Learning From Syd Mead | 50 Years of Design Experience

I recently had the pleasure of attending a small lecture by the famous futurist, artist, illustrator and conceptual designer Syd Mead in Arizona. After the lecture, I had the opportunity to have cocktails with Mead and a few other young designers. If you are not familiar with Syd Mead, he is a former designer for Ford Motor Company, U.S. Steel and Philips Electronics. After starting his own consultancy, he has been commissioned by major companies like Sony, Chrysler, Mechanix Illustrated and Playboy. Mead is also known for his work on such science fiction films as Blade Runner, Aliens, TRON and Mission Impossible III.

Syd Mead and Adam Craft

Syd Mead NASA VEX ROVER

During the lecture, Mead showed a snippet of renderings from his great breadth of work and walked the audience through his thought process. It was incredible to hear about the amazing worlds that Mead created in his head and translated onto paper. Most designers would give anything to be able to visualize designs with the kind of clarity that Mead can. It is almost as if he is watching a film in his head and simply sketching what he sees. Mead said, “Fantasy is a human trait because it allows you to imagine something that has not happened yet, then you can come up with something unique.”

Syd Mead never just designed a vehicle, he designed the entire world that the vehicle exists in and each character in his rendering has a story to tell. Mead said, “Movies or the real thing, it’s the same, they both need a story.” He showed me, in just a few short hours, how powerful storytelling can be for a designer. If I can imagine, in great detail, the types of “stories” my product will be a part of, I can anticipate problems and design new solutions with much more accuracy.

At 76 years old, Mead seems to be just as creative as he has ever been. His imagination still makes you wish you could plug a monitor into his brain to watch the madness taking place in real time.

If you are interested in taking design lessons from someone who has over 50 years of experience, I suggest picking up one of Syd Mead’s books or DVDs. He has published several books over the years and more recently has began creating step-by-step Gnomon Workshop DVDs which can all be purchased on Amazon and his official website.