The designers came up with the optical illusion tool.
The camouflage stickers Auto factories invest a lot of energy in making them, thus protecting their prototypes from the eyes of tormented industrial spies.
Ford chose a different approach than the traditional one to give the new generation Ford Ranger a camouflage coating. The paintwork of the Bronco R Baja racing machine inspired the designers, who combined the silhouette of mountain ranges to create a somewhat unusual style for the first time. The pixel effect pattern consists of hundreds of white, blue and black blocks, which makes it very difficult to extract the overall image.
The American manufacturer does not hide the fact that the new Ranger can be seen in the photos, which was not easy, because the hashtag #NextGenRanger and QR codes on the body also reveal valuable information. However, Ford only allows details to be seen, and the final look of the Ranger will only be shown to the general public at a later time.
In Melbourne, Australia, the Ford Design Center team created this pattern, which is unusual in many ways. In the daylight, bringing out the external form elements is a human task, and at night, the reflective surfaces ensure the concealment of the form.
“We have received an order in camouflage that clearly shows this is the new Ranger, but the car is not visible,” said Lee Cosentino, Ford Australia design director.
The idea came from the pattern Ford used in race cars at the Baja race. Being a motorsport fanatic, I wouldn’t be able to ignore such a machine,” added Lee Emery, Ford Australia-based designer and creator.
This time, according to Leigh Cosentino, it was about more than masking the patterns and shapes of the metal plates.
“We were looking for a dynamic and exciting design that would draw attention to the #NextGenRanger, yet not look like a military terrain pattern. So, in the end, we chose a solution that is more dense at the bottom and then roughly disperses as we go up; it is visually exciting and evokes a sense of movement. This is not a painting Standard and static camouflage.
“There are no lines in this pattern to match the outlines of the car’s bodywork, leaving the car’s carvings, shapes, and curves invisible. I wanted to convince me to distract my gaze so I couldn’t focus on a particular line; Emery explained to me that the inclusions amplified this effect.”
It is clear from Emery’s ideas that the goal here was not just to create a dazzling style. The idea actually came from the Bronco R race car, and his work was also inspired by the new generation Ranger.
“I started the design with squares rotating 45 degrees: I scattered them across the roof, then tried to create a repeating silhouette of a mountain range that faithfully reflected the character of the new generation of Ranger adventures. Viewed from a distance, it is clear that this car is almost at one with nature.
It took two whole months to develop and test the digital impact pattern. The camouflage sticker on the car has been applied in two layers after printing on plastic film. The film, decorated with white, blue and black rectangles that covers the entire vehicle, is attached in a manner similar to standard automobile foil. The second layer with reflective properties was applied to the body manually, and it consists of hundreds of separate reflective elements.
We’ll soon find out what the next-generation Ranger really looks like, as Ford has promised to remove that disguise later this year.
