The United States leads the world in its use of incarceration, with 1.3 million being held in prisons across the country. The individuals most at risk for falling victim to a faulty justice system is African Americans, who fill prisons at a rate that is 5.1 times higher than the imprisonment of whites. For the 70 million Americans with a criminal record, overwhelming obstacles stand in the way of a productive future. These hinderances often have no bearing on securing community safety or public good. Draw the Line aims to give those who have paid their debt to society a way to re-integrate more easily back into their communities through the human and cultural connection of food. It’s an initiative to give ex-convicts a habitable living space post-release, whilst allowing them to farm all the fresh food used on the food trucks. These trucks would give ex-cons a liveable wage and a connection back to society. We all have a story and a past. Draw the Line seeks to take the taboo surrounding ex-convicts away and change the narrative that having a criminal record negates the ability to have a future.
Website prototype
The challenge was to create a typographic piece that focuses on the theme of ‘putting things in order’. I chose to create a piece that highlights and interprets the hierarchy within the American Mafia. I thought it would be best to create a multi-faceted project by breaking it into three separate pieces that work in conjunction with one another. The first book, Omertà, meaning code of silence, breaks down the hierarchy within a crime family. I wanted this piece to highlight the secrecy surrounding the Mafia by exhibiting a more restrictive and constrained style. The second piece, entitled ‘The Boys’, is a profile book that examines individuals who were key players within the five families throughout its heyday. To contrast Omertà, the design is more expressive in nature to reflect individual personalities of the men featured. The hierarchy of order within the crime families is how both books are systemically laid out. The final piece acts as the sleeve cover to the profile book. It is a family tree of the five New York families and is meant to double as a book cover and as a stand-alone poster, which can be used as a reference to find those featured within the book.
