The initial success and enduring impact of films like Tron and Blade Runner is, naturally, not down to Syd Mead -just as it isn't solely down to a star like Harrison Ford, a director like Ridley Scott, or any individual. That stated, Mr Mead's cultural contributions have been immortalised on celluloid. And they are not limited to memorable films. His career has seen him globe-trotting via art exhibitions and design symposia for some decades now. And longevity is telling. So you may get fuzzy on a line from a movie, or the plot, or a favourite sequence, or just a scene and its meaning...
But what is a whole lot harder to squeeze from your marrow are sensations such as the endless, tone-establishing darkness of Blade Runner or that shocking, super-charged glow of Tron... and the seemingly real "arrangement of geometric elements" which populate these visionary films, priming these everlasting sensations, come from the rare talent of Syd Mead.
Syd Mead lives in Santa Monica where he continues to work from his home studio, when he's not the featured guest/presenter at illustration and graphical design conferences around the world. We are reliably informed that current assignments include "the hero prop for an action/thriller at Paramount Studios and creative art direction ideas for a video game for a Tokyo studio."
[ENDS]
taken from the forthcoming Book [ Addict Volume 3 ]
interview by Tim Birch
project production by Chris Carden-Jones @ Addict © 2005
All images courtesy of Syd Mead © Copyright applies.