---
title: Scifi design, color game, potato chips
date: 2026-02-24
source: mailchimp
original: https://mailchi.mp/pathwright/collider-february-24-26
retrieved: 2026-11-09
visibility: public
author: /people/justin-hall.person.md
---

# Scifi design, color game, potato chips

[![AmTrak Suits designed by NYSD students](./assets/hero.webp)](https://www.amtrak.com/trak-suit)

*[\[Am\]Trak Suits](https://www.amtrak.com/trak-suit) designed by NYSD students*

The links are wearing three sweaters, one on top of the other. This time we’re colliding color memory, potato chips, horses, train suits and scifi design.

Please skip around, read what you want to. Find something interesting in your own internet travels? Send me a link

—JH

---

*Side Quest*

## A Sci-fi Design Rabbit Hole

[![On-set effects for Blade Runner: 2049](./assets/feature-1.webp)](https://www.engadget.com/2017-10-20-designing-the-technology-of-blade-runner-2049.html)

*On-set effects for _Blade Runner: 2049_*

This time, follow me down a rabbit hole.

I’ve been reading and watching everything I can for a few months on sci-fi aesthetics. Lately I’ve honed in on analog. A rewatch of *Minority Report* didn’t do much for me but putting on a 4K disc of *Blade Runner 2049* changed my whole week.

I wondered: *Why?*

Special effects outfit Territory, who worked on *Ex Machina* and *Guardians of the Galaxy*, won a three-way bid for *2049*. Their unique angle? Making on-set props and graphics, not CGI composited in later.

The device and screen effects in *Blade Runner 2049* were shot in-camera, allowing the director to pursue any angle that inspired him and review footage immediately. Tracking shots over the shoulders of characters sell that it’s all really happening. Because it is.

Most interestingly, *2049’s* world is analog. A massive blackout in the recent past rendered all digital tech unusable. Territory devised a look for the movie that involves optical glass, question-based assessments, towers of physical archives and controls that click and whir. Every piece serves the story, and every one was controlled by humans on-set.

Ultimately, I think the actors sell the sci-fi. It helps to see them wrinkle their foreheads as they use functional props. When they act as if it’ll just work, know that when CGI is added later it will, I don’t buy it. Because technology never *just* *works*.

Thanks for following this side quest with me! If this is interesting to you, [read *Engadget’s* in-depth 2017 piece →](https://www.engadget.com/2017-10-20-designing-the-technology-of-blade-runner-2049.html)

![Alien: Romulus filmed inside a real working power plant](./assets/feature-2.webp)

*_Alien: Romulus_ filmed inside a real working power plant*

Extra credit: [Read about how the giant physical sets for *Alien: Romulus* were created →](https://www.dezeen.com/2024/09/04/alien-romulus-production-design-naaman-marshall/)

---

## Dead Cat

*10 curious links that would have killed the cat*

[@include](./01-launch-it-3-times.link.md)

[@include](./02-lays-revamps-brand-to-make-clear-that-chips-are-made-from.link.md)

[@include](./03-brandon-consultants-rebrands-fabulosa-cleaning-supplies-for.link.md)

[@include](./04-after-enclosing-a-horse-now-let-your-horse-run.link.md)

[@include](./05-eyedrop-creates-automatic-private-instant-image-captions-on.link.md)

[@include](./06-dialed-a-color-memory-game.link.md)

[@include](./07-am-trak-suits.link.md)

[@include](./08-just-learned-that-my-favorite-aesthetic-has-a-name-cassette.link.md)

[@include](./09-grok-a-conference-for-folks-who-touch-the-web-is-this-april.link.md)

[@include](./10-mulder-and-scully-getting-into-and-out-of-rental-vehicles.link.md)

---

## New at HQ

*in Greenville, SC*

Here’s Paul on a new feature we just released:

Have your learners ever breezed past optional steps without clicking the "skip" link? If so, their Path wouldn't complete unless they went back and found it.

Last week, we added a small update enabling learners to *skip steps right from the Path*. They'll see a new "Skip" button directly over optional steps in the Path view, and can one-tap to skip them.

![](./assets/hq-1.webp)

Alongside this update, we made a couple small optimizations smoothing out how learners move from a completed lesson to the next lesson, including expanding the lesson so that next steps (and new options to skip) are automatically visible rather than collapsed.

Thanks to a long-time customer for this suggestion!

---

I’ve been taking more walks in the woods lately. It’s the perfect time to partake of trails for someone with my remarkable allergy to poison ivy. It’s all dead in the winter.

It’s about knees, honestly. Maybe like you, I sit a lot more in the winter. Need to get the blood pumping. But walking paved roads is tough on the joints. And not nearly as satisfying as crunching leaves and kicking sticks. My knees prefer the packed dirt.

Walking through the forest with my phone left at home (a small thrill in knowing that if I got in a tough spot I’d have to figure it out on my own) reminds me that I’m a visitor. The earth belongs to the earth. Thankful me to find its hospitality among the trees.

Hope you get out there!

High five,

[Justin Hall](https://www.pathwright.com/about#humans)\
Editor, Partner at [Pathwright](https://www.pathwright.com/)