futurism Archives | Moss and Fog

Art

The Optimistic Futurism of Space Artist Robert McCall

January 29, 2024 Art

Robert McCall was an artist working in the 20th century, known more widely for his optimistic, impressive space art.

With murals gracing the walls of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Disney, and more, McCall’s art remains some of the finest artistic futurism, giving us a sense of what might come to pass in future decades.

His work blended an artistic vision with a forward-looking perspective on technology, space, and the future of humanity. He was renowned for his ability to visualize and artistically interpret the realm of space exploration, including fanciful aspects that engineers and planners hadn’t thought of yet.

His paintings and murals often depicted spacecraft, astronauts, and celestial scenes, with craft landing on Mars, and even floating cities and underwater habitats.

Take a look at some of our favorites of his below. For more on McCall, visit his estate’s website, which features galleries of his artwork.

Images © Copyright Robert McCall Studios.

McCall’s work extended to the entertainment industry, where he contributed to the visual development of major science fiction films, including Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”. That film remains one of the most beloved visions of outer space in film history.

His visions show an optimistic world (or worlds) where our future is bright and amazing things can happen.

The level of detail and scale in the artwork is impressive as well.

Entire floating cities are visualized, complete with rainbows in the background.

A NASA planetary landing looks not too unrealistic.

His work blended an artistic vision with a forward-looking perspective on technology, space, and the future of humanity.

McCall’s work inspired those that worked in the space industry, as well as the general public.

Greenhouses on Mars, anyone?

A wide array of things to unpack in this painting.

For more fascinating retro-futuristic art, check out posts here and here.

Automotive

Nissan’s New Ariya Is a Sleek Electric Crossover For the Masses

July 15, 2020 Automotive

We are huge advocates for electric cars. They’re quick, clean, convenient, and definitely the future of mobility. And while they’re still sold in pretty small numbers around the world, things are definitely starting to change, with nearly every global automaker revealing entire EV lineups.

The latest new EV is from Nissan, called the Ariya. This sleek, spaceship-like car is a huge step up from the Nissan Leaf, which helped familiarize people with electric cars, but didn’t have the style, range, or appeal that many had hoped for.

With a 300-mile range and a starting price of about $40,000, the five-passenger crossover hits the sweet spot of pricing and range, all while looking decidedly futuristic. The designers call it ‘timeless Japanese futurism’.

The Ariya is based off of the 2019 Tokyo Auto Show concept car, and thankfully most of the elegant design has carried through to the production vehicle. This model is also the first to use Nissan’s new corporate logo, which is a streamlined version of their longstanding brand mark.

The interior is thoughtfully minimal and sleek, with a set of curving 12-inch displays on the dashboard, patterned lighting throughout the cabin, and elegant copper details, which the designers say relates to the concept of copper as the ultimate conductor of electricity.

Arriving next summer as a 2022 model, the Ariya will be joined by a slew of new electric competitors. We’re all for options, and hoping that an attractive offering like the Ariya gets more people into EVs.

Architecture

Syd Mead, Famed Futurist Artist, Remembered

January 3, 2020 Architecture

We’ve always thought the work of a futurist is fascinating, predicting and helping to shape the look and feel of the future. Syd Mead was one of the most respected futurists in the field, someone turned to when films wanted to depict a future society or place. Most well known for his work on Blade Runner, Alien, and Tron, Mead had an effortless ability to craft new and exciting visions, as well as strange and scary dystopian ones. Blade Runner was definitely some of his most famous work, but he influenced dozens of other films, and was involved in automotive design as well as architecture. His work will be remembered for generations. He was 86 years old. Via Dezeen:

I’ve called science fiction ‘reality ahead of schedule’

-Syd Mead

3D

Remembering Strange And Fantastic Industrial Designer Luigi Colani

September 18, 2019 3D

Luigi Colani died this week at age 91, and with him, we’ve lost an idiosyncratic and fabulously unique design mind. His work spanned many decades and many industries, from automotive to aeronautical, to consumer goods, like cameras and other devices.

His characteristic ‘swoops’ and wildly futuristic forms will remain his touchstone, creating concepts that were often decades before their time. Some of them were rather….ungainly, shall we say, but nothing he designed was boring. And to us, that’s the sign of a great designer. Always pushing, sometimes failing, but never boring. Enjoy a look at some of his strange and wonderful designs below. Via Jalopnik and Dark Roasted Blend:

“Soft shapes follow us through life. Nature does not make angles. Hips and bellies and breasts — all the best designers have to do with erotic shapes and fluidity of form.”

Architecture

Alien Architecture by Al Mefer

April 11, 2018 Architecture

This strange and alien-looking architecture is captured in surreal, gradated backgrounds by Spanish photographer and designer Al Mefer. The bulbous styles and quasi-futuristic forms of the buildings look unfamiliar, and while they certainly are earth-bound, the collection has been subtly tweaked to make them seem like they’ve been captured from an urban area of a different planet.

Walking through the streets of Mars
I was blinded by their beauty
Though traveling the stars
Amazement was a duty

All these lands were of Ares just a fight
But the yellow hues of Venus
Like the paintings of a genius
Were of Aphrodite’s delight

Then in Jupiter’s dark night
Zeus’ dreams were set alight
Earth’s wars tore me apart
And Outer Space brought me a new life

Architecture

Tokyo’s Metabolist, Blade Runner Future

January 28, 2018 Architecture

If you’ve visited (or live) in Tokyo, you know just how futuristic and expressive the architecture can be. It’s one of the world’s biggest cities, and one that fully has embraced the future, whether that future is one of expression and industry, or of pure form. Either way, photographer Tom Blachford has done an excellent job showcasing that future, in a style that feels at home in the Blade Runner series. Blade Runner, the seminal film of the 1980s showcases a futuristic Los Angeles, dominated with enormous megastructures, buildings that felt more like systems than they did simply structures. Blachford’s series is entitled Nihon Noir, and we feel it’s a great representation of Neo-futuristic style. Via Dezeen:

A huge structure feeling very much like a set piece of Blade Runner

A capsule hotel in Tokyo that would look as in place in 2049 as it would today.

The color and style of the photographs, taken at night, possess a certain emotional futurism.

We love the futuristic form of this structure, which resembles the super pyramid of Blade Runner 2049.

An organic gold sculpture atop a rooftop in Tokyo’s Nihon district.

Architecture

Keep Dreaming

October 3, 2011 Architecture

I’ve always been fascinated with designers who push limits far beyond the need of society. Designers with the courage, foolishness or brashness to buck the norm, and think and design without constraints. It’s these designers who inspire the designers that are more grounded in reality. Perhaps the nature of their absurd or far-fetched visions is the draw, but whatever the case, I’ve been an enormous fan of this “crazy bunch”. Their work has inspired NASA to dream of colonies in space

Via Dark Roasted Blend, here is a collection of architectural renderings that push boundaries of physics, engineering, and imagination.

“Metropolis” helped to usher in a fantastic view of the future, way back in the 1920s. Though somewhat dystopian in its cold efficiency, Metropolis did indeed inspire legions of designers to imagine supercities, mass transit options, and an impressive future for architecture.