The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist
Product ID: 46808048
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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. Review: Great reference book - Syd Mead is one of the finest futurist artists that all futurist artists try to emulate his style and vision. It all started from when he was at Art Center College of Design. (The school that I later went attended.) Great book lots of illustrations. Well published book. Good for your future library book collection. Review: Beautiful quality, lots of work well-presented - I think some reviews are for a different book. There is a huge amount of work in this book. For those expressing disappointment that non-film work is not included, READ THE TITLE. There are only a handful of pages without art, including the publisher's page and TOC. Almost every other page has at least one, frequently multiple images. Many include steps in the design process from rough sketch or quick painting to a more finished design. The work is gorgeously reproduced in full color, on heavyweight, matt-textured paper that doesn't show through from the other side unless there's strong light. Thus the work can be enjoyed thoroughly. Text is a little, ah, fatuous I guess, talking rather heroically about Mead. But, he's awesome so I get it. Personally I wish I could have seen a little more on technique (especially his paintings in bright pigments on black or dark-toned paper/illustration board), but that's not what this book is about. I also like that they include unproduced films from his portfolio. Frequently one can see the germ of ideas that made it into bigger productions that hit the screen, as well as great visions that exist only in his art. Imaginative, bold, and masterful technique.
| Best Sellers Rank | #105,780 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #222 in Individual Artists (Books) #624 in Graphic Design (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,336 Reviews |
I**.
Great reference book
Syd Mead is one of the finest futurist artists that all futurist artists try to emulate his style and vision. It all started from when he was at Art Center College of Design. (The school that I later went attended.) Great book lots of illustrations. Well published book. Good for your future library book collection.
D**K
Beautiful quality, lots of work well-presented
I think some reviews are for a different book. There is a huge amount of work in this book. For those expressing disappointment that non-film work is not included, READ THE TITLE. There are only a handful of pages without art, including the publisher's page and TOC. Almost every other page has at least one, frequently multiple images. Many include steps in the design process from rough sketch or quick painting to a more finished design. The work is gorgeously reproduced in full color, on heavyweight, matt-textured paper that doesn't show through from the other side unless there's strong light. Thus the work can be enjoyed thoroughly. Text is a little, ah, fatuous I guess, talking rather heroically about Mead. But, he's awesome so I get it. Personally I wish I could have seen a little more on technique (especially his paintings in bright pigments on black or dark-toned paper/illustration board), but that's not what this book is about. I also like that they include unproduced films from his portfolio. Frequently one can see the germ of ideas that made it into bigger productions that hit the screen, as well as great visions that exist only in his art. Imaginative, bold, and masterful technique.
M**N
If you like alien art, you would enjoy this book.
Love the artwork of this book. Some great images....
A**L
I won x mas with this gift.
I gave this as a gift to my brother in law he works in the Auto industry in design and on x mas day after opening it up he would not put it down. A real page turner. He loved the clear art and pictures in it said it was very thorough. He had high praise for the book.
C**S
Do you like Syd? Do you LOVE Syd? Do you want a GLOSSY DREAM that keeps on giving? Don't walk, RUN and buy this book!
There are a handful of Syd Mead books floating out in the book ether that cover a spectrum of his IMPRESSIVE body of work. I've had my hands on alot of them and the ones that I haven't have been cost prohibitive due to rarity. This book is BY FAR the best of the best. Thumbnails, sketches, full color production art, thoughtful write-ups... this book has it all in it's thick glossy dream binding! I've spent alot of time soaking it in and will continue to oogle it's goodies time and time again for that extra level of inspiration from a true master. Clearly alot of love went into producing this book. If you love Syd or just want a glimpse behind the curtain of some incredible movies, get into this book ASAP!
Z**Y
An absolute master of high detail, technical concept art
I've loved Syd Mead's art for decades, so adding this book to my collection was a good choice. If you like highly detailed futuristic concept art, this book is a great choice.
M**M
Another “Must Have” Syd Mead book, but too hvy emphasis on the original Blade Runner Content & thin on other movie concept art!
