This past Thursday, Syd Mead visited Kendall College of Art and Design to give a talk about his exhibit, Progressions, currently on exhibition at the Kendall gallery. The exhibit features a range of Mead’s work throughout his career as a visual futurist and concept artist. The term that he uses to describe his work “visual futurist” is something that he invented for the first film he worked on, Blade Runner. His works are technically impressive, the sort of thing that, when you look at them, you find it hard to believe that they’re colored pencil, or watercolor, or gouache. He uses reflections a lot, and I’m especially amazed by the fact that he can draw very realistic reflections on glass. I’ve never tried this, but it seems like it would be very difficult.
In Mead’s talk, he discussed his work over the years, and some of the principles he uses to guide his visions for the future. When he’s designing the future, he makes sure that there’s some relationship to the present. That makes the future seem comfortable, and that’s what makes people want to go there.
Overall, his talk could have been better. He seemed to be simply explaining his work, not delving any deeper. I think that’s the goal of doing a talk like that, is to discuss the work that you do and then the deeper motivations and reasoning behind all of it. I think everyone approaches it differently though, and maybe just talking about the work itself is how some people want to do it. The way he went about doing his talk might have been because he’s very commercial, as an artist. Maybe talks that include deeper meaning tend to be of the more theoretical variety?
Syd Mead’s work is great, and it’s well worth a visit. It will be up in the gallery in Kendall’s Federal Building until December 7th. The gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. Be sure to check it out!
Syd Mead’s work is great, and it’s well worth a visit. It will be up in the gallery in Kendall’s Federal Building until December 7th. The gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. Be sure to check it out!