Syd Mead July 18, 1933 – December 30, 2019
Syd Mead Visual Futurist and Industrial Designer passed at his home in Pasadena at the age of 86 on December 30. 2019. Syd lived an incredible life starting as an artist at the tender age of three. He quickly developed his skills into cartoons, auto designs, and eventually futuristic visions for cult classic films such as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, TRON 1982, Blade Runner, Aliens, 2010: A Space Odyssey, Short Circuit, and countless others.
For me personally he was a tremendous inspiration which I have on several occasions stated in public. In an interview published 19 years ago on December 31 on CGarchitect I was asked by Jeff Mottle which artists, architects, and designers inspired me the most and I answered that "futurist Syd Mead has been a huge inspiration for me since early on. That is both in terms of his extraordinary drawing talents and his marvellous futuristic design concepts."
When a few years later in 2004 the magazine 3D World invited me to contribute to their Inspiration series I chose an image by Syd Mead of a futuristic home from his book "Sentinel" from 1979. In the 3D World piece I talked about the importance of that image specifically and the work of Syd Mead in a broader sense for my formative years.
Three-dimensional image screen, Philips by Syd Mead. Sentinel published by Dragon's Dream, 1979.
Kim in 3D World: "In 1979 my architect father worked together with a friend of his on a competition project. His friend’s father, Knut Yran was head of the design department at Philips in the Netherlands, working with visual futurist Syd Mead. His book "Senteniel" had just come out and my father had received a copy. “Senteniel” featured many of Syd’s concept designs depicting the future of living with new technology.
I was 12 or 13 at the time, and I was already drawn into the world of architecture and design; my mom was a fashion designer. I had grown up playing with LEGO and drawing spaceships, and I spent hours in my father’s study copying the Senteniel drawings as best as I could.
By 1987 I had started my university degree in computer science, but soon found it was too technical a field for me and I applied and got into the Oslo School of Architecture instead, and my interest for computing and 3d made me teach myself how to design and visualise buildings in 3D. After completing my architecture education in Oslo, I took a Fulbright supported Masters degree in design for extreme environments at the University of Houston, where I worked on visual effects for the Emmy nominated WBGH show “Apollo 13 – to the Edge and Back”. When I returned to Norway I started up a company specialising in architectural visualisation, Dimension Design, which is a company I still have and run.
A couple of years ago [in 2006 when this text was originally written] I was working on concepts for the Placebo Effects [my company at the time] winning competition entry for a new design hotel in Risor, Norway, and I was able to speculate on what the future of hotel rooms could be like. As the team were toying with concepts of furniture as a landscape and screen technology as architecture, I realised that I had come full circle. I was taken back to those days of playing with light, shapes and color on my father’s drawing table looking at the Philips futuristic suspended kitchen designs and the Playboy wall-to-wall computer screens of Syd Mead.
Risor Hotel winning design competition entry from 2006.
Although I have yet to fully realise my own version of the future of personal living, I am hoping it will be something along what Syd Mead has predicted, that in the future ´..the house will become a place where you are - even when you’re not there.´"
I had the great fortune to meet Syd Mead as a fellow speaker at the 3D Festival in Copenhagen in 2003 where Alex Morris invited him as keynote speaker. Later I was able to meet with Syd and Roger many times in their cool house in Pasadena attending parties held for friends after SIGGRAPH and at a few of their favourite restaurants and become friends with Syd and Roger for which I am ever grateful for.
Kim Baumann Larsen, Knut Ramstad and Syd Mead in Pasadena post SIGGRAPH in August 2005.
In the interview in 3D World that expanded on the Inspiration text I explained why I chose that image specifically: "The image shows a concept for a Philips Three-dimensional image screen, with a family enjoying a space program. On the right there is a very slim, porcelain-finished control panel containing a flat screen monitor and various touch plates for controlling the system. The concept of a 3d home entertainment system and 3d video captures of space walks are still in the future [although in a very near future now that we are in 2020]. I feel that this image very much embodies the powers that we as designers have to shape the future." On the question about why I admired that image so much, and still do, so many years after it was made I said: "The fact that the design concept is still fresh some 30 [now 45] years after it was conceived and how the image succeeds in telling a story about how people are using space and technology. After all great architecture and design is about how well you can make people interact with each other and the built environment for years and years without the design becoming obsolete."
My one big regret is that I was never able to bring Syd Mead to Norway for a Digital Storytelling event. That I can't do anything about now. What I can do is continue to be inspired by Syd's futuristic designs and his future optimism so clearly depicted in his images.
You will be missed Syd Mead but not forgotten.