How Blade Runner, and the film’s Hong Kong influences, continue to inspire designer Alexis Holm
- Ridley Scott’s 1982 film remains a source of inspiration for the Swedish watch and footwear designer
- ‘Even now that November 2019, the month and year in which the movie is set, has passed us by. It has a futuristic vision’
Blade Runner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, is regularly acclaimed as the greatest science-fiction film of all time. Starring Harrison Ford, Sean Young and Rutger Hauer, and loosely based on cult sci-fi writer Philip Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the film is famed for its dark tone, complex themes of morality and human identity, and atmospheric visuals influenced by the aesthetics of Hong Kong.
Alexis Holm, Hong Kong-based Swedish watch and footwear designer, and owner of retail outlet Squarestreet, explains how it changed his life.
I first saw Blade Runner when I was in my late teens, about 25 years ago, and it’s kept a hold on me since then. Almost every aspect of the movie interested me: it’s my favourite film of all time, and contains a lot of inspiration, life lessons and interesting stories surrounding it.
It’s a movie that I continue to reference and learn from in everything I do – whether it be believing in your vision, pushing the boundaries of what people expect, that details matter when designing, or that a great script can go a long way.
Rewatching it when I was older, I delved into all the detail of the film. I first saw it on VHS, which is kind of low res, but when seeing it again in the early 2000s, I realised there was so much detail going on. It’s visually stunning.