Sunday, January 20, 2008

Do designers only collaborate with the military on camouflage?

Accidentally, I have come across a very aesthetically interesting and surprising example of a designer who has collaborated with the war industry:

Around World War I, Norman Wilkinson, a British artist, made an important contribution to camouflage, by creating disruptive visual patterns to erase the outlines of a ship's form and confound the torpedoes of enemy submarines. This technique is known as dazzle camouflage.

Wilkinson's work reminds me of Jay Doblin,who not only designed camouflage for the military, but also got a certificate from Pratt Institute for completing a 'course in Military Tactical Camouflage'.

Is there a pattern of collaboration between designers and the military? Have they limited their collaboration to just camouflage throughout the history of conflict?




1 comment:

  1. You may not recognize his name, but this was actually written by Hugh Musick, the Associate Director of our dear ID.

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