Syd Mead - Designer of Blade Runner and others passes at 86
Khai-J-Bach
Posts: 163
NT
Post edited by Khai-J-Bach on
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2026 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
...bugger. I liked his futuristic designs. They were not as "way out" as other futurists.
Ooooh sh.. !
One of my graphic hero who disappear ! The first graphic book I bought was Sentinel a long, long time ago followed with Sentury, Oblagon,.... Thanks to you for making us dream.
Coincidence, I 'm just working on a modest tribute to him. My current WIP:
Here's a more obscure Syd Mead design...
https://jalopnik.com/syd-meads-futuristic-playboy-land-yacht-5611114
He did that one back in 1975 apparently. If there was a 3d model of this, or an 'inspired by' model that was very similar, I'd want that!
The Leonov, from 2010: The Year We Make Contact, was one of Syd's designs apparently. I very much liked the look of that design, and the spinning armatures that provided 'gravity' via centrifigul force for the crew, similar to those 'spinning wheel' stations we all remember!
Anyways, yeah Syd Mead definitely left his mark in a number of ways! Thanks for your visions of the future Syd!
In a world that worships actors, film directors and... with the last decades... non-talents whose only attribute seems to be being famous, the impact of designers like Syd Meade never seem to be properly appreciated. Yes, his sci-fi work is great, but the first half of his career was spent in visulizing the next generation of technology for real companies, and his entry into the film industry was mostly a fluke caused by other design engineers constantly refering to his work to inspire their own. It's no secret, for example, that Star Wars Imperial Walkers were directly inspired by a painting that Meade did for a brochure for U.S. Steel, and that basic grounding in reality, the feeling that "yes, that could really work" is what makes Meade's work resonate so strongly. Fortunately, even though the man himself is now gone, a huge portion of his overall body of work has been preserved in print and will continue to inspire future generations of artists.
...I liked the Leonov as well.
My original copy of Sentinel has been perused so many times that it's barely holding together and I had to buy a Japanese edition since the original was out of print. I've switched to e-books for everything else, but for art books there's nothing like a big wide sheet of glossy paper...
If you want to see how deeply Syd Mead's work has influenced popular culture have a trawl through Stonemason's shop page. Alien and Blade Runner are clearly major inspirations for all of Stefan's futuristic sets.
Cheers (sort of),
Alex.
...part of why I like using them for my cyber world images.