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SR. PROJECT EXPLORATIONS

2011-02-09T19:40:00.000-08:00

EXPLORATIOLNS IN IMAGE MAKING : THE BEGINNINGS

2011-02-06T11:16:00.000-08:00

The beginning explorations for a project about how I understand my cultural heritage as most of my interactions with it seem fragmented and fantasized within my past and memories. My depictions of my Asian relatives, particularly my great aunt and grandma and my experiences with them, and therefore my experiences with Japanese culture, however far removed from Japan itself. How does this influence me and inform my identity?

So far this is an image made to explain my interpretation of my great aunt Satoko. The green color for a faint memory of her old room, her never failing ability to wish those around her good luck and happiness even when her life has brought her much pain and injustice. Her ability to remain happy and peaceful throughout all the turmoil brought on by relocation to the US during WWII and the life it left her to lead once released with no job or home working job to job from factories to strawberry fields.

SOME LOVELY INFOGRAPHICS & OTHER THINGS

2011-01-30T22:34:00.000-08:00

^ "nonsense" info-graphics ^
found on: PFSK

found on: PFSK

found on: poster cabaret

MAHGEETAH STICKERS

2011-01-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

Fresh from the printer.

New Mahgeetah stickers available at their next show in San Francisco on the 16th.
3" x 3", 250

SILK SCREENED PLAYING CARDS

2010-12-19T17:59:00.000-08:00

This was the final project I designed for my Intro. to Silkscreening course. I designed and silk screened 3 full decks, all four suits, three color, and jokers. I was inspired by Fraktur Mon Amor, an amazing book I stumbled upon in one of my favorite San Francisco bookstores. I decided to use the same approach as the book and created my own designs and patterns using a blackletter typeface. I used the typeface for the numbers, A,K,Q,J, as well as any graphical pattern seen both on the box and the cards. I designed the symbols for each suit myself. Here is a small documentation of the process.

The face of the cards were 2 color. After I completed printing both colors for all the suits for each deck I planned to make, plus about another full deck extra for the mess ups, I cut them each out by hand so that I could print the backs.

After they were all cut, I printed the backs, which were 1 color. At this point I had discarded all the most tragically imperfect cards to make sure that my final 3 decks were made of the best prints, however some are slightly imperfect. I printed 156 cards that day.

After this process I rounded all the corners of the cards with a punch, and proceeded to add the last decorational and final touches by hand. Here are the final cards with a special box I made for them to live inside.

LOST UTOPIA

2010-12-16T12:26:00.001-08:00

"Lost Utopia" is the title of the edition of prints I made in my Experimental Printmaking class. The concept of this print spawned from my interest in the geodesic dome both in form and theory. Because it was the final project I had more time to develop my concept over time through research and sketching. I really enjoyed learning more about Buckminster Fuller himself by watching documentaries and biographical videos about him. To hear him talk about his work and explain where it all comes from is a fascinating and extremely interesting experience and this helped inform my attitude about his influence on the world today in that it seems to have disappeared. I saw this process over time to be very...sad... especially after having felt like I was able to get to know him better through the video research I had done.

Ultimately the message of this print is about how we often get swept up in the moment of great ideas, however most fail to fully grasp the concept and therefore these ideas over time fade and become part of history because the pieces never quite fit together. The geodesic dome at that time in history was an extremely proven to be efficient use of materials, space, and money. I find the problem of space and living conditions to still be an issue today. So what happened to all Buckminster Fuller's ideas about the geodesic dome and other sustainable living structures? We forgot about them, we let them go.

The background is tiled inkjet acetate transfers. The flawed, miscalculated geodesic dome shapes were silk screened on top followed by the text.

Edition of 5

BUTTON DAY AT OTIS

2010-12-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago around Thanksgiving the AIGA Otis student chapter hosted a Button Day event for all those involved. Here are some of the pins I made that day using scrap paper from test prints for some printmaking projects, scrap paper from school event fliers and some patterned paper. Here are the ones I kept for myself, all the rest were donated for our OTIS AIGA table at the OTIS Holiday Sale.

IDEAS notebook at Poketo.com!

