Horror films often serve as metaphors for greater social issues and anxieties. For the zombie subgenre, these anxieties can include society’s fears and paranoia surrounding the spread of life-threatening diseases, which take the form of the cannibalistic undead, and the subsequent struggle for survival.
Living through the current pandemic has felt awfully similar to living through a zombie film. Of course, there are no real zombies in a pandemic, but the ultimate threat that zombies or other monsters pose to our health and safety, along with the ensuing panic, still remains. The virus is widespread, anyone can become infected, and people are dying. This series, inspired by a love of horror films, intends to blend these imagined and real life horrors, as well as highlight the importance of wearing masks to protect the community.
My goals for this mask design are to reflect my personal sense of style and have some functionality as a protective mask. I wear a few different hats in my daily life, mostly 5 panels. These hats have also become sentimental since I always wear hats when I’m enjoying the outdoors. I almost instantly knew what I wanted the structure of my mask design to be since I have always been interested in designing a custom 5 panel hat. The first step of my process was to take a picture of myself wearing my ski buff with my Snowbird 5 panel hat over it, one face shot and one profile. I placed those pictures in Adobe Illustrator where I image-traced the photo and cropped just my head, the hat and the mask. I then recolored the hat and buff to both be all black so it looks like one accessory as opposed to two separate ones. With hot summer weather around the corner, I was naturally attracted to the idea of incorporating a ‘cooler’ color scheme to counter the mask’s claustrophobic / overheating appearance. I also wanted to incorporate some design pattern that compliments the shape of the head and face. After messing around with some different symbols and designs I liked this small wave shape and made it a repeating pattern. Like waves in the ocean, the waviness of it adds to the idea of a ‘cooler’ (temperature) look. In my experience I have had very powerful experiences backpacking, climbing, surfing and mountaineering that have certainly shaped my perspective on the world. Therefore, I think I’m naturally drawn to incorporate some element of the environment or nature to a lot of creative projects I do. I also believe now is a time where people need to stay reminded that although access is limited right now, there is still so much natural beauty in the world.
Materials: Cardboard, Twin, tissues, paints, model glue
Shining Armor
April 27th, 2020
What I was trying to show in this piece, was the huge amount of strength and resolve it takes for the nurses and doctors of this country to risk their lives for the lives of others in these trying times. So when I thought of protectors I thought of the stories adults would tell their kids about knights in shining armor, these brave people who would risk their lives for others. I decided to make a mask reminiscent of a knights visor, to connect these two ideas. I wanted it to both protect the mouth and nose but still allow for a fit that was not uncomfortable and too clumsy. It was difficult to make the piece with the materials I had at hand but overall I think I was able to get it to work. If I could get more items I would have tried to make the string go fully around the head like a pair of goggles, two filters in the mask where the black circles are located, and a rubber seal around the edges that could keep the air in.
