Dazzle Ship
October 2003
Tent pattern / part 1
Lowlands Festival
![experimental_jetset_dazzlecard]()
In Februari 2003, we were visited by Eric van Eerdenburg, director of Lowlands Festival, who asked us to design a tent for the festival (or more precisely, to design a print for such a tent).
Lowlands is a huge alternative music event, an amazing rock festival that takes place in a number of large tents on a terrain the size of a small village. Because of their size, these tents reminded us of giant warships; an association that was only reinforced by the almost military-type names given to these tents: 'Alpha', 'Bravo', 'Charlie', etc.
Thinking about a print, we decided to design a pattern that was inspired by the phenomenon of 'Dazzle Ships' (also known as 'Razzle Dazzle'): an experimental form of camouflage painting used on warships during the first World War, disturbing Op-Art-like patterns that were used to confuse enemy ships.
We were asked to design the front of a specific tent that was called Juliet (another NATO-style military name). The facade of Juliet actually measured 25 x 10 meter. Shown below a couple of sketches of that facade. (We only designed the front of the tent; the part with the blue stripes was not designed by us).
![experimental_jetset_dazzleship01]()
![experimental_jetset_dazzleship03]()
![experimental_jetset_dazzleship04]()
We also proposed an A6-sized postcard (a sketch can be seen at the very top of this page), to announce the installation.
However, a short while after we designed the above patterns, the plans changed drastically. Instead of a festival tent, we were now suddenly asked to design a light tower. We actually liked this plan even better; for the tent, we were only allowed to design the front, while a tower needed to have all four sides covered. So we really loved the idea of doing a tower. We changed the title of the project from 'Dazzle Ship' to 'Dazzle Rocket', and immediately started sketching. These new sketches can be seen at Dazzle Rocket 1.
In Februari 2003, we were visited by Eric van Eerdenburg, director of Lowlands Festival, who asked us to design a tent for the festival (or more precisely, to design a print for such a tent).
Lowlands is a huge alternative music event, an amazing rock festival that takes place in a number of large tents on a terrain the size of a small village. Because of their size, these tents reminded us of giant warships; an association that was only reinforced by the almost military-type names given to these tents: 'Alpha', 'Bravo', 'Charlie', etc.
Thinking about a print, we decided to design a pattern that was inspired by the phenomenon of 'Dazzle Ships' (also known as 'Razzle Dazzle'): an experimental form of camouflage painting used on warships during the first World War, disturbing Op-Art-like patterns that were used to confuse enemy ships.
We were asked to design the front of a specific tent that was called Juliet (another NATO-style military name). The facade of Juliet actually measured 25 x 10 meter. Shown below a couple of sketches of that facade. (We only designed the front of the tent; the part with the blue stripes was not designed by us).
We also proposed an A6-sized postcard (a sketch can be seen at the very top of this page), to announce the installation.
However, a short while after we designed the above patterns, the plans changed drastically. Instead of a festival tent, we were now suddenly asked to design a light tower. We actually liked this plan even better; for the tent, we were only allowed to design the front, while a tower needed to have all four sides covered. So we really loved the idea of doing a tower. We changed the title of the project from 'Dazzle Ship' to 'Dazzle Rocket', and immediately started sketching. These new sketches can be seen at Dazzle Rocket 1.
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