Urban Camouflage

Urban Camouflage Research

Yvonne Bayer

Yvonne Bayer was born in 1983 in Ulm, Germany. She currently lives and works in Cologne, Germany.  From 2003–2010, she was working on a Communication and Product Design degree at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. From January – July 2007, Yvonne Bayer was doing Interdisciplinary Studies at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. In February, 2010, she earned her diploma in Communication Design (equivalent to master’s degree) also at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design.

She calls herself a communication designer.

She likes working in different fields, such as graphic design, conceptual design, culture and exhibition projects. She is very interested in artwork projects as well.

Since October 2011 she has been doing freelance work for nondesign in Cologne, Germany. She has been doing freelance work for Lange+Durach in Cologne as well. Yvonne has also been doing freelance for Hauser Lacour in Frankfurt since 2008. In July 2010, Bayer did an Urban Camouflage workshop. She also helped out at the Pottfiction Summer Camp. Then, for a month during the spring of 2010, she was in charge of advertising media design for the Karlsruhe Artist’s Fair.

Yvonne did her first internship at Duodesign; an agency for applied ideas in her hometown of Uln, Germany from 2002-2003. From March to July in 2008, she did an internship at Hauser Lancour in Frankfurt. In 2009, Yvonne Bayer did a third internship at Eat Sleep Work Play in London.

Yvonne started the Urban Camouflage project in 2010 with her friend and college-mate Sabina Keric. They focused on going into stores with homemade costumes. The costumes were all made from products found at the store. Most of these products were stapled on to plain white painters suits. They would then go to the part of the store that housed the product they were wearing and strategically positioned themselves in front of it, disappearing completely from view.

I did take a bit of inspiration from Bayer and Keric’s work. I liked their use of everyday household items to create a costume. However, since I have neither the resources nor the time to create such costumes, I will have to resort to simply using paint. I like their use of boxes and the paper. It would be easy to tape paper onto someone and have them stand beside something that blends in with the paper.

This is some of Yvonne’s Urban Camouflage work in collaboration with Sabina Keric.