What Gives You Hope? (New Media)

Searching for reasons that give people hopes on Capitol Hill. Teaming up with future Graphic Designer, Gabriel Lopez, we decided to focus our topic on What gives hope to people who came from out of the US. This issue has personal meaning for both of us, it was challenging to ask people around for less than 5 minutes of their time…but persistence is the key and we had lots of fun for this project

an afternoon with Christen Toepel

I heard a lot of murmurs and rumors about New Media class.  Some were encouraging, but most of them sounded pretty nerve wracking.  But my first day of New Media class was a pleasant experience because of the afternoon I spent getting to know Christen Toepel, a neighbor graphic design student who resides in room 5140. Her friendly personality and sweet smile radiates a kind warmhearted welcome to me.

Christen just moved to Capitol Hill, so she can walk to school and practically everywhere else she needs to go. During lunch break, she took me to Healeo, a juice bar and café on 15th Ave. As we sipped our delicious liquid lunch (green juice for her and coconut almond smoothie for me) we walked back to campus. Facts, dreams, and stories were shared.

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Christen Toepel was born and raised in Washington and spent most of her childhood on Bainbridge Island. Growing up, she enjoyed a lot of time outdoors and played a number of sports including volleyball, lacrosse (All-American and captain of her high school team) and table tennis during the holidays with her family. Being raised in a small town with a tranquil, peaceful atmosphere and liberal community has shaped her to become who she is now.

In 2005, Christen moved to Seattle to study at the University of Washington, majoring in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts. Over the course of this program she took a variety of art classes such as printmaking, fibers, surface design, ceramics, metals, papermaking, and many more.

After graduation, she considered pursuing textile design and landed an internship at a fabric showroom, but her interests in several other creative careers made it difficult for her to decide where to focus her energy. A fascination with jewelry design led to another internship with a local jewelry designer. She also took a letterpress class at the School of Visual Concepts and fell in love with letterpress printing. She reached out to a local letterpress artist to ask for an apprenticeship and she and the owner became fast friends. Christen continues to help at Dahlia Press regularly and has learned how digital design can be applied to a centuries-old printing process. From this experience she is inspired to start a small business of her own someday. That’s why she would like to learn as many technical skills as possible, so she can design the business herself from the ground up.

Last spring Christen talked to a friend of a friend who went to SCCA for graphic design and was amazed by her portfolio. She found out more about the program and took a graphic design class at SVC as a trial to see whether it would be a good direction for her. She loved the instructor, she loved the hands-on projects they did, and the experience ultimately fired her up for the program at SCCA.

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It was a really gorgeous Friday afternoon and we were lucky to find the balcony on the 5th floor. Basking in the sun, realizing that it was the last day of our first school week and having a wonderful time with a new friend, I have so many reasons to hear more stories from Christen. This is my favorite “assignment” by far.

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(sunrise at the peak of Mt. Sinai)

FUN FACTS about CHRISTEN:

1. Has been a vegetarian ever since a harrowing experience at Thanksgiving several years ago.

2. Does not drink coffee but loves tea.
3. Loves reading food blogs and experimenting with vegetarian dishes.
4. Favorite artwork that she has made: a large-scale hanging installation that involved dozens of yards of silk fabric, shaped and molded around river rocks, dipped in blue dyes, and then hung by fishing line. She described the final result as a school of jellyfish.
5. While at UW she studied abroad for a semester, traveling on a ship to Hawaii, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Egypt, Turkey, Croatia and Spain. One of the most memorable moments of this trip was hiking Mount Sinai in Egypt. Christen and a few friends started hiking at midnight and reached the peak around 3 a.m. It was freezing and they wrapped up in rented blankets and huddled together for a couple hours of sleep, but it was all worth it when the sun rose and she witnessed the sun, the moon and the stars simultaneously floating above a gorgeous layer of mountains on the horizon.
6. Five things on her bucket list:

I. Start her own creative business.

II. Travel to South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia and WWOOF along the way.

III. Speak another language fluently.

IV. Live in the Southwest and have an enormous succulent garden.

V. Whoop her brother at Ping-Pong. She will beat him someday!