Science Art: From United States Steel International, a porfolio of probabilities, by Syd Mead


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This early ’60s vision of the future (in all likelihood, right now) was painted by visual futurist Syd Mead, who worked in industrial design as well as making films like Blade Runner, Aliens and Tron look like tomorrow.

I found it on Professor Michael Stoll’s Flickr account, where he describes how he found it:

Sometimes students are good for a big surprise – as in this case. Having read one of my shorter posts (actually this one: www.hs-augsburg.de/~mstoll/?p=411 ) on a website about retro-futurism, Dennis Bille one day came around with a quite large set of folders and unpacked these wonderfull illustrations. Obviously they once were give-a-ways from “United States Steel International” to show, how the future might look like – from a early 60s perspective. Dennis Bille got these folders from a retired designer as a gift for helping to close down his office. what a symbolic story!

UPDATE: On May 11th 2009, Syd Mead and his manager Roger Servick visited the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences (Dept. of Design) for a talk. We picked both up in Munich. While on the ride to Augsburg, Syd Mead kindly gave the following interview: The future came true – An Interview with Syd Mead – Prof. Michael Stoll

Note: That interview contains the phrase “You would be a very handsome replicant.” So of course it’s worth reading.