Read This: The man who designed Blade Runner explains how he did it

A huge part of the enduring appeal of Blade Runner is the way it looks. Beginning with that big flaming eye in the film’s opening moments through its final rain-drenched monologue, it remains a triumph of design, its every car, set, outfit, and machine a masterful piece of visual composition. Tiny details are capable of telling whole stories—like the specifics of Deckard’s apartment, the opulence of the Tyrell building, the subversion of Pris’ wardrobe—and much of the credit for this goes to legendary sci-fi designer Syd Mead. (You can see a bunch of his work on his website.)
Vice recently republished a long interview with Mead that originally appeared in Garage Magazine. While Mead has worked on other classic films, including Tron and Aliens, as well as produced reams of corporate work, including the first commercial laser disc player, much of the interview focuses on his creative process and the ongoing cultural fascination with Blade Runner. As we approach the year in which that film is set, Mead’s vision of the future is worth reexamining.
Blade Runner was set hugely ahead of its time‚ but 2019 is only a couple of years away and we’re not even going to be close to that pretense in real life. However‚ as we go into more elaborate stories in the future‚ the technology is starting to catch up. We now have little color cameras that are 2mm across. The technology of reality is starting to compete with the imagination of what movie writers can write. More and more‚ like William Gibson‚ we’ll see this social embedment in an imaginative future. But technology is background – it’s not the story.