We are living in a selfie-obsessed world. Most of us curate and upload our images on social media to gain affirmation for our appearances. Some take this a step further by digitally editing their selfies to make themselves look perfect. With frequent exposure to these doctored images, we have developed a distorted view of our self-worth and beauty standards and even developing a form of Body Dysmorphia Disorder dubbed Selfie Dysmorphia.

Selfie Dysmorphia is a type of Body Dysmorphia Disorder (BDD), a mental disorder that causes people to perceive one’s flaw in appearance to be immeasurably bad and be obsessed with a specific feature of their face. These perceptions stem from comparing oneself to the growing number of digitally manipulated photos/selfies by popular Instagram models, influencers and others in that field, most of whom edit their photos to mask their flaws and accentuate and highlight the better parts of themselves.

Plastic surgeons report 55% of their patients who are mostly teenagers using their modified/filtered selfies as references. Instagram has taken a stance as well in late 2019 when they temporarily banned face-morphing filters on their platform.

Faceshop is a typographic educational campaign that aims to bring light to this relatively new phenomenon and hopefully fund research into this topic. Disguised as a cosmetic surgery clinic, it at first lures potential clients with the promise to fix their facial flaws and their self-esteem. The first phase of the project focuses on advertising, mainly on digital social media platforms, as the project is targeting towards Gen-Zs and Millenials. The second half of the campaign is to then reveal to the audience what Faceshop is: to expose unrealistic beauty standards in the digital age and how it adversely affects our psyche and aid those who suffer from Selfie Dysmorphia and being more mindful when we scroll through the internet.