South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
MSD grad wants to change world, one artwork at a time
When thousands of people bought an innovative T-shirt with an American flag on it, a Stoneman Douglas graduate knew why it surged in popularity.
Jammal Lemy, 20, of Coral Springs, knew because he designed it himself.
Lemy, the creative director of the “March for Our Lives” movement, has become the fashion intellect behind the group’s thousands of shirts and hats, which urge the public to vote. The ultimate goal is to enact legislation that curbs gun violence and makes a difference in the world.
Now, he’s working on new merchandise surrounding the launch of a new campaign to keep the group’s momentum going into the November elections.
“We’re going to keep the synergy and encourage people to get out and vote,” said Lemy, who graduated from Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High two years before the mass
shooting that killed 17 people there. “At the end of the day we want to save lives.”
Getting creative
One of the shirts Lemy designed has a modern twist: A shirt with an American flag in which a QR code takes the place of the stars. You scan the QR code with your cellphone, and it takes you to a website to register to vote. He also put together a hat with a “no guns allowed” theme.
He uses a mixture of Photoshop and sketching free-hand with ink pens or colored pencils. “I sketch away until I get an idea of what I want to do.”
After the massacre on
Feb. 14, students created the March for Our Lives movement and drew national attention, including arranging a rally in Washington, D.C., that attracted hundreds of thousands of people.
Cameron Kasky, one of the group’s founders, whose Parkland house was the central point for group meetings, said Lemy’s work has mattered.
“I think Jammal has the perfect mixture of determination and know-how and idealism,” he said. “He’s got great ideas, great execution and he’s such a great part of the clockwork of the organization.”
Matt Deitsch, chief strategist for March for Our Lives, said it is Lemy’s job to “translate the pain we’ve seen and experienced through an artistic form to connect with people — to bring this new pop culture to shift culture.”
Lemy said the march in D.C. was so inspirational, he decided this year not to return to Florida Atlantic University, where he was a political science and film major. He decided to concentrate on his role as creative director for the group. Though he declined to specify his salary, he is one of three full-time paid staffers with the organization.
He largely works “on the go” or from a March For
Our Lives office, he said. Sometimes he gets phone calls at 2 a.m. from a colleague with a design idea.
“We’re working 24 hours,” he said. “The only time we’re not working on this is when we’re asleep.”
‘A conversation piece’
At least 70,000 shirts with the QR code have been sold and shipped across the country, likely helping get people to register to vote, Deitsch said.
“That shirt was our staple,” Lemy said. “It was a conversation piece every place we went. [It was about ] youth empowerment and civic engagement.”
Deitsch, Lemy’s friend and a fellow Douglas graduate, called his shirt design “revolutionary.”
Such merchandise sells through the group’s website, marchforourlives.com.
Items include a tote bag or bandana, each for about $20, or a onesie for newborns for about $20. On the higher end, hoodies sell for about $45.
Proceeds have gone toward helping the group’s initiatives. When the March for Our Lives announced its Road to Change summer bus tour, donations from across the country to their cause helped pay for their hotel stays along the way and to pay a bus company.
Lemy’s inspiration for change through art actually came weeks before the Parkland shooting. He didn’t like what he saw on television about violence in the Middle East.
The conflicts troubled him, specifically the ones that displaced refugees in Syria.
So he worked with Deitsch to design a T-shirt with bombers and flowers, meant to juxtapose war and peace. The profits were intended to go to companies that helped people on the ground with loans to start their own businesses.
“We couldn’t really let it happen without saying anything,” Lemy said. “There’s an insane amount of violence overseas. We wanted to use our skills ... to change the world.”
One of Lemy’s best friends, Joaquin Oliver, a Douglas senior, had promised to help model the shirts.
Then the Parkland shooting happened. “The world gave us a different hand,” Deitsch said.
Classes at FAU let out early on Feb. 14, so Lemy headed with a friend over to the beach in Boca Raton. They were settling in when he got the first text: “Shots fired at Douglas.”
That’s not possible, he thought. But the texts kept coming and video from inside the school was being posted on social media.
Lemy frantically texted people he still knew at the school, and “Joaquin was the only person who never texted me back,” he said.
Deitsch said, “Our lives changed the day we went to Joaquin’s funeral.”
Lemy has been working on merchandise for the next initiative, Mayors for Our Lives, which encourages mayors to ensure there is voter registration in high schools. The main message: Young people can make a difference.
“Everyone should be involved,” he said. “We’re using art to do that.”