While this book contains a great crossection of Syd Mead's work and the book itself is of very high quality with it being a fairly large format with a large page count and heavyweight, matte pages, I felt this collection of Syd Mead's work was thin in some movies and too much of others. His work on the original “Blade Runner” has been well published and documented over the years, yet a big hunk of this book is still dedicated to “Blade Runner”! Why? I was really hoping to see more from “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, “TRON” and “2010: The Year We Make Contact”. Syd Mead is also, responsible for the look of 2010 and the exterior AND interiors of the Leonov. Yet, only a paltry six pages dedicated to 2010. Why? Same for “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”. He must have scads of conceptual sketches and paintings for these two movies! Especially for 2010. I have what amounts to a small handbook size book on “The Art of 2010:The Year We Make Contact”. The book is small and Syd Mead's conceptual sketches are very small in the small book It would have been nice to see all of these “2010” concept sketches and art presented in this new book in this larger book format and to see a lot more from that movie. “2010:The Year We Make Contact” is an often neglected movie that STILL is deserving of attention! I know at one point TRON was well documented in an art book, but not much has been done with the original TRON movie over the years, so it would have been nice to include more of Syd Mead's art for TRON, too! I really would have liked to have seen less pages dedicated to Blade Runner and more pages dedicated to these three movies. So, there was some disappointment in this book for me. Solid and quality Syd Mead book, regardless.
T**R
... Futurist the item was delivered on time and in excellent condition as expected
I ordered a copy of The Movie Art of Syd Mead Visual Futurist the item was delivered on time and in excellent condition as expected. This Wonderfully Illustrated hardcover book is literally filled with art concepts for many of our favorite Sci Fi movies like Star Trek The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, Short Circuit, Strange World, The Core and many others. There are 256 pages of paintings, sketches and other conceptual drawings depicting characters, outfits, movie set models, weaponry, vehicles and more. This book is a definite treasure for any Sci Fi Collector, a real must have.
T**N
Fabulous artwork from a design guru
A fine collection of concept art and designs from Syd Mead - the man who made the future envisioned in the 1980's and 1990's films look the way they did. Think Blade Runner, Aliens and Star Trek: The Motion Picture and that is just scraping the surface. Excellent.
A**O
Muito bom
Não imagina que o autor participou de tantos projetos importantes para o cinema e para as animações. O livro é recheado de 'sketchs' sobre as ideias dos autor e algumas mudanças que fez ao longo dos projetos, muito útil esse livro, além de ser maravilhosamente diagramado.
A**R
Un volume eccezionale per un autore eccezionale
Un volume monumentale dedicato ai lavori cinematografici di questo visionario illustratore e designer, che certo non ha bisogno di presentazioni. Contiene illustrazioni, studi, bozzetti a colori e in b/n dedicati ai vari film a cui ha prestato la sua opera creativa. Il volume è rilegato ottimamente, stampa eccellente su carta patinata. Una festa per gli occhi e il cuore per ogni appassionato di fantascienza e non solo.🙀😸 Ottima anche la spedizione, con un imballaggio perfetto, del distributore americano associato alle edizioni Titans books, con tanto di comunicazione post-vendita per verificare che tutto fosse andato per il verso giusto ed eventuale assistenza.👍 Da acquistare perché poi i libri di questo autore, nel tempo, generalmente diventano piuttosto difficili da trovare, se non a prezzi importanti.
S**L
Magnifique
La contribution de Syd Mead au cinéma de science fiction est tout simplement incroyable : Blade Runner bien sûr , mais aussi Aliens , Star trek , 2010 , Elysium , Tron ... Ce superbe ouvrage ( hardcover , papier glacé) nous présente de façon très complète le travail du maitre sur chaque film , depuis les premières esquisses jusqu'au rendu final. Certains dessins sont inédits , tous sont magnifiques! Très bonne idée d'éditer ce livre à l'occasion de la sortie de Blade Runner 2049 ( traité un peu rapidement en fin d'ouvrage). Attention , intégralement en anglais .
D**Z
Genius!
Superb! Genius!
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