If anyone can make razzle dazzle successful, Hammond says it’s interior designers. And geometric designs have been the perfect response. People want to express themselves more and more through color,” Hammond says. Millie Hammond, a fabric designer for Fabricut, has been adding more color blocking and big, expressive geometrics to her textiles as a result of client requests. To introduce the concept on an even smaller scale, fabrics are the perfect vehicle. “In a large space, it could be overwhelming,” he says, “so unless that’s the effect the client was looking for, I would use on a smaller scale.”
“Artists are playing with the notions of deception, hidden elements, and the basic biology of how humans perceive color and pattern to play with the viewers’ interpretation of their work or to highlight their work against a sea of other options.”įrederick suggests using razzle dazzle design in smaller spaces, like powder rooms or entryways. But that’s what’s so interesting about its use in art and design,” he says. Frederick Design in New Jersey, also noticed razzle dazzle emerging at various interior design shows in New York City over the last year and notes that the concept is indeed a conundrum: “It’s interesting that a design concept meant to hide or confuse is being used in an artistic sense to draw attention to itself.
Even simply a neutral-colored outline of shapes against a white wall will create a unique look without being too “out there.” Regardless of whether it’s painted in bold or neutral hues, razzle dazzle is a great step up from a singular-colored statement wall. If a client isn’t ready to go all-in with a multi-colored wall of geometric patterns, razzle dazzle design is just as effective with monochromatic hues, in cool pastels or mixing color and other materials like wood or brick. Razzle dazzle is so geometric and lends itself to exploring this patterning on walls.” “I’d recommend using painters tape to create great patterning. “Many clients are willing to take extreme risks with design,” Wadden says. “Think about using art and design to mislead and to use art as wartime technology - that’s cool, and a rare instance of that happening.”įor those designers who want to introduce this concept into their interiors, Wadden suggests blowing up the scale of a pattern and using big blocks of color. “The razzle dazzle concept is amazing,” Wadden says. Of course, the last thing interior designers and color experts want to do is confuse homeowners with strange interior patterns, but there is certainly something to be said about the idea of injecting a dose of dazzling excitement and complexity into interior design. “Yet, we’ve seen this concept popping up in interior design lately.” “We were talking about influences and what we’re seeing and no one had really ever heard of razzle dazzle camo,” she says. At the Sherwin-Williams annual color forecast meeting, Director of Color Marketing Sue Wadden said attendees’ jaws dropped when a slide went up on this topic. These bold, geometric patterns are now being used in commercial and residential projects as a design element on painted walls, wallpaper and fabrics. It’s even said that razzle dazzle had influenced Picasso’s Cubist style and meandered into Italian Futurist art.
#Dazzle camouflage series#
Vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth, who supervised the camouflaging of more than 2,000 ships during WWI, also painted a series of canvases of dazzle ships after the war, based on his wartime work. Wilkinson explained in 1919 that he had intended the patterns to mislead the enemy about a ship’s course. Credited to the British marine artist Norman Wilkinson, the designs featured complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colors, interrupting and intersecting each other. So how did this type of art go from warships to walls? Dazzle camouflage, also known as razzle dazzle (in the U.S.) or dazzle painting, was a ship-camouflage technique used extensively in WWI, and to a lesser extent in World War II and subsequent wars. Today, the influences from this defense tactic are showing up in unexpected places: On the walls of cafes, stairways and clients’ homes as an element of interior design.
That’s exactly what the strategists behind Razzle Dazzle Camouflage had in mind during WWI when they suggested painting warships in a way that distracted and confused the enemy. What was once the mainstay of paint design on World War I warships has transformed into an interior design trend that can add a punch of bold, modern elements to your next client project.