Onibaba Studio

Checkout our latest project blog!
For this one, Cori created personalized illustrations of the Kairos Fellowship staff for their website.

More here:
onibaba.studio/2025/08/27/k...

This spring we worked with the team at 1 Community to create grandma trading cards for the launch of Nonna's on Neflix.

Check out the Nonna's cards!

Building Movement Project (2023-2025) Graphic Recording // Illustrated Notes for Building Movement Project’s Solidarity series from 2023-2025

Over the past three years we partnered with @buildingmovement.bsky.social to create graphic notes for their State of Solidarity series of panels. The panels were stacked with powerful organizers and community leaders sharing about their work and wisdoms.
Read more: onibaba.studio/2025/07/24/b...

Illinois Answers Project (2025) Illustration for Illinois Answers project investigative reporting. Economic mobility, sewage flooding in Cahokia Heights, and the Quantum Facility in South Shore, Chicago.

This year Cori has collaborated with editors and journalists at @illinoisanswers.bsky.social to make interactive illustrations and explainers to accompany three of their investigative stories.

More here: onibaba.studio/2025/07/15/i...

City Bureau Annual Reports (2023-2025) Illustration for City Bureau Annual Reports over three years. Showcasing community centered reporting and documenting across the nation.

Hello! We are back with recaps on some recent cool projects.

We have been fortunate to partner with @citybureau.bsky.social on creating visuals for their Annual Reports.

Read more on our project blog: onibaba.studio/2025/07/16/c...

cori // onibaba studio newsletter follow me off of instagram!

If you are interested in hearing about future sales, signing up for our newsletter is your best bet! Hope to see you there 💛

mailchi.mp/16a03efcd25b...

Midwest Access Coalition We are a practical abortion fund that offers abortion support. We provide access to safe and legal abortion services by helping with abortion travel, lodging, food, medicine, and more. Donate to…

For each sale we aim to donate 30% of profits to mutual aid. From these sales we donated over $500, which we split between the Midwest Access Coalition, the GoFundMe's of a Palestinian family and queer Sudanese people that we have community connections to.

www.midwestaccesscoalition.org

Earlier in June we also popped up at the EXTRA MSG event, hosted by Về Lại and HAIBAYÔ! It's always a treat to sell next to friends and collaborators (like Mom's!)

It's SALE SZN ☀️
In May we had a lot of fun tabling at Ludlow Liquors for the GXGX Hong Kong Night Market. Thank you to Kiyomi (@letskeepdrawing) for including us!

Excited to have done illustrations for this comprehensive reporting project from @illinoisanswers.bsky.social led by @cplhouse.bsky.social 🚧🚧

Spotted in the wild 👀: our 'Stories of Connection' project with the Loppet Foundation!

Thank you to our Minneapolis friends for sharing.

Chicago Reader Announces Restructuring and Layoffs The Reader Institute for Community Journalism, publisher of the Chicago Reader, on Tuesday announced the immediate layoffs of six non-union employee staff positions, spurred by an urgent need to reduc...

We feel lucky to be still doing Reader Bites after recent staff layoffs at The Reader, including our Reader Bites Art Director, @jameshosking.bsky.social

Read more about the layoffs and support The Reader if you're able to here: chicagoreader.com/reader/press...

Aloo paratha - Annapurna Simply Vegetarian/Devon Ave
Nutella souffle pancakes - Hanabusa Cafe/South Loop
Guava linzer cookies - Nata/Pop ups across the city
Smoked brisket taco - Antique Taco/Bridgeport

More reader bites: chicagoreader.com/food/reader-...

