Sydney Jay Mead, commonly known as Syd Mead, (July 18, 1933 - December 30, 2019) was an American visual futurist and concept artist. He was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States.

Syd Mead graduated with a degree on industrial design. He started his career as a vehicle designer for car companies and then was employed in NASA as a conceptual artist for different real life space craft projects. Years later he focused on the science fiction genre creating art for different movie productions. His background enabled him to apply a level of realism and mechanical detail never before seen in Sci-Fi cinema.

He was best known for his designs for many famous science-fiction films such as Blade Runner (The Spinner), Aliens (The Sulaco space craft), Tron (The lightcycles, digital tanks, solar sailer, and Sark's carrier designs) and 2010 (The Leonov spaceship). Of his work, Mead was once moved to comment: "I've called science fiction 'reality ahead of schedule'...".

He also worked in the designs for the Turn A Gundam mecha anime series and the aborted Yamato2520 (a sequel to Uchuu Senkan Yamato) due to the success of his designs in Japan, where he was considered a genius with a great influence in the look of modern Sci-Fi anime.

On December 30, 2019, Syd died in his Pasadena home at the age of 86, after three years of fighting lymphoma.

Other Famous Designs

• Turn A Gundam (Mobile Suit)
• Turn X