2010-12-03T22:32:00.000-08:00

Check out the IDEAS notebook I designed while interning at Poketo.com! The notebook was part of a gift bag given out at a recent TEDWomen conference and is also sold at Poketo.com. Have a peek around the site, you'll find lots of great stuff.

MAHGEETAH SHOW POSTER: DECEMBER 8TH

2010-11-21T01:07:00.001-08:00

A poster for Mahgeetah. If you're in the bay area December 8th, I suggest checking out their show. Definitely worth catching.

BLACKLETTER EXPLORATIONS

2010-11-04T23:33:00.001-07:00

I'm setting out on a mission to design and silkscreen a limited edition card deck. I was inspired when I stumbled upon and purchased Fraktur mon Amour. I am gravitated towards to beauty of the blackletter typefaces illustrated in the experimentation between the form of the letterform and the patterns it can make when abstracted. Beautiful results in my opinion. Here are some of the explorations I've done so far. I've chosen to approach the image making in the same way the book does. I am using one of the typefaces and exploring what patterns and images I can make when I begin to abstract them and explore their decorative beauty.

WALLPAPER IN ACTION

2010-11-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

The final wallpaper hanging in the hallway of our lab area. Overall success :)

WHEN YOU'RE NOT AROUND

2010-10-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

My latest submission to Mechanism of Minds. The theme for this week was obsession.
ch-ch-ch-check it.

THE FINAL WALLPAPER

2010-10-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

LAYERs 3 & 4: BAAALLLIIIINNNNN!!!!

2010-10-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

Layers three and four, another success. One more color to print!

LAYER 2! SUCCESS ... FOR THE MOST PART!

2010-10-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

Printed my second color today. For the most part I could register them pretty close, I'm hoping for the best when I print my next three colors, but so far so good.

A SLOW START

2010-10-16T22:54:00.001-07:00

I started to print my wallpaper today!! So far I've only printed one color, three more to go!

LIFE AQUATIC INSPIRED PATTERN

2010-10-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

My current screenprinting assignment is to create a wallpaper based on a song. I chose Ping Island Lightning Strike Rescue Op from The Life Aquatic with Team Zissou. Here is what I have come up with so far for the pattern. Hoping to start the printing process soon!!

MY FIRST SILKSCREEN EDITION

2010-10-02T21:13:00.001-07:00

The theme of the assignment was Beginnings and Endings. I chose a lyric from an Of Montreal song "our particles are in motion" to represent the idea that we are always changing, and constantly in transformation and movement. I wanted to layer into this concept it's relationship to our solar system and how it as well is constantly moving and revolving, and how this system reveals time as we experience it. The background image is an image of particles, and I added the planets as a hand drawn element burned onto my screen. It was so exciting to see it all come together.

The edition is mixed of two variations. I noticed that the fluorescent pink showed up better when printed over a lighter color, and gave more of a pop, so for the second half of the printing process I printed the planets in a lighter color and then went over and offset it in fluorescent pink to add depth and suggest slight shift or movement.

STYLE DOES NOT EQUAL FART

2010-09-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

These are the final prints I made in my Experimental Printmaking Processes class this week. I chose to address the importance of style in contemporary graphic design in discussion with the Modernist/ International style. I fixated on Sagmeister's statement that Style=Fart and decided to change that expression into one that celebrates style instead.

I experimented with screen printing with different types of stencils and letting the ink flow where it may without any stencils. I also layered in some spray paint to add some bright color and texture. I burned all the typographic elements on a screen and printed them so that they had a hard edge and were more graphic than the other elements on the page. Interesting results, however I think I was successful in expressing my ideas about style.

LSD BRANDING animated GIF

2010-09-20T23:29:00.001-07:00

DISPLAY

2010-09-19T00:47:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon a site with a rich selection of graphic design history featuring great book and poster designs. The site is called DISPLAY. Here are a few I found especially intriguing:

DECONSTRUCT // RECONSTRUCT : PACKAGE PROJECT

2010-09-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

For this project, we were asked to take a package of your choice and then deconstruct it to reconstruct it into a new packaging design or branding. Using only the visual and typographic elements from the packaging, I decided to take Kleenex brand tissue packaging into a branding of LSD. It was a quick image making project (2 hours) to rearrange existing elements to mean something new. Here are the results:

AIGA RECRUITMENT POSTER

2010-09-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

A collaborative project with Robyn Baker. The poster is a recruitment poster for the AIGA student chapter at Otis.

