FEARFUL VISIONS

ImagineFX explores the visual heritage of the visceral Alien cosmos and its develooment over the franchise's history

"I am afraid of my visions." Thus spoke H.R. Giger, the artist whose paintings led to him being engaged by director Ridley Scott to design the xenomorph for the first Alien film in the late 1970s. Giger's art, showcased in his book Necronomicon IV, and his subsequent work for Alien, sparked a dazzling tradition of dynamic and inventive creature and worldbuilding design across a memorable series of films and wider pop culture. That wave of influence has most recently been reimagined and interpreted again in Alien: Romulus.

Also foundational to the work undertaken for Romulus was the art of Ron Cobb, who had been one of two principal designers on the original Alien film released in 1979. Cobb's designs, along with those of Chris Foss, were foundational when it came to establishing the Alien aesthetic.

Indeed, their contributions went so deep that Cobb also designed fictional corporate insignia for integration with John Mollo's costume design for the That iconic collection of art left a major mark on concept designer Matt Savage, who went on to work on spaceship designs for Romulus.

"As a teenager, I was obsessed with Giger and Ron Cobb's work," he recalls. "With Cobb's art, I always felt like I could see a way to produce that work; it felt achievable. My brain isn't unplugged from reality like Giger's is. I still find Ron Cobb completely inspirational - he's the big one." Matt has been able to apply the sensibilities of Cobb's work to his own efforts for the concept designs within Romulus. "One of my dreams was to work on a spaceship in an Alien movie," he adds.

Such was the effectiveness of Cobb's work on the original film that for its 1986 sequel Aliens, writer and director James Cameron brought him back into the design space where he worked on the settings of Hadley's Hope and the Atmosphere Processor, and on the military design of the dropship and various tech that's used by the marines.

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