Del mes de marzo hasta agosto, Self Help Graphics & Art proporcionará servicios de diseño gratuitos a jornaleros, vendedores ambulantes, o cualquier persona que necesite apoyo para mantener y operar un negocio durante este clima político. 

Los participantes recibirán un logotipo personalizado y prendas de vestir con su marca personalizada que serán creadas con la ayuda de los artistas de Self Help Graphics & Art's Barrio Mobile Art Studio.   

Los participantes también aprenderán como crear películas positivas de su diseño para imprimir. Todos los participantes serán guiados por artistas en el proceso de preparar, exponer, y imprimir en pantallas de seda. 

Para participar por favor comuníquese con: tel: (323) 881-6444. 

From the months of March through August, Self Help Graphics & Art will be providing free design services to low-wage workers such as Day Laborers, Street Vendors and any individual struggling to operate and maintain their business under the current political climate.

Participants will receive a custom logo, apparel with their customized branding created alongside artists from Self Help Graphics & Art’s Barrio Mobile Art Studio, learning the how to screen print, create film positives, prep, and expose silk screens for printing.

SHG artists will facilitate conversations with participants around the issues they face in the workplace, as parents, as heads of households, as renters or homeowners, as pedestrians, as cyclists and public transit users, and as any number of ways they self-identify. Our artists will work with the groups to identify projects that speak to them and allow them to the see their skills and expertise in a more creative way. Participants may explore design and patternmaking by silk screening on fabrics and textile. Others may explore imagery or text through printmaking and other mediums that can be used to build a brand for their current campaigns or items with personal branding that boost morale and give importance to their daily contributions on the job.

Self Help Graphics & Art has begun to meet with folks to explore their needs with design, branding, and assistance around navigating business as a Day Laborer, Street Vendor, and other micro business opportunities and projects. Karelia, originally from Peru vends jewelry in the “Cuidad de la Piñata” aka the party supply district of Los Angeles.

Self Help has been asked many times over, how low-wage workers participating in the program would develop, or apply any creativity to this project or would we merely be creating designs that aren’t in line with how these folks see themselves. We kept responding that these folks have dreamt, imagined and developed these ideas already but lacked the resources to implement them. Below is the final design produced with assistance from Karelia and her sketch to develop her new logo. Next week she comes back to learn the entire process of screen printing her new design on shirts, aprons and other apparel products that will help her stand out at the Cuidad de la Piñata.

Support for JorARTleros is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

“The NEA is the reason we were able to do the project,” says Self Help Graphics & Art associate director Betty Avila.

The goal of JornARTleros is to empower laborers — men and women who may run fruit stands or ice cream carts in public parks or await construction gigs from a Home Depot parking lot — with art skills they can use to distinguish themselves professionally and to develop their businesses. That could be as tangible as making a colorful logo or a uniform to build a visual identity. Or it could be the process of crafting these goods that helps students unearth their inherent creativity, which can open up their minds to the skills they possess and how to use them to better their lives.

 “L.A. Without the NEA” is a series looking at a different community group, how its NEA funds were spent, what artistic or public good did or didn’t result and what the cultural landscape would look like if that program were to disappear. Look for more installments to follow at latimes.com/LAwithouttheNEA.