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Tron Tank Interior Sketch<br />
Blade Runner Spinner Sketch 01<br />
–continued from page 43<br />
machines. “You’d have to be able to lift, support and direct a two-ton<br />
vehicle in mid-air for a period of time,” he continues. “Scientists have<br />
tried propellers and jets, but the time and energy consumption is too<br />
huge. And if you create anti-gravity, you have to have some place for<br />
the gravity to go. So you have to displace two tons of force until you<br />
want to get rid of it again and come back down to earth. Furthermore,<br />
the scientific community hasn’t got the faintest idea what gravity actually<br />
is.”<br />
But other futuristic visions of Mead’s have indeed come to life “in<br />
little technological retail pieces,” including digital cameras, satellites,<br />
smartphones and high-end video games and virtual reality. He notes<br />
that, even with a seemingly endless array of technological advances<br />
available to him, he still prefers to sketch with pen and paper and paint<br />
his initial images.<br />
With a lifetime of wisdom to share, Mead lectures frequently<br />
around the country. He has also shared his creative process in a series<br />
of books, including a 2018 autobiography, A Future Remembered, published<br />
by his and Servick’s Oblagon Publishing company and available<br />
for purchase only at SydMead.com. His world-traveling “Progressions”<br />
exhibition is still drawing 1,000 visitors a day at its present Tokyo stop,<br />
while L.A.’s Petersen Automotive Museum displays several of his most<br />
distinctive car designs in its “Hollywood Dream Machines” exhibition.<br />
“Once you have the concept, you sit down and start to sketch,” he<br />
says. “You’re not paying particular attention to details. You’re illustrating<br />
in your mind what that concept could look like, so you end up with<br />
a portfolio of maybe crazy ideas. If you start out too rational at the<br />
front end of the idea process, you’re robbing the chance of a coincidence.<br />
“Then, you have to review those ideas and gradually coax the fluidity<br />
and spontaneity of the first pass down into the final product,” he<br />
continues. “That’s a trick and some people do it well and some people<br />
don’t. You can’t start out solving the problem in one pass. It’s not going<br />
to work. I don’t care how brilliant you are.” ||||<br />
44 | ARROYO | 06.19
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