design alumni American industrial designers American production designers Futurologists Science fiction artists Hard science fiction Deaths from lymphoma American LGBT artists LGBT people from Minnesota LGBT people from Colorado American LGBT military personnel 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists United States Army soldiers Science fiction fans Gay men Inkpot Award winners