Visions of the Future- Syd Mead

For over 50 years, Sydney Jay Mead has made a very successful career as a 'Visual Futurist'. His talents have taken him around the world, with significant stop-offs in Hollywood and Detroit where his personal take on technology of the future has informed major projects like Blade Runner, Aliens and Star Trek. For many years he worked in the Advanced Styling Center for Ford Motors in Dearborn, then Detroit, Michigan.He also created futuristic visions of steel applications in promotional publications for US Steel in the 1960s.
Mead's conceptions of the future are seductively rendered full colour pieces, often featuring unusually attired people engaged in everyday activities. Usually, the backdrop is a familiar, yet technologically advanced, environment. This whiff of the mundane adds a certain plausibility to Mr Mead's vision. A recurrent motif in these pictures are weird half-animal half-robot family pets, elaborate brocaded semi-military caped outfits and identity (and humanity) concealing hi-tech helmets. The overall effect can be slightly menacing, maybe this is part of Mead's vision of the future.

Might is Right. TOTALITARIAN ART

Today, a look at the wonderful and frightening world ot the totalitarian propaganda poster. Wonderful? Yes, in the sense that these posters seem to be selling a dream, the promise of a brighter more purposeful future in the ranks of whichever 'grand enterprise' is bidding for your unquestioning alliegence. Notice the steely-eyed determination and frightening fanaticism of the SS man or the Chinese farmer thrusting his little red book into the air in defiance- of what? Democracy? Free Speech? Liberalism? All of these posters use colour and design to sell their product, but what exactly is the product? To me it looks like struggle, aggression, hatred of outsiders/non believers and a money-back guarantee of conflict.

The Brilliance of Italian Movie Posters

I yield to no man in my respect for the art of photograpy, but in recent years the media has become awash with photographic images, usually very average ones at that. When it came to movie posters I usually found those that relied on photographic depictions of the film and stars to be somewhat flat and unexciting, particularly when compared to the multicolured panache of a high quality painted poster. Yes, there were some bad ones, but just look at how exciting a poster can be, especially in the hands of the talented, often anonymous, Italian artists.

Alfred T Palmer. The War Effort

Alfred T Palmer had a rich and rewarding career in photography. He started at the age of 11 when his friend, a fifteen year old Amsel Adams, gave him a camera so the pair may take pictures as they hiked through Yosemite in California. The interest stuck, and the two boys both became successful photographers as they grew up. Although Ansel found his niche with landscape work, Alfred proved to have a greater affinity for human subject matter. He travelled the world recording diverse cultures with an attitude of respect and beauty. In recognition of his mastery President Roosevelt made Palmer chief photographer for the Office of War Information, an organisation that used the very best American photographers to record the war effort. The pictures above are part of Palmer's contribution, beautifully lit, almost like a classical painting in their chiaroscuro with rich vibrant colour tones. A fitting treatment for the epic struggle.