MARK THE TIME
One in three Americans has a criminal record, restricting their ability to get housing, education, and a job. For them, life on the outside can be more punishing than life on the inside.
Clean Slate is an organization that advocates for and implements laws to automatically seal criminal records, providing individuals with a second chance to rebuild their lives. A week before state legislators voted on a bill that would determine the futures of more than 70 million Americans, we unveiled a powerful mural hand-painted by formerly-incarcerated activist Zaki Smith to expose the ongoing challenges he has faced after his release.
The mural was painted in Zaki’s hometown of Brooklyn, NY, and leveraged a medium typically used by inmates—hash marks. Instead of representing time suffered in prison, we recontextualized the marks to illustrate the injustice he has suffered after getting released.
Just as there’s more to Zaki than his criminal record, there’s more to the mural beyond the paint. An integrated QR code on the artwork directed passersby to a short documentary about Zaki’s life, giving them a deeper look into the hardships he continues to face and a way to take action.
From the streets of Brooklyn to the feeds of millions, the mural was the epicenter of a full-scale, national social campaign with a bold message—that a criminal record shouldn’t be a life sentence. We created a collection of content, including a digital film about the mural and a suite of custom graphic posts utilizing fingerprints from real formerly-incarcerated individuals. All of the content led to the Clean Slate hub, where users could urge their legislators to vote YES on the bill.
