Arturo: (Gundam) When Syd was developing the Turn-A Gundam models, how did he approach developing humanoid robot advancements when the root technology doesn’t actually exist?

SM: I used the existing GUNDAM MOBILE SUIT story rational, of course. The MOBILE SUIT idea actually was generated by the very first FOUR ARMED SPACE MODULE for moving stuff. It evolved into an anthromorphic configuration as Tomino-san wrote the stories, needing more character involvement. The whole anime art form, from a story standpoint, always shows teenagers…young people saving the world, confronting ultimate evil, etc., etc. because THAT’S THE AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC…well, up into the low thirties in Japan. What I did was to take the ‘STORY’ technology rationale and develop robots that used the same technology but fulfilled various story roles, as I do for any design project; movies, vehicles, products, etc.

Slimgenius: How important is it that your mechanical designs appear “real-world” functional?

SM: VERY. That’s the mystique that I’m known for. My formal education was in industrial design, both consumer product and transportation. I learned rotational and volumetric rationale. The trick is to create something absolutely startling (that’s the end goal) that is recognizable for what it is, and that it looks like it would actually ‘work’ within the parameters of the technological world in which it exists, even if it is only a picture. If you understand mechanical design, you can ‘overlay’ a mechanical rational onto anything you come up with and people will see it and say to themselves’ “hell, that looks like it would work that way.”

Smiling Jack: When creating future designs do you base your concepts strictly on your own imagination or do you try to “evolve” the existing technology organically?

SM: Depends on the client idea. In the case of GUNDAM:TURN ‘A’, I had to preserve over twenty years of fan appreciation and character recognition when I designed a new ‘zero base’ for the character. That was much harder to do than coming up with something new, such as the other six robot characters for that anime production. If left to my own curious devices, I first am usually inspired by a techno-article, a new investigation into some weird technological experiment or development. I then match that to a made up story of my own and come up with a visualized combination.

3DSurge: (Industry) What advice do you have for a concept designer who wants to have a consistent work history? Is it better to freelance or work for a studio?

SM: I don’t think it matters. There is the whole deal of having a ’steady’ income base, although that has gotten pretty shakey lately no matter if you are working for a large corporation or free-lance. In any case, freelancing is creatively very satisfying, usually, depending on the dork quotient of the client, but working for a variety of sources is the best thing, I think. You meet a lot of other professional people in different career categories, and your visibility spreads across several DIFFERENT kinds of work sources.

I never had a linear career; from vehicle design, corporate graphics, product design, aircraft interior design, marine design and working for various movie, television and electronic game productions keeps my visibility level up in a lot of non-related client source areas.

JoeJoe2:(Industry) I have read your Ballistic profile and wanted to know how you accept clients. Do you take all projects offered or do you consider the artistic merit before accepting?

SM: The luxury of working for a long time at a healthy level of accomplishment means that you get more requests than you can fulfill. That allows you to deliberately choose the opportunities that seem to offer the best chance to exercise your creative judgement, to be treated with a level of professional respect and to demand a fee structure that makes it all worthwhile. This stage may take a while or, in cases when you are really at the top of your game early on, it happens fast. I was lucky. Within 26 months from graduating from the Art Center School in LA, I had three luxury cars, a bit house, a salary equal to then studio manager at any of the ‘big three’ auto companies and a really great life.

LINKS

www.sydmead.com

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