Design as Community Infrastructure.

A one-year, community-embedded creative residency supporting neighbors, grassroots groups, small businesses, cultural workers, and organizers through accessible design, visual storytelling, and collaborative public art.

the vision

What if every neighborhood had an embedded artist and designer — not to beautify from afar, but to co-create from within?

This residency imagines exactly that: 

a one-year, community-rooted creative partnership that makes visual communication radically accessible.

Through sliding scale and barter-based collaboration, this artist works to:

  • Amplify community voices

  • Strengthen local identity

  • Document cultural memory

  • Build a shared visual language of power and belonging

This is creative infrastructure for self-determined futures.

WHAT THIS IS

The Northside Designer & Artist-in-Residence is a neighborhood-rooted creative role centered on design justice — making visual communication and identity-building accessible to the communities that need it most.

This residency formalizes work already happening here:

  • art as community scaffolding

  • design as mutual aid 

  • visual storytelling as collective power designing brands for small businesses, co-creating murals, documenting neighborhood history, and helping community groups tell their own stories.

This is creative infrastructure — built from within, not added from outside.

WHY IT MATTERS

Design shapes how neighborhoods are seen, understood, resourced, and remembered.

When communities have access to strong visual communication:

  • Local efforts gain credibility and momentum

  • Small businesses strengthen identity and belonging

  • Organizing efforts build power and clarity

  • Neighbors see themselves reflected in place

This residency ensures that Northside’s story
is told by the people who live it.

  • Northside, Cincinnati isn’t short on talent, vision, or momentum.
    What we’re short on are the shared tools that allow that momentum to scale.

    Design isn’t decoration.
    Design is message, memory, movement.

    It’s how a neighborhood says:
    We are here.
    We are alive.
    We build our own future.

    Creative labor is often treated like a luxury service—something only institutions or corporations can access. But the work of shaping public imagination, building identity, rallying support, and telling our stories is not optional. It’s survival work. It’s community power work.

    This residency ensures that the visual language of the neighborhood stays in the hands of the neighborhood.
    Not outsourced.
    Not corporate.
    Not sanitized.

    A full-time artist embedded in the community means:
    The posters, the flyers, the campaigns, the murals, the visual narratives—
    they speak in our voice.

    And that voice is powerful.

    This is not about “discounting design.”
    This is about removing the gate.
    This is about a neighborhood choosing to resource its own cultural engine on its own terms—cash, barter, trade, reciprocity.
    Value that honors dignity, not hierarchy.

    Money is tight everywhere.
    But meaning is not.
    Willpower is not.
    Creativity is not.

    This residency says:
    We don’t wait for systems to save us.
    We build what we need.
    Together.
    Right now.

one year

Over twelve months, the residency will:

  • Support at least twelve community-led businesses, organizations, or collective projects with custom design, branding, and storytelling.

  • Co-create public murals and neighborhood visual markers that reflect shared identity rather than imposed narrative.

  • Host community workshops that teach visual literacy and empower people to create their own stories.

  • Develop the Northside Visual Archive—a living library of the neighborhood’s evolving culture, dreams, struggles, humor, memory, and resistance.

The total first-year investment needed to activate this model is $69,550—covering the artist’s full-time stipend, studio space, community collaboration, materials, and fiscal sponsorship infrastructure.

This is not a charity project.
This is not a beautification project.
This is creative infrastructure for community power.

It is a working demonstration of what becomes possible when a neighborhood chooses to resource its imagination and build the future from the ground up—together.

INQUIRE HERE!

faq’s

At Renegade Babe, I believe art should be bold, rebellious, and unforgettable. Whether you’re here to commission a mural, explore custom design services, or shop my original prints and apparel, I want the process to feel clear and inspiring. Below you’ll find answers to the most common questions clients and collectors ask. If you don’t see your question here, feel free to contact me directly.

General / About Renegade Babe

  • A: Renegade Babe is a creative studio and art brand that blends fine art, illustration, and design. I create custom artwork for individuals, brands, and businesses—including murals, digital illustrations, and product design—while also offering original art prints and lifestyle goods.

  • A: Renegade Babe is rooted in bold, rebellious creativity. Every project is designed to stand out, spark conversation, and make a lasting impact. I work closely with clients to bring personal stories and brand visions to life through art and design.

  • A: Yes! I work with clients locally and worldwide. Many design and illustration projects can be completed remotely, and I also travel for mural and large-scale art commissions.