This project had an interesting start, the inventor, a doctor, came in requesting that we create a ski mask so that his face could stay warm on those real cold days. The next meeting he brought in one of those dust masks that are very thick and has the funny little square plastic piece over the nose. He had brought his daughter along and she said “only my dad would wear that on the ski hill”. Of course that was just a concept…

Then the work began. This project had two very different Medias to work with, soft flexible plastic and fabric. We created our first prototype of the plastic face piece and found that we needed changes. Prototypes for soft flexible plastic parts are a two step process – step 1 is to create a hard piece that is the size and shape, step 2 is to use that hard piece as the mold to create the soft flexible prototype. Four prototypes later we had the main face piece done and now we had to start working on the fabric design around it. This part of the process went thru 5 changes and of course 5 prototypes and then on to manufacturing.