Early days
PenCott is named after two influential WWII British camouflage experts, Sir Roland Penrose and Hugh Cott. Penrose
and Cott differed radically in their approach toward camouflage; Penrose, an artist, used his training and design talents
to produce ‘artistic’ camouflage schemes through a process of
trial and error. Cott, on the other hand, felt that camouflage was
essentially a scientific process, and effective schemes could be
developed without the need for artistic training by studying
examples of camouflage in nature.
Camouflage prevents the observer detecting or recognising the wearer – and a split-second reduction in detection
can quite literally mean the difference between life and
death. Hyde Definition aims to provide the most effective
multi-environment camouflage schemes possible.
Back in 2005 Dominic reached the conclusion that there
were serious problems with existing camouflage patterns:
•
•
•
•
•
Woodland camouflage schemes were too dark for
all other types of terrain or environments (and
even many woodland environments)
Desert camouflage schemes are often just a hastily recoloured version of a woodland scheme,
and often a sub-standard match for many types of
desert
Universal and ‘all-terrain’ camouflage schemes
are often such a compromise that they are ineffective in many environments
Mismatched patterns on clothing and individual
equipment
Many new ‘pixelated’ camouflage patterns are
simply following a fashion trend and not wellresearched or terrain-matched
Dominic set about re-examining the problem with
an innovative design, rather than an imitative approach.
Hyde Definition looked at the challenges of concealment
from many different angles: natural camouflage of living
creatures, recent design and market trends, and a look back
at effective historical patterns to identify key features and
elements that work particularly well.
Painstaking process
The PenCott pattern went through several hundred
iterations, trialling more than two dozen samples in natu-
12