Friday, December 8, 2017

CAMO MANIA | New Disruptive Patterns in Design

Above Cover of a richly designed pictorial book on fashion (clothing and otherwise) in relation to disruptively-patterned camouflage, widely referred to as "dazzle" these days. Titled CAMO MANIA: New Disruptive Patterns in Design, it has recently been released by the Hong Kong-based publisher Victionary. Designers of all sorts will absolutely love it—as much for the book's design as for its 225 pages of disarmingly colorful patterns. It features hundreds of photographs of innovative work by designers worldwide, with supplemental captions, and several longer informative texts (including our own essay on the recent history of camouflage in relation to Modernist art and design).

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Christopher Raeburn (British fashion designer) in Camo Mania (p. 4)—

I first became interested in camouflage not because of its inherent military link but for its playfulness—a subtle game of hide and reveal that takes so many forms. I find it fascinating whilst studying and still to this day that so many kinds of camouflage have been developed by nations around the globe for diverse terrains. One can become bogged down with their various iterations and subtle evolutions but I prefer to celebrate their breadth and immerse myself in their patterns.…



…Camouflage today has become a ubiquitious urban language, covering a plethora of manmade objects with great effect. I've enjoyed charting these evolutions, immersing our world in a subverted counter-camouflage made of rich colors, bold graphics and an ever-changing flow of vibrantly impactful prints.