The visionary artist behind Blade Runner and Tron had a surprising holiday hobby: crafting intricate gingerbread castles. In a recently unearthed home video from 1990, Syd Mead (1933-2019) reveals his process for building these edible architectural marvels, combining his professional design skills with confectionery craftsmanship.
"The idea was to use the charming and seasonal gingerbread house idea, but carry it a little bit further and make a castle instead," Mead explains in the footage. "After all, a man's cottage can be his castle." True to his industrial design background, Mead approached the project like any other design challenge – starting with detailed sketches and building a precise foam core model before tackling the edible version.
The archival video, discovered by Matthew Strauss while digitizing Mead's personal archives this summer, shows the designer's innovative construction techniques. Rather than traditional gingerbread assembly, Mead developed a unique method for creating cylindrical towers by wrapping hot, flexible dough around paper forms before it hardened. "You have about 30 seconds before they're too hard to wrap around anything," Mead notes in the video, demonstrating his precision timing.
Most striking is how Mead approached the decorative elements. "Because it's not a real castle, it's a fairy castle," he explains, "the frosting on the walls is more decorative and swirl patterns." The resulting creation merged architectural accuracy with whimsical detail – a fitting holiday project from an artist known for blending technical precision with imaginative futurism.
As reported by sydmead.com, which now houses Mead's original recipes and construction notes, the designer admitted to consuming "at least one whole pound cake single-handedly" during the project, proving even visionaries aren't immune to holiday temptations.
Previously:
• Legendary sci-fi artist Syd Mead dead at 86
• BBtv: Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead, part 1.
• Shrapnel: new comic featuring Syd Mead's designs
• BBtv: Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead, part 2.
• Syd Mead on the helmet design Daft Punk nicked
• Come for Syd Mead's Xmas card, stay for the great art books at Stuart Ng's store
• Retro-futuristic Syd Mead illos from US Steel int'l promotional pack