Orange dream smoothie - Jackalope Coffee & Tea House/Bridgeport
Youngster bagel sandwich - R&A Sourdough/Ravenswood
Pot roast sandwich - Punky's Pizza & Pasta/Bridgeport
Peacemaker po'boy - Daisy's Po-Boy & Tavern/Hyde Park

Illustrations from the @chicagoreader.com column 'Reader Bites'. Here are some of our recent favorites!
Coffee jelly - Tenjin/Lincolnwood
Bulgogi beef bowl - Rice'N Bread/Wrigleyville
Guajolota torta tamal - Santa Masa Tamaleria/Belmont Heights
Seafood udon ramen - Shinya Ramen House/Bridgeport

Chicago Reader Announces Restructuring and Layoffs The Reader Institute for Community Journalism, publisher of the Chicago Reader, on Tuesday announced the immediate layoffs of six non-union employee staff positions, spurred by an urgent need to…

We feel lucky to be still doing Reader Bites after recent staff layoffs at The Reader, including our Reader Bites Art Director.

Read more about the layoffs and support The Reader if you're able to here: chicagoreader.com/reader/press...

Bulgogi beef from Rice'N Bread in Wrigleyville.

Guajolota torta tamal from Santa Masa Tamaleria in Belmont Heights.

Seafood udon ramen from Shinya Ramen House in Bridgeport.

At each draft stage, the illustrations were taken to community advisory meetings for feedback, and ideas for illustration specifics were largely generated by the team and Kimberly, a long-term Northside Minneapolis resident.

Here are some of the finalized assets.

Read more here: bit.ly/3RrRSZ9

hand sketches of Plymouth Avenue Divide in Minneapolis

Using Neamatallah Elsayed's qualitative research and input by the community advisory board, Cori drafted storymaps that encompassed major themes of place-based memories, historical displacement, relationships with green space, and intentions for community.

Theodore Wirth Park – Stories of Connection (2024) Illustrated storymaps showing relationship between Minneapolis Northsiders and Theodore Wirth Park (2025)

Sharing another project blog ✨
This one is about the 'Stories of Connection' project, a collaboration with the Center for Urban & Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota (CURA) and the Loppet Foundation.

Read more: bit.ly/3RrRSZ9

Thanks Dan! Yeah it was hard to process because I'm delighted about the toy AND so distressed about it at the same time 😆 but I love that ppl online are like 'the toy is cute! The content tho....' -cori

Screenshot of the amazon review “not as fun as the great race tonie”

We love to see people being vocal and critical about the representation of elders and cultures in the Lunar New Year Tonie ✊ We don't want to rely on corporations to teach us about our own traditions, especially as we let culture transform in the diaspora. Read more: bit.ly/4hzCd4X

1) Finalized Tonie figure in hand

(2) pencil sketches of Tonie figure

(3) Final sketches of Tonie figure design

Process images from designing the LNY Tonie - we love how the figurine turned out. The figurines for Toniebox are all hand-painted in China which is amazing to think about. Read more: bit.ly/4hzCd4X

Lunar New Year Tonie Figurine Design (2024) The design process of the Lunar New Year Toniebox figurine by cori lin at onibaba studio

Sharing our design for the Lunar New Year Tonie! Designing this figure brought up the question: what even **is** Lunar New Year? Read more about the process and quandaries of designing pan cultural figures on our blog!
bit.ly/4hzCd4X

GRAPHIC NOTES for “Building our own Table: Innovative Insights by Trans Justice Visionaries” panel series with Trans Justice Funding Project, in October 2024.

Panelists:
Andrea Jenkins, Emmett Schelling, Kris Hayashi, Malachi Garza, Mattee Jim, Mickaela Bradford, Rumba Yambu, Tatiana Williams

Developers promise a *quantum computing* hub in South Chicago will bring jobs & revival.

Experts wonder if a quantum computer can be built at all. Residents wonder if the jobs will be FOR them? Or will they be displaced BY them? @binghuihuang.bsky.social reports. @onibaba-studio.bsky.social illos

Our illustrations are in the explainer portion of this deep dive into the 😨 quantum computing campus 😨 planned for South Shore in 2025 !!!

Congratulations to Rasheedah Phillips! The panel Rasheedah hosted about Afrodiasporan and Indigenous futurisms and spatiality was by far my fav illustrated notetaking gig of last year!