The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced that visual futurist and concept artist Syd Mead will be the next recipient of its Visionary Award, in recognition of his contributions to visual arts and filmed entertainment. The honor will be presented to Mead at the 14th Annual VES Awards on February 2, 2016, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Mead’s career spans almost six decades, and began with creating characters and backgrounds for animated cinema intermission trailers just out of high school. After serving in the Army and studying at L.A.’s Art Center School, Mead took on a series of high-profile design assignments for major companies like Ford Motors, U.S. Steel and Philip’s Electronics.
Mead began working in Hollywood in 1979, and he made a triumphant debut by creating the V’ger for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, followed by working on cult classics
Bladerunner and
Tron. His designs for robots, vehicles and alien worlds can also be seen in
2010,
Short Circuit,
Aliens,
Time Cop,
Johnny Mnemonic,
Mission Impossible 3 and
Elysium
.
In the 1980s, Mead began working with major Japanese companies like Sony, Dentsu, Bandai, NHK and Honda as well as contributing to Japanese film projects like Yamato 2520 and
Solar Crisis. In the ‘90s, he designed all eight robot characters for the
Turn A Gundam animated series. A documentary of his career,
Visual Futurist, was released in 2007.