Mask Up Project

Final rendering of mask composition (by Lucy Virgei, 2022)
Detailed image of mask composition (by Lucy Virgei, 2022)
Detailed image of mask composition (by Lucy Virgei, 2022)
Mask Up Short Film
Final video short-film of all three compositions and narrative (by Lucy Virgei, Sydney Rohr, Haley Aldrich, 2022)

Project Statement

For this project, my group and I created a narrative to a pandemic chosen by use and based on these, we designed masks inspired by the pandemic. For our compositions we chose our pandemic to be Covid-19 and our narrative centered around feeling felt during this trying time. Through this pandemic, people have been stripped of their ability to be around one another, express their feelings, and have had to relearn how to present themselves. These three masks that were created, are visual representations of some of the strongest emotions we, and so many others, dealt with during the COVID pandemic. For my mask, I had to create something that supported the emotion/feeling of being trapped. I chose to use the phrase “stuck in your own bubble” as inspiration and created a design based around that concept. I knew I wanted to create a sphere and bubble like imagery. Based on that, it was just a trial and error of how to and what build of spheres was the strongest. I focused on taking away/hiding the whole face of whoever is wearing this mask to elaborate how stuck we all were in just our own heads throughout the pandemic. The hollow inside of the large sphere over the head, made it hard to hear others on the outside and made your voice sound as if you were screaming, further supporting this point. The main focus of the composition was in the bubble forms themselves; however, the color application process had to support the dark nature of our chosen pandemic. With making the whole composition in a black tone, it created more depth and portrayed a more deep emotional feeling. My mask connects to the other two compositions and they all support the dark emotional feelings we all felt during the Covid pandemic.

Process

View detailed project process at Mask Up: Process

Reflection

The Mask Up project taught me a lot of important elements of the design process as a design student. Working in a team setting was a great way of getting a start to what the future of this program will be like. I enjoyed the collaborative nature and getting to bounce ideas off one another. I was able to come up with ideas based on what my group members suggested for me. I had direct feedback on design decisions that were new or I was unsure about. When it comes to my composition, I feel like my concept and how my design displays that, creates a strong cohesive feel. I want to take the phrase “stuck in your own bubble” and the feeling of being trapped into a physical sense through this mask and I believe I was successful. I think my design process and especially my iteration process was strong. I tested multiple materials and designs with each material until I felt like the direction I was going in was strong and represented my intentions the best. My craft was strong in this project; it is not perfect, but it is the largest composition in scale I have had to make by hand. With this being said, each component of my final composition was emphasized, making mistakes more visible. I did a good job at making things as clean and precise as possible. Although I believe that this project made me a better design student, and pushed me in a creative way that I haven’t been pushed as far yet; there are things I could improve or learn from. The main thing is spray paint techniques. It wasn’t a required part of the assignment; however, I learned that I shouldn’t spray too close to the object getting painted. If I knew this before my project would have been stronger.I had good time management but I could have been more efficient in the start of the design process. I could have maybe explored more color applications to make sure I made the right design choice using black as the dominant and only value.

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