The future is spectacularly now in Product alum Edward Eyth’s concept art for “Back to the Future Part II”

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Today, Buzzfeed published the following photo essay, featuring Product Design alum Edward Eyth’s “Back to the Future Part II” concept art. The piece offers a prescient glimpse at the 1988 sketches of the futuristic world of 2015. What better way to kick off the weekend than by looking back at an Art Center alum’s vision for the future that is now.

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Edward Eyth is a California-based designer who has provided concept design for the likes of Walt Disney, Steven Spielberg, and Jim Henson.

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In 1988, Eyth was part of the team who dreamed up a vision of 2015 for Back to the Future Part II.

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Now we’ve arrived in 2015, Eyth has posted some of his early concept art for the film on his website. It’s a vision of the future more than 25 years old that in places is scarily accurate, and in others still ahead of its time.

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 11.58.37 AMEyth told BuzzFeed: “At that point in Hollywood there were just a handful of concept designers providing art to accommodate the sci-fi renaissance that Star Wars, Tron and other films started.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.00.56 PM“Word of mouth was the primary means of getting work – often a director or producer I’d worked with would pass my name on when a sci-fi project entered pre-production.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.02.42 PM“In this case, it was a dream gig: Sit in a trailer on the Universal Studios lot with a handful of other ‘visual futurists’ and speculate about what the experience of living in 2015 would be like.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.04.07 PM“Fortunately this could all be done with an imaginative flair, since the film had a playful tone and a tolerance for some outlandish concepts.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.05.52 PM“A film’s visuals are primarily dictated by the script, combined with the director’s vision. Within that structure there’s still a lot of room for creative exploration.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.08.06 PM“I was inspired by Syd Mead’s work on Blade Runner and Tron [and] the sketchbooks of Joe Johnston for the Star Wars films – the great sci-fi films that preceded BTTF II drove my urge to be in the film industry.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.09.41 PM“And great product design inspires me; the ability to inventively problem-solve and explore the form and function of objects.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.11.11 PM“Filmmakers take a big risk when making any bold statements about how the future will play out.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.12.49 PM“In Back to the Future [Part II], it was more about projecting forward three decades and creating a visual experience that was realistic and relatively optimistic.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.14.23 PM“To accomplish that required exploring projected technologies and trying to imagine what the ‘next step’ in that progression would be.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.47.56 PM“Things I think I got right: much of the personal electronics, hand-held tablets, video glasses, video conferencing, multi-channel flatscreen monitors, dehydrated food.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.49.22 PM“As for wrong: the prevalence of fax machines. So wrong, but that was in the script, so I won’t take responsibility.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.50.50 PM“When I was assigned to create a layout for the 2015 USA Today newspaper, I inserted a feature on the cover that mentions ‘Washington prepares for Queen Diana’s visit’. A lighthearted projection that’s now so wrong, sadly.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.51.57 PM“Doc Brown’s DeLorean time machine is my favorite design from the film, though I had absolutely nothing to do with designing it.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.56.33 PM“I always liked the design of the DeLorean itself, and the inventive time machine elements just looked so nicely handmade and believably fabricated in some garage science lab.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.58.16 PM“As for designs that didn’t make it into the film, the Robonanny was probably my favorite. I finished that sketch and thought it would really work as a product.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 12.59.33 PM“(Director) Bob Zemekis loved the idea, it was built, filmed, and ultimately ended on the cutting-room floor. That’s showbiz.”

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“The driving incentive in entertainment is to create something that’s never been seen before, and artists & writers have free reign to create things that might be completely unrealistic in the current state of technology.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 1.01.36 PM“To some extent engineers and commercial designers are constrained by manufacturing budgets, market realities, and generating revenue. Few companies have the resources to experiment and innovate in bold ways.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 1.12.38 PM“More importantly, I think fictional films and narratives can have a dramatic influence on cultural consciousness.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 1.14.08 PM“You can portray a future that’s dreadful and bleak, or create excitement about a ‘how cool would this be?’ scenario.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 1.15.19 PM“I prefer working on the latter, and using the power of media to plant the seeds of hopefulness.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 1.16.26 PM“Twenty-six years later, the film is still a gem of great entertainment, and I find satisfaction in seeing people continue to view the films and enjoy them.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 1.17.45 PM“It was a privilege to work with Bob Zemekis, a visionary director, and the entire crew of talented artists who participated in the production.”

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 1.19.02 PM“I have a DeLorean in my garage that I’m trying to convert into a time machine so I can go back and get it right this time so the film holds up under all the fan scrutiny it’s experiencing now.”

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