At Storefront, we know all too well that the built environment around us directly affects our well-being. We aim to inspire community-driven design throughout Richmond while engaging the next generation of designers. This spring semester, two of our programs worked on parallel health messaging projects that came together as a poster show, activating a public space in a new way.
We learned that the Richmond Henrico Health District was seeing extreme covid health disparities and low use of covid mitigation and prevention measures by youth and Black communities. That, covid fatigue and racism being declared a public health crisis underscored the greater question at hand. How do you encourage groups to take advantage of the resources available and be empowered to make informed decisions?
mOb studio and City Builders set out to explore that question. They used visuals to relay health messaging related to accurate covid health information and overall wellness for the community.
City Builders Design, a semester-long program that focuses on real world issues in the built environment, met weekly after school to design a solution. The youth ages 13-18 explored their community and learned from designers in the field of architecture, fashion design, graphic design, and urban planning. By the end of the semester, they had learned a new way to communicate health messages, using the built environment and empowering them to use the resources around them to create awareness.
“Teaching with City Builders reminded me that not only should we include our children in the process of designing better things for our cities but also to become better designers we need to awaken the child in ourselves. -”
A team from mOb studio, a service learning class through our VCUarts partnership, worked directly with RHHD to create and pilot a Covid and Public Health awareness campaign. Through conversations with RHHD partners, and help from a professional mentor, they came up with a visual communication style, health messaging and potential poster sites.
Both groups were guided by a local design professional, John Malinoski who mentored the mOb team and led workshops for the City Builders youth. Both projects focused on providing exposure and education to health awareness, equity, disparities, & outcomes. We couldn't help but notice that following a design process and incorporating hands-on making naturally allowed us to pause and create space for intentional conversations about health/wellness.
The site-specific installation and additional posters were contributed by pirates, a poster based design collective that aims to create positive visual communication and temporary built environments for important issues in our present lives.
City Builders Design students, m0bstudents, and pirates displayed their posters on a hot day in May along Meadowbridge Rd. The work from both groups came together in a poster show event that showcased and brought in partners to amplify resources. Light refreshments were provided by the Kitchen Magician, a local DJ played tunes, and Hope Pharmacy provided vaccinations at the site. The students also participated in a wheat pasting workshop led by John Malinoski to learn a technique for applying posters to the built environment, while community members were given an opportunity to screen print a health message on a reusable bag provided by Studio Two Three.
Thank you to all of those who participated in the Poster Show: A Covid Empowerment Project.