Fashion Surgical Masks

Back in 2009 during the Swine Flu epidemic I had an idea of how I can help as a designer. I thought if I take something boring like a facemask and make it fun and fashionable by adding designs, it would make a great product. It could be used not only for flu protection but also for pediatric dentistry and at the hospitals to help children feel less anxious. Back in 2009 designer masks were very uncommon in the US. Proceeds will be donated to Children International to help fight the Swine Flu.

I started with making a Photoshop mockup of the masks and posted it online, and because this was a novel idea at the time, the image became viral. The next day the masks were on 1000s of blogs around the world, and my website reached 700K unique visitors. In one week they were on Fox News, USA today, NBC, and hundreds of other publications. People around the world emailed me asking to buy these. I had to find a way to produce these quickly!

I was invited to be a contestant at ABC Reality Show Shark Tank, pitching this business idea to the sharks.





Date

2009

Client

Myself

Role

Designer

Tags

Fashion