Futurist and conceptual designer Syd Mead spoke in the University Theatre Thursday about the importance of industrial design in society.
Mead was this year’s featured speaker for the Cal State Long Beach Duncan Anderson Lecture Series. The Anderson-Malcolm family established the series to honor the memory of Duncan Anderson, a former industrial design student who passed away while attending the university.
All of the seats in the University Theatre were filled with both students and people from the general public. There were not enough seats in the theatre for everyone in attendance, so there were many people sitting in the aisles, standing against the outside perimeter of the theatre or listening in from the lobby.
Mead’s speech included a visual presentation of his work as well as anecdotes from his life.
The futurist and conceptual designer, who has worked all over the world, got his start in 1952 at the young age of 19 when he got his first professional job at the Alexander Film Company doing animation cell inking and background illustrations. In 1953, he joined the Army Corp of Engineers and enrolled at the Art Center School in Los Angeles when he was discharged in 1956.
After graduating, Mead had a slew of jobs at large corporations, such as Ford Motor Styling, Hansen Co. and Intergraph. In 1970, 37-year-old Mead started his own design company, Syd Mead Inc. in Detroit, which he still runs today.
Over the last 30 years, Mead has designed and illustrated for some of the top corporations, motion pictures and transportation services. His film work includes “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” with Paramount, “Blade Runner” with Ridley Scott, “2010” and “Time Cop” with Peter Hyams, “Tron” with Disney and Steven Lisberger, “Aliens” with James Cameron and “Mission Impossible III” with J.J. Abrams. Off-screen, Mead designed the interior of a 747 plane for the late King Fah’d of Saudi Arabia, redesigned the Yamato hero ship for Japanese animation and designed the Spaceship 2056 pavilion in Japan and the concept for a yacht in Venice, Italy.
“People aren’t aware of how much of their everyday world depends on design,” said Jose Rivera-Chang, organizer for the Duncan Anderson Lecture Series. “Mead’s work is the perfect example of how to take an idea about the future and make it real.”
