april 19, 2018 - Murals wallpaper

Dizzying Design: 'Dazzle Camo' Inspires New Mural Collection

This striking new collection of mural designs by Murals Wallpaper takes inspiration from Modernist artist Edward Wadsworth's work, in designing over 2,000 Dazzle Camouflage patterns for ships during the First World War.

Form really does follow function when it comes to dazzle camo #design - the creative 20th century tactic that saw art being used to protect war ships out at sea.

The Razzle Dazzle Effect

Painted most commonly as abstract patterns of intersecting black and white stripes, the iconic style of camouflage seems out of place when boldly covering the entirety of a war ship. But the aesthetic choice was a daring one that may have saved lives throughout both world wars, by puzzling other ships with an illusion created by the designs that made it difficult to tell which direction the dazzling ship was headed.

Some have claimed that dazzle designs are a type of Futurist art, while Picasso himself took interest in the style and disputed that it was born of his own preferred art form - Cubism. However, the camouflage creations were a product of the Vorticism movement; most notably of Edward Wadsworth, a British artist who was a key designer of original dazzle camouflage patterns.

Further information in the press release to download