By Syd Mead and Craig Hodgetts

Titan Books, out now

A coffee table art book that covers the movie work of ‘industrial designer’ Syd Mead, from Star Trek: The Motion Picture through to Blade Runner 2049.

Those who have been lucky enough to see the originals of Syd Mead’s designs for Blade Runner (currently on display in the Design Museum’s California: Designing Freedom exhibition until 17 October) will appreciate the level of layered detail in his designs for a grimy, dystopian 2019 Los Angeles. The closer you get, the more you can see the sketch lines under the paint, the brush strokes and the texture. But if you can’t see the originals, Titan’s movie career retrospective is a great alternative, as the influential designer’s work is beautifully reproduced on quality stock paper.

Mead has worked on many films since 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but it’s 1982’s Blade Runner that truly put him on the movie fans’ map, and a quarter of this book’s pages are devoted to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi noir classic

In the foreword to the book, which is co-authored by Mead and architect Craig Hodgetts, director Denis Villeneuve explains that only Syd could legitimately create the future look of Las Vegas for his Blade Runner 2049, and the book finishes with designs of two hotels and a casino. They’re classic Mead and I look forward to seeing how they are realised in the movie.

The Blade Runner section talks of Mead’s ‘industrial design in reverse’. There’s illustrations of the  development of J R (sic) Sebastian’s car, early concept designs of Deckard’s car and police cars, the Spinner, street scenes, Deckard’s apartment and the Voight-Kampff machine. Much joy can he derived from seeing how much or little Mead’s designs changed in the transition from page to  screen.

Elsewhere there’s designs of Star Trek: The Motion Picture’s V’ger entity, Strange Days’ VR headset and a wide range of sketches showing Short Circuit Johnny 5’s evolution.

In the 20 pages devoted to Aliens there’s the development of the USS Sulaco from proof of concept to bare bones schematic to highly detailed and painted final work. The level of detail is impressive; the designs look like blueprints of machines that can actually be made. The interiors, sleep pods, lateral and horizontal sections and the Drop ship (very different to the final design) all unfold over multiple pages, showcasing the industrial look that James Cameron was establishing in his movie.

The Elysium cityscape and interiors are typically highly detailed, and I hadn’t released that Mead had worked on Tron, his design for the MCP big-bad looks like it was lifted straight from his page and dropped into the computer environment of the movie. And while I question whether we actually needed a live-action The Jetsons Movie, it’s a shame the project never happened, as the retro-futuristic designs here are sumptuous.

Verdict: Clearly a must-buy for any Blade Runner fun, this is a handsome book that will appeal to anyone with an appreciation of fine art future-retro-industrial design, or just good art. 9/10

Nick Joy

Click here to order from Amazon.co.uk