SCREEN PRINTING TRIALS

2010-09-10T00:31:00.000-07:00

YAAAAYY!!! I'm still working on these, but on they're way to completion. For this project I'm trying to talk about style, and how things can "be pretty and be smart too". I challenge Stefan Sagmeister's claim that Style=Fart. My motive has no intention of downplaying a great and influential designer, but to simply question the statement as it stands on its own. Is style important? Should we care about style? Why do we associate pleasure with evil? Can't we learn and receive information and be visually satisfied at the same time? I still need to add a few more stencils and eventually type, which makes the statement: Style does not equal Fart. Will be posting the final results soon.

SAN FRANCISCO TRIP

2010-09-10T00:19:00.001-07:00

I was in San Francisco labor day weekend and was able to catch the SFMOMA's 75th anniversary show. Lots of cool stuff, here are some images.

DRESS MAKEOVER

2010-09-09T23:39:00.000-07:00

This was a quick project completed during my Advanced Image Making class this week. We were given very out of date dresses and were told to make them "modern". The project arose out of discussion about Modernism and modernity, and what the distinctions between the two are.

Amy, Yongmin, and I transformed the dress by taking off length, adding functionality to the dress with pockets and a feature that allowed you to change the length of the dress on the sides. We also added some new fabric, and spray painted over the original color and pattern of the dress which was absolutely hideous. I wish I had a picture of the original dress, didn't come to mind while it was all happening.

FINDINGS

2010-09-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of things I've piled into my "i like" folder on my desktop. They are the things that I see while surfing this ever expanding web. They are things that make me excited about design.

SOMETHING COOL HAPPENED

2010-09-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a class that I really wanted to take got canceled. At first I was upset because I had wanted to take this class for quite some time. Turns out, however, that there was miraculously some spots in a silkscreening class. I've been wanting to take a silkscreening class for what seems like FOREVER!! Just goes to show that good news can come out of some not so good news.

This is the first print I made today in class in the demo. Haha, silly I know, but my room mate and I who was in the same boat could not help but be super excited!

MAHGEETAH SHOW POSTER NO. 2

2010-08-25T21:42:00.001-07:00

For Mahgeetah's next show on September 10 at the Rockit Room in San Francisco.
Mahgeetah on Facebook.

Recent Finding

2010-08-22T21:22:00.001-07:00

I was browsing around on Etsy for some ideas for a new project I'm going to start, when I stumbled upon GotBadVibes. I saw this and thought it was awesome:

MAHGEETAH

2010-08-11T22:06:00.001-07:00

A poster I designed for some friends' band in San Francisco. Mahgeetah is playing a show in North Beach, San Francisco on August 18th. I promised them I was going to make them something (whether or not they acknowledged it...im not sure), but alas I have done it! I hope they like it.

THINGS I LIKE, BUT DID NOT MAKE

2010-08-08T23:03:00.001-07:00

here are some of the things i've been looking at lately. these are the things that i like, but did not make and one day hope to be making something as cool as them...

mike perry :)

Jay Doronio

stuido bowlegs

i forget where i found this

BETWEEN HERE AND THERE IS NOWHERE

2010-08-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

This is a publication I designed based on three of my visual interests: super mario world, op art, and the yellow submarine (beatles movie). Over time it evolved into a publication revolving around the experience of other dimensions and questioning the truth of our own.

To view the full publication, visit my portfolio page at: http://ospace.otis.edu/steph_treinen/Home//

THE SKATEBOARD IS COMPLETE!!!

2010-08-05T23:33:00.000-07:00

stuffed animal time!

2010-08-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

So I got a sewing machine for my birthday (yaaaay), so the time has come for some more stuffed animal making. This is going to be a gift for my boyfriend's brother. I used his favorite shirt that doesn't fit him anymore. I hope he likes it!

Poster for Pinacoteca Picture Props

2010-07-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is one of a few posters I've designed for Pinacoteca Picture Props, a prop house I've been interning for this summer.

