Syd Mead, a designer whose wide-ranging work included envisioning vehicles of the future as well as helping to shape the look of environments in movies like “Blade Runner,” “Tron” and “Aliens,” died on Monday at his home in Pasadena, Calif. His spouse, Roger Servick, said the cause was lymphoma. Mr. Mead started out in the car business, designing for Ford. By 1970 he had founded his own firm, Syd Mead Inc., and had a wide range of clients, working on architectural interiors and exteriors, restaurants, catalogs and more. His first movie credit was in 1979 on “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”; he was part of the special effects team and credited as a “production illustrator.” Three years later for “Blade Runner,” Ridley Scott’s film version of a Philip K. Dick novel about a bounty hunter who tracks down humanoid “replicants,” he was “visual futurist.” His other credits included “conceptual artist” on “Tron” (1982), “Aliens” (1986) and others; “vehicle designer” on “Mission to Mars” (2000); and “mask maker design” on “Mission: Impossible III” (2006).

Source: New York Times January 03, 2020 17:15 UTC