If you don’t know Syd Mead by name, your life will probably still have been shaped
by the things he worked on- he has worked on a massive number of projects across all
sorts of different fields- he has even had a skin of his added to CS:GO. I’d like to
talk about his life and many accomplishments in this video. And from what I’ve learned
about him, he seems like quite a character! His Dad used to read him pulp-fiction magazines
which sparked his interest in science fiction. He started drawing when he was 3, then when
he finished school, he attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles. He learned how to quickly
transform an idea into a picture, then how to schedule his work so it could be done by
the deadline. All stuff that put him in good stead for the future. In one of his first
terms there, he chose to do a rendering of the Mercury Turnpike Cruiser which he loved-
and later in life he bought one of his own. Although throughout his career he worked on
all kinds of vehicles including yachts and aircraft, he said that cars were his favourite.
His preferred style for concept-art is a type of water-colour known as Gouache and says
it photographs beautifully. Having graduated, he worked for Ford Motor
Company’s Advanced Styling Studio where he was able to put his skills to work, envisioning
future car designs for the company, like the GYRON, a 2 wheeled car, I assume using a gyroscope
to keep it from tipping over. He worked here for 2 years and of all the things he worked
on, the one that stood out to him was a fully functional pickup truck of the future, complete
with air conditioning. This kind of job sounds like an excellent
practical application for somebody with a fascination for sci-fi! But he left because
he realised that most of his concepts would never reach the production line, and went
off to explore the ever-expanding world of industrial design.
He illustrated books and catalogues for other companies, eventually setting up his own,
where he provided architectural renderings for a number of companies including Philips
Electronics. He later did work for the likes of Sony and Honda.
And he also worked on a number of films- many of which I’m sure you’re familiar with.
In 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was made and it featured the V’Ger ship- by
far the largest vessel ever portrayed in the series. But not even the script-writers knew
what it was meant to look like. It was meant to be ‘something man had never seen before’,
which he says is all well and good but it’s an easy way out. Not surprisingly, throughout
production, they had problems with its design and it was threatening the movie’s release
schedule. The original designs were scrapped and Syd Mead, hired to visualise a new version
that could somehow do justice to such an ambitious yet vague concept. He settled on something
physical, but also ‘crystalised’. It ended up taking the form of a luminous
cloud the size of a solar system, 300 million Km across! The crew constructed a 60-foot
model, working around the clock to get it done in time. At points, they’d be working
on one end of it while the other end was being photographed. It would take up to 18 hours
to film a flyby of this colossal… thing. How it appeared in the movie is exactly how
he had envisioned, right down to the bands of light.
The same year he also worked on Alien, then later Aliens.
He also designed most of the cars in Tron- though I’ve got to say, they look interestingly
similar to Blade Runner’s Spinner vehicle when viewed from the side.
Which he also worked on! With Bladerunner, he started with the cars. Ridley Scott liked
them so much he got him to work on other aspects of it as well. Over on his site, linked to
in the description, you can check out a large amount of his concept art in the gallery section.
He also did a sketch of the Teletubbies… but I don’t think it was too serious.
Over the years, he worked on all kinds of other films as well, including 2010 (A sequel
to 2001), Mission Impossible, Elysium, and more recently, Bladerunner 2049. The original
Bladerunner was set in the year 2019, so he actually got to see how reality compared to
his vision of the future. Watching interviews of him, he has repeatedly
stated that he applies whatever he has learned previously to each new project he works on.
Some people have told him that he changed their lives, and hearing that makes him very,
very proud. He continued to have an active schedule of one-man shows for a long time,
selling out tickets all over the place, and with over 50 years experience in the industry
he finally had the confidence to say: ‘If the client doesn’t like it… then they’re
wrong!’ If you must know, his favourite food is Lobster
ravioli and his favourite colour, Cherenkov blue.
He has no doubt inspired countless other projects, vehicles and movies. You probably know the
Asiimov skin collection in CS:GO. These were made by Coridium, but in interviews, while
the name is inspired by the sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, he also listed the likes of
Syd Mead as inspiration for the design. AND, in the Gamma 2 case, there’s an AUG
known as the Syd Mead. And yes, he worked on this as well. Released in 2016, he’d
have been 83 at the time, possibly being the oldest skin maker ever to have his work featured?
As you can imagine, working with Syd Mead, the process is a bit different from with other
skin makers. He didn’t upload it to the workshop, for a start. I’m not even sure
he’s got a steam account (though honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did!). This
made reaching out to contact him different, too. I sent him off an email and he responded
with a lovely little message which I’ve been figuring out how to include in a video
ever since. You’ll also notice he CC’d it onto Roger Servick, who’s his life-long
friend, colleague and partner. I’ve blanked out the payment conditions
just in case but it was handled a little differently to other user-made skins, but he detailed
how he got involved with the project, how his first designs were ‘too graphical’?
and the issues he had with aligning it all up. Something he hadn’t had to do since
the early 90’s! He said the experience was fascinating. That
each new challenge uses prior experience in some way, and says that’s why it’s so
important that you take a chance on new kinds of involvements. If you stick to the same
thing over and over, once that particular design challenge stops, you’re screwed.
He announced his retirement just a few months ago.
And on December 30th, 2019, he died at the age of 86.
So, thank you, Syd Mead, for dedicating your life to shaping the future. He once said he
saw Science fiction as ‘reality ahead of schedule’ and I think it’s fitting that,
if you check the description of his weapon design in CS:GO, it reads ‘In the past he
gave us visions of the future; in the present he placed the future in our hands’.