I ran across Maurice L Freedman's work today while doing research at work at ButDoesItFloat and was amazed by his work and the nature of his work.
Maurice L Freedman was the district camoufleur in Florida during World War I. During the First and the Second World Wars, many ships were camouflaged with Dazzle Patterns. This was true for both the Merchant Navy as well as for the Military Navy. Vessels from both the UK and the US were camouflaged. Dazzle is a disruptive type of camouflage used in World War I to camouflage ships against German U-boats. The disruptive design resembled Cubist paintings and confused German U-boats on the speed and direction of a ship.
The top-secret nature of camouflage during World War I has made Dazzle one of history's hidden gems - and what beautiful gems indeed.
Maurice Freedman later went on to graduate from RISD - there was a recent symposium about his work.
