Saturday 8 October 2016

Everybody Razzle Dazzle


One of the major figures of British pop art, Sir Peter Blake (b 1932), has been commissioned to 'dazzle' a Mersey Ferry.  


This is the old ferry colour scheme - I took these in the 1960s.



Sir Peter’s design entitled 'Everybody Razzle Dazzle' covers the Mersey Ferry 'Snowdrop' with a distinctive pattern in monochrome and colour, transforming the vessel into a moving artwork as it continues its service. This is the third in the series of Dazzle Ship commissions and the first to be a working vessel. 


Unlike other forms of camouflage, dazzle camouflage works not by concealing but by baffling the eye, making it difficult to estimate a target’s range, speed and direction. Realised in monochrome and colour, each ship’s dazzle pattern was unique in order to avoid making classes of ships instantly recognisable to enemy U-boats and aircraft.




Even some doors in the Birkenhead Ferry terminal have been 'dazzled'.


Sir Peter Blake has a strong relationship with Liverpool which includes his famous design of The Beatles’s album cover, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967.

6 comments:

  1. Brilliant but I'm glad I don't have to look at it too often: I'd get a headache.

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  2. I don't think it would ever have occurred to me to think of it as a kind of camouflage! but yes, I can see that it does kind of work like that... It's hard to quite grasp what it is that one is looking at! Interesting, thanks for sharing.

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  3. It looks more like the 1960s than wartime to me, which is probably just as well!! :)

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  4. Actually, I like the old colour scheme better.

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