The Original Concept Art for Back to the Future Part II

As soon as 2015 was upon us, people took to the Internet and began to ask the question “Where’s my hoverboard?” Social media sites were plastered with memes and gossip all referring to the same thing.

What people were talking about was the 1989 motion picture – ‘Back to the Future Part II‘, this time instead of going back in time, Marty and the Doc travel forward in time by 30 years to the year 2015 (now!)

One person who was surprised to see the movie splashed all over the web was no other than Tim Flattery. Tim was part of a team who actually designed the concepts for the movie.

Tim designed the famous hover board that is featured in the movie. “I totally forgot that it took place in 2015,” Flattery said, “and once I started seeing all the stuff on the Internet about it, I went, ‘Oh yeah, of course!’”

Back in 1988 Tim and a team were tasked to conceive what the future would look like in 2015. One member of the team was concept designer Edward Eyth.

Edward Eyth, now a creative director, designer, sculptor and visual arts educator based in California, luckily still has the concept sketches they were working on all those years ago.

“We were highly motivated to make it so we didn’t look like fools in 25 years,” Eyth said.“We knew that when we see movies like Metropolis, when they’re speculating about the future, it can be so far off. We weren’t that far off, I guess, on a number of occasions.”

“With [screenwriter] Bob Gale and Bob Zemeckis, they wanted a future that made those things they dreamt of as kids attainable, like flying cars,” Flattery said. “There’s always going to be an entertainment factor that goes into what you’re designing,” he added. “[But] no matter what, you’re designing to support the story. And you’re designing to support the director’s vision. Those things are most important.”

You can see more of Edward Eyth’s work here.

See more movie concept art here – Star Wars Saga and the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.