SYD MEAD: Automotive Design Lab of the Future

Syd Mead, legendary ‘Visual Futurist’ behind such films as STAR TREK, BLADE RUNNER, TRON, ALIENS, 2010, and others, cut his teeth as an automobile designer for Ford, General Motors, US Steel, Honda, and he eventually helped to found the Transportation Design department at Art Center College of Pasadena. His industrial design clients included Philips, Sony, Minolta, Bandai and he designed the interiors of luxury 747 jumbo jets and yachts for the Billionaire set. George Lucas based his Star Wars AT-AT on Mead’s designs, and his impact on car design and neo-futurism is still felt today.

I got to rep a handful of Syd Mead paintings for Steve Donnelly of Cool Lines about a decade ago, and when they inexplicably didn’t sell during an exhibition I purchased this one, myself. It has occupied space on my walls ever since with a few loans to museums in between. People recklessly throw around the term “modern day Da Vinci,” but Syd Mead truly was. I enjoyed every conversation I ever had with him, and I am hard pressed to pick a piece of art from my own collection that I like better than this one. It’s only right that this gets to stay in Pasadena.