The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist

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.

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.

This isn't my first Syd Mead book. I first "met" Syd Mead many decades ago. His illustrations kindled my imagination and led my mind down story paths. While some of the work is clearly "older" (like the '60's), it remains thought-worthy. I especially enjoy the inclusion of illustrations that show the development of concepts. This book is well made. The paper is thick. Color is liberally used. It has great "coffee table" potential that can open new topics when current conversation lags. Some books are to read once and then pass to others. This books is to keep and to return to.

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.

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!

This book is packed the inspiration and insight to one of the greatest visual futurists/imaginative designers of our time. My favorite coffee book table right now. In love.

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.

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.