Cloth Face Mask Cards for CHA Residents

Design & Riso Printing
Studio Brazen + National Public Housing Museum
May 2020

As cases of COVID-19 spread throughout Chicago, those who were marginalized before began feeling it even more. Access to PPE was not being provided to folks living in public housing in Chicago. Studio Brazen + the National Public Housing Museum worked with Chicago-based artists and activists Alexandria Eregbu, and Mary Scott-Boria & Darthula Young, who sewed the masks as part of #MuseumsAtHome.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Lisa Yun Lee, the director of the National Public Housing Museum passed them out to residents. Each mask came with a card with the storied history of mask wearing in the US and instructions on how to safely wear and care for the mask.

The cards were printed at NEIU on the Art + Design Department’s risograph printer in three colors (pumpkin, cornflower, and black). Risograph printing is eco friendly, using rice-based ink, and works like a cross between screen printing and a xerox machine. Each color and side of the page is a separate run through the machine.