NO SEAS WEY COVID-19 MURALS
DESCRIPTION
"No Seas Wey" (translated as "Don’t Be a Fool") was created as a social responsibility platform to address the challenges and disparities that the Hispanic community faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Designed with a blend of creativity, collaboration, and cultural relevance, this initiative leveraged public spaces across Texas as a dynamic platform for social impact.
ROLE
Co-founder and Creative Direction
BACKGROUND
Covid-19 severely impacted Austin's Hispanic community, with this group accounting for 54.5% of hospitalizations, 52% of cases, and 50% of deaths, despite comprising only 34.3% of the city's population.
Weekly Hospitalizations by Race — MSA, March 11-June 7
THE CHALLENGE
Our mission was to shift perceptions around mask-wearing and safety measures, framing them as acts of social responsibility rather than burdens. The goal was to foster a sense of empowerment, encouraging community members to protect themselves and others and to establish lasting habits of health responsibility in a culture that often embraces a “live for today” mentality.
THE IDEA
We decided to create murals, but we did not stop there. Through the usage of QR codes, we turned these idle city walls into education centers. Each mural, with a QR code, allowed users to be redirected to a website where they can find important COVID-19-related information in Spanish — testing facilities, ways of protecting against the virus, infections report, among others.
To bring this vision to life, we partnered with local Texas artists, giving them creative freedom to express their interpretations of this historic moment. Each mural became a unique reflection of the artist’s perspective on the pandemic, creating a rich, varied landscape of public health messaging across the city of Austin.
RESULTS
The "No Seas Wey" campaign achieved a profound impact on the Hispanic community in Austin and beyond. The murals not only beautified public spaces but also provided an accessible, impactful way to engage with critical health information. Local media outlets covered the project, amplifying its reach and helping to normalize mask-wearing and other safety practices as essential acts of community care.
By merging art with education, we successfully shifted perceptions, reinforcing the importance of personal and collective responsibility in mitigating the spread of the virus. The campaign also fostered a sense of unity, empowering individuals to take proactive steps for their health and the well-being of their community.
MURAL 1
Location: 2701 E. MLK Blvd, Austin, TX
Artist: Bayo
MURAL 2
Location: 901 Tillery, Austin, TX
Artist: Uloang
MURAL 3
Location: 2300 E. Cesar Chavez street, Austin, TX
Artist: Carmen Rangel
MURAL 4
Location: 614 East Oltorf, Austin, TX
Artist: Drib
MURAL 5
Location: Downtown. El Paso, TX
Artist: Cimi
MURAL 6
Location: Edinburg, TX (Rio Grande Valley)
Artist: Pop_Culture
SOCIAL MEDIA
The goal of social media posts was to inform and educate. Data regarding hospitalizations, infection rate, confirmed cases among many other was collected and transformed into visually appealing bites of information. From an educational standpoint, we created a series of scenarios in which people could or couldn't be a wey/fool.
NON-TRADIONAL MEDIA
Stickers and pins were handed out to passerbyers to help promote the No Seas Wey initiative.
