Syd Mead made a recent public appearance at the Petersen Automotive Museum, where he spoke about his famed concept cars and his work on such influential films as Blade Runner and Tron. © Suzuki K Photography.

At a recent appearance at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, Syd Mead spoke of his educational background as an artist, his time working for the Ford Motor Co., his famed concept cars (he is certainly one of the most prolific designers of “The Car of the Future”) and his contributions to s Blade Runner and Tron, which have become milestones in visual design. He also covered in detail his designs for cruise ships, airplane interiors and his latest illustrations for concept vehicles, including one huge windowless blimp-like form that features the exterior world shown to travelers on interior, 360-degree digital screens.

And funnily enough, he showed one of his first vehicle sketches, made at about age three, of a huge windowless blimp-like form — and the comparison went to show how there has always been a continuity in his work. Nor did he leave out his low opinion of recent Cadillac design (his one-time car of choice), or his working methods of drawing and painting without the use of digital tools, through a meticulous process of retracing an original image to maintain line definition as colors are added. These techniques are available on his four DVD set, which covers his artistic process in all its stages from rough sketch to finished illustration, while his recent work, along with classic illustrations, are available in his latest book, Syd Mead’s Sentury.

Seeing Mead at the Petersen is ideal — after the talk everyone sojourned for drinks in one of the museum showrooms, which boasted everything from full-scale Hot Wheels cars (Mead’s Hot Wheels Cadillac design is still on store shelves!) to award-winning hot rods. But in case one does not have the opportunity to see Mead in person, the following interview with the master will have to suffice.

Henry Turner: How was it working with Peter Hyams (2010) again on A Sound of Thunder?

Syd Mead: A delight. Peter is very explicit and knows what he wants, and more importantly, can verbalize his ideas accurately. Nothing is so valuable to a designer as knowing just what the target solution is supposed to be.

HT: What did you create for A Sound of Thunder?

SM: I designed the hero’s sets, which was the time machine set, where time safari has their headquarters. It was a full-ceilinged set. Then I designed the cage that sort of goes into time — the pfm (pure f-king magic) vortex cage, in which six guys sit in chairs and the system knows where they are and analyzes their bodies’ mass, and then they go back into time. I designed that carriage and the uniforms and the chairs and the nitrogen rifles that they hunt with — they use nitrogen because it is an inert atmospheric gas, you don’t damage or affect the environment, and that’s key to the plot of the story.

Commissioned in 1988 by Lockheed and based on classified information, Mead’s Advanced Tactical Fighter captures the USAF in action. All artwork © 2001 Syd Mead and Oblagon Inc.

HT: What do you think of the continuing influence of Blade Runner?

SM: Blade Runner, Ridley Scott’s seminal film, is completely immersive and presents a story and ambience consistently missing in so many purported “sci-fi” films. It creates parameters around so many visceral aspects of human emotion and intellect, while assigning those same sensibilities to “made” entities. This is profoundly disturbing to human egoistic motivations and our sense of specialness.

HT: In your talk, I got the impression you still work with brushes.

SM: I certainly do. I create imagery in what is cutely called “old school.” I tell people that essentially “I apply paint to cardboard with animal hairs on the end of a stick,” although the “sticks” cost upwards of $40 to $70 each, depending on size and shape.