Syd Mead's Sentury II

There are two kinds of people in the world--those who are familiar with the work of Syd Mead and those who are not. If you're one of the first kind, then "Sentury II" is a book for you. If you're one of the second kind, then "Sentury II" would be a good place to start appreciating Mr. Mead's incredible artwork--especially since some of his earlier books, such as " Sentinel ," " Sentinel II ," " Sentury " and " Oblagon " are very hard to find and quite expensive these days. If you've seen any of Mr. Mead's earlier books, you know what you'll get with this one. The art is fantastic, of course, in both black-and-white and color. The pages are thick and glossy, and (unlike some of the previous books) the binding seems very tight and not likely to break the first time you page through it. Production values are excellent, with brilliant, vibrant colors, crisp, sharp line work and interesting, very readable text throughout. You can easily spend hours poring over his intricate, far-out technical machines and his fanciful visions of future societies, and reading the blurbs that describe how he created them. I particularly liked the organization of "Sentury II." It is divided into six sections--Design (approximately 17 pages), Illustration (25), Electronic Media (8), Movies (35), Transportation (45) and Drawings & Graphics (15). Collectively, the exquisitely printed plates illustrate in detail the full range of the master's talent in a variety of genres and media. His concept sketches for "The Core" and "A Sound of Thunder," movies with which I am familiar, were especially familiar and fascinating. If you're a fan of Syd Mead's work, I strongly advise you to pick up this volume sooner rather than later. The future availability of Mr. Mead's books is never certain, and if you don't buy this one now at Amazon's decent discount, you may never have another opportunity to pick it up at a reasonable price. Based on quick checks on Amazon and eBay, I'm amazed at how much my pristine copies of his earlier books have appreciated over the years. That's not a reason to buy them, of course, but it is a nice bonus to know they'll be worth a lot in years to come. Syd Mead is one of the world's premier illustrators and graphic artists (or "futurist," as he likes to call himself), and "Sentury II" is a stunning visual treat showing some of the best examples of his wide-ranging work. I can't recommend it too highly.

I just received this book and I have to say it is a fantastic purchase: one of the best collections of Syd Mead's work to date! For many people learning the "art" of industrial design it can be a daunting task analyzing what it is that makes a great design. A finished Mead painting is so complex and well executed that it can obscure the process behind it and hypnotize you into entering the world. Indeed they are at a real world level of detail, so to have a book so crammed full of line drawings in addition to the finished paintings is an absolute godsend. There are examples of design evolution for several projects, my personal favourite being a massive spread of futuristic two tone car sketches that I wish I could drive, along with the Model T redesign and a drilling vehicle. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), the lightcycle design from TRON 2.0 is superb and a great reminder of how timeless the style of this master can be. I had high expectations for this release and it has not disappointed in any way.

This is a beautifully printed book and follow up to Sentury. I bought the paperback of this book, and I'm very careful when I look through it so that the binding doesn't crack. This is just a fact of life of paperback books. I'm thinking of springing for the hardback version, but I haven't yet. The book is 175 pages and is beautifully printed and I detect no issues with pixilation or paper stock. The artwork is amazing and Design Studio Press has done an awesome job with color printing etc. The book is divided into the following chapters: Biography Foreword Dedication Acknowledgements Design Illustration Electronic Media The Movies Transportation Drawings and Graphics I've been a fan of his work since Blade Runner and if you are thinking of getting this, I would go ahead do so. Once his books/titles go out of print, they become very expensive. I can imagine that this title would be enjoyable/inspirational to many creative types. Highly recommended.

Sentury 2 is a little worse than the Sentury 1. I own both - Sentury and Sentury 2, and compared them side by side and much prefer the first one. Yes, the paper quality of the second one is better, but in the subject matter - the actual illustrations - the first one exhibits much greater creativity, and most or works are hand-made, while in the Sentury 2 there are many more "infill" textual "pictures", and some rather wonderful retro-futurist sketches and paintings from the Sentury 1 are missing, while some dodgy photoshopped pictures are of frankly inferior quality - seem to have been made much faster, with less care, and it shows. It can, of course, also be true that I personally prefer Syd Mead's earlier work, but I do find the Sentury 2 a more of a half-hearted attempt than his previous one. Still not a bad book but not his best one. Cheers!

Everything Syd Mead touches is gold. There's so much rich and delicious design in here it's mind blowing. This is actually the first Syd Mead book I've ever owned. I wish I could afford the earlier ones, but they're so expensive now. Too be honest, although I don't own them, I have seen the earlier books and I must say this one isn't quite as great as those. That doesn't really matter, though, because even when he's not at top performance, Syd Mead is still a better designer than just about anyone else out there. Anyway, there's a ton of great stuff in here, from concept cars to concept art for Tron and The Jetsons.

I'm a Syd Fan from when I was a kid. I got all his available publications. Got Sentury and Sentury the reprint and a lot of other great collections of his artworks. This man shaped our worlds of immagination... and he is behind the sets of many great movies and this new book will not disappoint you. More views of his incredible future cities, cars, ships. A vast sea of inspirations for sci-fi artists. The future as I would like it to be... thanks Syd, more please!

This is a great book, I mixed it up with the video review, but it is one of his best works. You have to get this if you love Mead and his future visions. Very inspiring work of genius. The video cd about Mead is also interesting...."Visual Futurist: Syd Mead".

When looking for art books, that's what one wants; literally a picture book. Exposition on process and inspiration are nice but I felt this volume wasn't as well put together as it could have been. Still a good purchase

Great book. The print quality is excellent and well organized in a stunning large format book (like all DSP published books). I was hoping for more process sketches but there are well written narratives explaining the projects and some of the design process and briefs. Happy to have this book in my design library. The book "The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist" has a lot more rough sketches if you are trying to get into Syd's head... especially if you are looking for blade runner - sentruy II is geared more towards Syd's product and industrial design.

Un designer, un illustratore, un artista! Immancabile volume per tutti gli appassionati del genere grafico e per coloro che amano il disegno tradizionale.

ES MAGNIFICO ! Este artista tiene la peculiaridad de hacerte soñar, de querer vivir en esos mundos que te plasma

I was always curious about Syd Mead's smaller designs, I've seen so much of his massive cityscapes and huge space spaceship. This book as a little more smaller and intimate props. And wicked cars and cityscapes that I have not seen before.

Alles in allem ein guter Überblick über seine Arbeiten, kommt jedoch an die Klasse von OBLAGON und Co. nicht heran.