So Why A Face Shield?

Although most of us see face shields as a device worn only by the medical community, they are really just another tool in our fight against Covid-19 that anyone can use. While they aren't in every case a replacement for masks, they have several advantages:

1. They provide a physical barrier, meaning they do a better job of protecting you from the coughs, sneezes, and droplets of others. Those same things can be absorbed into a mask. They also keep you from touching your face

2. They are comfortable to wear. More open face shield designs like this one are breathable and don't capture heat. Furthermore when attached to glasses, the shield almost floats in front of you, with only the sides touching your face.

3. Being able to see if you wear glasses. For those that wear glasses, masks have a tendency to fog up, but this face shield resists fogging far better than masks in general.

4. Full use of facial expressions/lip reading. Notice everyone looks angry in a mask? lol face shields allow us to get back to smiling at people, and make it easier to communicate with the hearing-impaired, who may rely on lip reading

5. They are extremely durable and reusable. The plastic is easy to sanitize making it reusable, and when made with a thicker pvc material, like the 7mil we use, it can last a very long time, without losing effectiveness.

6. You can drink milkshakes with them on. Obviously, this is the most important reason, but yes, a straw can fit under your face shield!

YHB does not claim that face shields are better than masks, simply that they are another tool to be used, either alone in spaces where you have more control over social distancing, like a walk in the park, getting gas, etc, or can be combined with a mask to provide another layer of protection when going into dense areas like grocery stores.

Why Pocketable?

Face shields have been late to be adopted by the public despite their various advantages for a few reasons:

1. They are seen solely as a tool of the medical community.

2. Their traditional size makes them cumbersome and difficult to transport when compared to a mask

By making the face shield foldable, we are able to address that second reason easily. Its worth noting that creases needed to make the YHB shield foldable do not affect optical quality because they are not in the wearer's sight-lines, making the YHB as effective as other face shields in that regard.

YHB? What is that about?

YHB the last initials for the artists and designers whose work inspired this shield: Tokujin Yoshioka, Adam Harvey, and John Baldessari. Its important to note that this project was not created in a vacuum. These three are not the only influences, but they have been the most direct perhaps due to the large platforms they have. Regardless, countless artists and designers have been working for decades on disrupting surveillance culture by empowering publics to action. This project is a synthesis of several ideas and outcomes from those efforts.

About the Designer

Leo Selvaggio is an Interdisciplinary Artist/Designer. His work and research have centered around the entanglement of identity with technology, specifically addressing surveillance culture. His work has exhibited both nationally in the US and internationally. He is most known for this work, URME Surveillance, in which he invites the public to wear a 3D printed prosthetic of his face to disrupt facial recognition systems. Selvaggio created this design in mid June, 2020 as a response to his experiences at local protests and rallies in Providence, RI as well as his work designing PPE for non-medical workers.