Blade Runner concept designer Syd Mead pictured Los Angeles in 2019 as a dark, sleek dystopia with imagery that would influence sci-fi aesthetics for decades to come.
Now the man who designed the future for Ridley Scott is offering some of his Blade Runner collectibles to the highest bidder. A signed copy of Oblagon: Concepts of Syd Mead, a book that contains 17 pages of Blade Runner pre-production work (pictured), will be sold at Bonhams & Butterfields' 20th Century Decorative Arts auction Tuesday, along with other pieces associated with the 1982 techno-thriller.
Mead designed cars for the Ford Motor Company before getting into movies, then created the look for landmark pictures including Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Tron, Aliens and Mission: Impossible III.
Before the auction, Mead joins movie producer Michael Deeley and Frances Anderton, host of KCRW's Design and Architecture Podcast, for a 7:30 p.m. Thursday panel discussion titled "Blade Runner: Designing the Future," hosted at Bonham's Los Angeles headquarters, 7601 Sunset Blvd.
Bonhams & Butterfields rep Katie Nortonis said the panel will explore "the relevance of the important environmental and social themes of Blade Runner as well as the film's continued impact on the design zeitgeist. It will be especially interesting to explore the film's prescient vision of a Los Angeles future as viewed through the lens of the present-day cityscape."
Other Blade Runner-related auction items include a promotional light-up umbrella with illuminated shaft (estimated value $300 to 500); signed promotional poster from Blade Runner: The Final Cut ($100 to 200); a signed copy of Deeley's 2009 autobiography, Blade Runners, Deer Hunters and Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: My Life in Cult Movies ($50-100); and a 1982 reissue of Philip K. Dick's 1968 short story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which inspired the Blade Runner movie.
Panel tickets, available on a first-come, first-served basis with a recommended contribution to the Los Angeles Conservancy architecture preservation group, can be requested by phone at 323-436-5445.
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