PLENTY OF DIZZY PAINTING WHEN CAMOUFLAGERS WORK in Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (Canada), December 23, 1940—
Eric Sloane, factory camouflage diagram
…All through the United Kingdom factories engaged in war work are gradually disappearing from view. More and more they are being heavily camouflaged so they may not be recognized by a person standing on the ground 500 yards away. Landmarks by which they might be readily identified have been given new faces.
In some places entire false avenues have been constructed to change the contours of manufacturing centers. The big foundry, say, with its rambling workshops marking the outskirts of the town, now may be nestled amid rows of framework houses. Or its walls may be hidden from view by weird painted patterns, many of them designed by Lonsdale Hands, who has become Britain’s highest-paid camouflage expert.…
It was only after the war started that Hands became interested in camouflage work. Prior to that he had spent much of his time designing newspaper advertisements for various employers in Fleet Street. One day he got married during his lunch hour, quit his job when refused an increase in pay and suddenly found himself preparing camouflage for one of the largest munition factories in the country.
Since then, his tasks have been increasing, especially since a special committee found many factories were not properly camouflaged and that full use of camouflage was not being taken advantage of by some big plants. Hands and his “Design Unit” have been called on to provide remedies.
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Richard Lonsdale-Hands (also cited as Frederick Richard de Prilleux Lonsdale-Hands) (1913-1969) is usually described as an industrial and package designer, advertising executive, and artist. He was the founder in 1937 of Richard Lonsdale-Hands Associates, which in time became one of the largest industrial and marketing firms in Europe. In a review of his paintings in 2011 in the New York Times, he was described as “an impassioned amateur painter” whose work was dismissed as a “shoo-in” for “bad painting.” The 12-page catalog for that exhibition is The Paintings of Richard Lonsdale-Hands (NY: Hirschi and Adler, 2011).
RELATED LINKS
Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? / Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage / Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage / Optical science meets visual art / Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness / Under the big top at Sims' circus
