Killer app: PressOn dazzles with ship wrap for WWI centenary

28 July 2014

Publishing

It looks, when you spot it over the river from London’s South Bank, like a piece of cutting-edge modern art. And indeed it is. But the abstract patterns now adorning the HMS President warship in fact have a one hundred year legacy behind them.

Such ‘dazzle’ camouflage patterns were used extensively throughout the First World War to optically distort warships and so make them difficult for submarines to target. They were also adopted by artists such as Picasso and Cubist and Vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth. And, more recently, by the German artist behind the HMS President design, Tobias Rehberger.

What did the job entail?

Rochester-based PressOn was commissioned to wrap the ship by the Imperial War Museum’s 14-18 NOW First World War centenary commemoration project. The ship wrap is thought to be the first of its kind, in that such a large area was wrapped and, crucially, that this was applied while the ship was in water.

How was it produced?

To prevent pattern distortion, an architectural scanner was used to scan the ship’s hull, with a specialist repro company producing the final artwork for print. Over 2,000sqm worth of panels were printed on polymeric multi-fix vinyl on PressOn’s HP Latex 3000. These were liquid laminated to produce the matt effect desired.

What challenges were overcome?

Applying the panels while the ship was in water was by far the biggest challenge, reports managing director at PressOn Andy Wilson. To do this a specialist marine agency was enlisted, so that panels could be applied from low-level barges fitted with scaffolding.

“We had to have other boats out telling river traffic to slow down. The flags were up and boats slowed down, but they came in quite close. So the President went crashing into its moorings as it normally does, but we had got guys working there, so it was pretty hair-raising, if I’m honest,” said Wilson, adding: “This was the hardest job we’ve ever done, by far. There was no one to ring up and ask how to do it.”

What was the feedback?

“Everyone was just really impressed at the launch; everyone was just amazed. The quality is great. The artist thought it was really wonderful,” said Elizabeth Cameron, business relationship manager at University of the Arts London’s Chelsea College, one of the several organisations involved with the commission.