SKATEBOARD NO. 1

2010-06-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm nearly completed with painting my first skateboard. This is not the latest updated image. All that is left to do is to varnish it and add the grip tape on the other side. I plan to cut lightning bolts out of the grip tape to expose some neon green underneath it.

The finished product shall be up shortly :D

Under Construction: OTIS Junior Show Poster

2010-04-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

a collaborative quick poster project between Robyn Baker and myself
for the graphic Junior graphic design show on April 30th. 6-9pm
533 los angeles street

posters, publications, videos, books, installations, good spirits
food and music!

2010-02-06T00:20:00.000-08:00

This is the first stab at trying to establish my current Manifesto project. I am in the process of figuring out a system in which I draw upon three chosen visual interests: Op Art, Super Mario World, Yellow Submarine (1968). As of yet my manifesto is about embracing experimental teleportation methods to find alter dimensions or parallel worlds in between here and there. It is about a purposeful manipulation of science and physics to get your have access to an entirely new and pure form of psychedelic experience.

THE LAMEBRAINS VIDEO

2010-02-06T00:17:00.000-08:00

TIME TO CATCH UP!!!

2010-02-05T22:45:00.001-08:00

These are posters I designed for a theoretical film festival called the Sour Sweets Film Festival that is sponsored by an organization invented by myself called the Lamebrains. The project was to create a series of posters about a film festival that we were to curate. I chose the films Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Somewhere in Dreamland, and Sweet Talk. The theme that I chose to relate them all was candy. I LOVE CANDY. All of the films seemed to use candy as a negative force, different to the way we typically think of candy and sweets. My idea was to create a narrative that displays this idea through exploiting the way that candy literally does damage or release its downside: tooth decay.

Type in Motion:

2009-10-05T22:47:00.001-07:00

"If I only knew then what I know now"
This was an assignment for my Experimental Typography class. It was to relay yourself a message from the future, a message of advice I suppose. I'm not quite satisfied with it. It was a week assignment and I consider this product to be more of a sketch that if given more time could develop into something much cooler.

Let It Be:

Minou

2009-09-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is another stuffed animal I made as a gift. We named it Minou which means "kitty" in French. I used an old pair of chorderoy pants and store bought fabric.

painting in progress

2009-07-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

another painting of a little creature. it's still in progress, i have only begun to detail and develop the environment.

Beetlejuice

2009-07-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

this one is pretty old, but one of my favorites.

BEEEEEP!!!!

2009-06-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

my nocturnal friend.

Finished Painting

2009-06-12T23:09:00.001-07:00

This is the complete version of the painting a few posts below.

Billy Shire Fine Arts Gallery Opening

2009-06-11T16:50:00.001-07:00

There is an art opening at the Billy Shire Fine Arts gallery in Culver cCity on Saturday, June 13th from 7-10 pm.
The opening will feature work by Carrie Ann Baade, Christopher Ulrich and KS Rives. Stop by! There is some great work at the opening and the rest of the collection is fantastic.

Stuffed Animal for my man

2009-06-11T00:39:00.000-07:00

I'm making a stuffed animal monster as a gift to my boyfriend. I found the fabric at joann's and stitched it up by hand. I still need to add the button eyes and a mouth and some more stuffing. Tis not complete!

summer painting

2009-06-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

a new monster in progress.
acrylic on wood panel.

2009-04-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

This is an illustration for the Misfits album Walk Among Us featured in my newspaper project revolving around punk and black metal. The newspaper has an all around child like visual aesthetic within title treatment and the illustrations.

FEAR AND OBSESSION

2009-04-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

fear of monsters, and love of candy!!
watercolor, acrylic and pen on wood board

MONSTER PAINTINGS

2009-04-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

in progress.

a night gnome
Plexiglas and acrylic

SOME SKETCHES

2009-04-24T14:32:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to develop a concept for a book to illustrate. I've come up with a few sketches in regards to characters but I have yet to really come up with a story.

PHOTOGRAPHICS

2009-04-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

35mm black and white film

TYPOGRAPHY I

2009-04-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

My designed cover for my typography I process book.

Typography I Assignment (2B): experimentation with formal and typographical elements in a 4in x 4in composition.

POST NUMBER ONE

2009-04-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

I suppose I should start by posting the work completed or in progress from this past academic year (FALL 08 -- SPRING 09)