// new media class


Martin Kim Luge — FACE.PRINT

Indie Design — Summer 2008

The promise of the fashion and cosmetics industry is to give the individual a freedom to "design" him or herself to stand out of the crowd and to highlight desired characteristics. The human face is obviously the most important surface for communication. Makeup used to play a major role in sacred rites in various religions, and facial tattoos were often used to communicate social ranking or genealogy. Today, beyond the fashion, high ranking sportsmen sometimes tattoo their faces and fans are commonly carrying their clubs' colours or emblems on their faces.

Face.Print stemmed from this culture of "designing oneself". It is a sunshade that while protecting the wearer from the heat of the sun, it enables the branding of one's face with a custom motif. As a kind of temporary tattoo, the motif runs across the wearer's face and is understandably not always visible. To give the wearer more control of his/her appearance, Face.Print has two small holes that can be used to accurately control the desired position of the silhouette: Aligning the punctures so that one sees the sun through them, the graphics can be aligned on one's face without the help of any mirror. An intuitive software with which one can upload a custom motif, align it onto a desired place on one's face generates the blueprints for lasercutting and renders the process of creating customised light casting Face.Print sun shield a child's play.