the-before-i-die-toolkit

Due to the enthusiastic response to Candy Chang’s Before I Die project, we’ve created this toolkit to help you install a wall in your community. Each toolkit includes a large 47″ x 50″ stencil with a full column of the fill-in-the-blank sentence, “Before I die I want to _______.” The stencil is manufactured from extra thick .10 mm mylar. After testing, this makes it much easier to hang in place and spray-paint with minimal tape and time. The kit also includes a nifty hand-stamped illustrated guide with a breakdown of required materials and step-by-step instructions, two boxes of multicolored chalk, and a couple of chalk holders. At $75 per kit, we’re providing these as close to the production cost as possible. We want to ensure that anyone who wants to make a wall (see some here) can afford to do it. We’ve also included all files here.

The Before I Die project invites people to share their dreams in public space. The responses illuminate the diversity and depth of individuals that compose our communities, and the wall is an ideal place to strike up a conversation with neighbors that you might not know. If you install a wall, please send us your photos and stories! We’d love to see what is important to the people in your community and by documenting each wall, we’ll create a snapshot of the world’s most sincere and inventive desires. We hope this kit helps – and thanks to your passion, the design of our public spaces can better reflect what’s important to us as a community and as individuals.

$75

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If you’d like to create a headline for your wall or make all the stencils yourself, we’ve created a folder of template files for you. Download it here. This folder includes files of the large “Before I die…” headline, as well as the column of fill-in-the-blank sentences. It also includes the font files, guide, and a handy summary of the required supplies and specifications. The headline can be print and cut from regular paper for one-time use. If you are interested in purchasing a stencil in another language, please contact us for custom pricing. Developing this kit was made possible thanks to the Black Rock Arts Foundation. Made with pride in New Orleans. Character illustrations in guide by Olly Farshi. Toolkit ships worldwide within ten business days.

The thick mylar stencil makes it easy to hang flat with minimal tape

The stencil in action in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. See more walls around the world!

Details of the guide

The original wall in New Orleans.

thumb-doorknob-hanger

A doorknob hanger in GOOD Magazine’s Spring 2010 issue that can be torn out and used as a tool to share more resources with neighbors when it’s most convenient for everyone.

street-vendor

An award-winning guide for NYC street vendors that clarifies their rights and rules. A collaboration with the Center for Urban Pedagogy and The Street Vendor Project.

Before-I-Die-painting-stamp

These limited-edition chalkboards will help you remember what is most important to you. All proceeds support future Before I Die installations in communities across the country.

196

Civic Center joined the good people at 3S Arstpace and the Strawbery Banke Museum to re-create the “Before I Die” project in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The installation is the first of many more future iterations of the project.

sidewalk_thumb2

Street art that encourages self-evaluation in transit by posing questions on the sidewalks with temporary spray-chalk.