Project: Art Installation/ Experimental

Designer: Estefania Aguilar

Tools: Illustrator, Photoshop

This project explores social anxiety as an internal and often invisible experience. While commonly associated with shyness, it involves intrusive thoughts, self-awareness, and physical responses that interrupt communication.

For this project,I am proposing an installation that invites viewers to experience the internal state of a person with social anxiety. Through typography, image, layers and spatial arrangement, the work translates internal thought patterns into a visual environment. The goal is to move beyond observation and instead create a sense of immersion, allowing viewers to feel the tension between the desire to communicate and the pressure of intrusive thoughts.

Research

12%

of U.S. adults were diagnosed with some type of anxiety disorder

of U.S. adults reported feelings of worry, nervousness, and anxiety.

Research on social anxiety highlights the role of cognitive processes such as overthinking, anticipation of judgment, and intrusive self-critical thoughts. Individuals often rehearse conversations internally while simultaneously suppressing expression due to fear of negative evaluation. This results in a conflict between the desire to engage and the inability to act, reinforcing patterns of avoidance.

quietly shapes how people move through everyday life. How they speak, react, and exist in social spaces. What may look like hesitation or silence is often internal pressure and heightened self-awareness. This project makes that invisible experience visible through visual storytelling.

It invites empathy toward experiences that are often overlooked in everyday interactions, and highlights how deeply social anxiety can shape a person’s relationship with the world around them.

The final outcome is a maquette that visualizes an installation designed to simulate the internal experience of social anxiety. The model uses the poster series as spatial elements, allowing the work to move from flat compositions into an immersive environment.

Inspiration & Process

Barriecito was chosen for its playful, imperfect structure.Its hand-drawn quality brings a sense of personality and lightness. This typeface shows both the anxious, uneasy feelings and the person’s playful personality at the same time, without switching to a different visual style.

Poster Series

In addition to the installation, a flyer was developed to promote the experience. The flyer extends the visual language of the posters, maintaining the same color palette, typography and aesthetic, while introducing a more structured format for communication.

OUTCOME

This project helped me visually express part of the complexity of social anxiety. I believe mental health should be understood with openness and awareness, rather than surrounded by misunderstandings that reduce it to something “made up.” Instead, it should encourage support, empathy, and listening to the voices of those who experience it.

People who live with social anxiety often want to be seen and understood, not overlooked or dismissed. Through this work, I aimed to highlight that experience and create space for greater awareness and compassion.

I also hope this project communicates that even within the more difficult aspects of social anxiety, there is still individuality and color within a person’s inner world.