Downtown Chinatown
Blade Runner concept art: Street Scene Dwntn
Syd Mead, 1981
Syd Mead's concept art established the the look of Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982).
This gouache sets the scene for the hero Deckard's visit to Chinatown. With its dense, neon-lit streets, it presents ground-level Los Angeles as a seedy underworld. Mead also designed some of the vehicles in the film, including the Armadillo truck in the foreground.
[Design Museum]
Part of California: Designing Freedom (May to October 2017)
“Designed in California” is the new “Made in Italy”. While California’s mid-century modernism is well documented, this is the first exhibition to examine its current global reach. Picking up the story in the 1960s, the exhibition charts the journey from the counterculture to Silicon Valley’s tech culture.
[Design Museum]
In the Design Museum.
The building, formerly the Commonwealth Institute, was built 1960-2, designed by Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners. Closing in 2002, it was acquired by the Design Museum in 2008, and converted by a design team led by John Pawson.
Downtown Chinatown
Blade Runner concept art: Street Scene Dwntn
Syd Mead, 1981
Syd Mead's concept art established the the look of Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982).
This gouache sets the scene for the hero Deckard's visit to Chinatown. With its dense, neon-lit streets, it presents ground-level Los Angeles as a seedy underworld. Mead also designed some of the vehicles in the film, including the Armadillo truck in the foreground.
[Design Museum]
Part of California: Designing Freedom (May to October 2017)
“Designed in California” is the new “Made in Italy”. While California’s mid-century modernism is well documented, this is the first exhibition to examine its current global reach. Picking up the story in the 1960s, the exhibition charts the journey from the counterculture to Silicon Valley’s tech culture.
[Design Museum]
In the Design Museum.
The building, formerly the Commonwealth Institute, was built 1960-2, designed by Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners. Closing in 2002, it was acquired by the Design Museum in 2008, and converted by a design team led by John Pawson.