OSF products for Spacing Store get a mention in Toronto Life's "The Goods"

Quote:
Says Spacing’s publisher Matthew Blackett, “We wanted to uphold our ethos, which is trying to change the city in a positive way.” The retail project they’re the most proud of? Screen-printed skate decks designed by students enrolled in alternative credit program Oasis Skateboard Factory’s wood-shop class. (Visitors can grab one for $120, and know that 70 per cent will go to the teen artist.) 
Full Article:
http://www.torontolife.com/style/toronto-stores/2014/11/28/store-guide-spacing/

Meet the Artists: OSF on WE365

Check out the full article: http://we365.com/meet-artists-oasis-skateboard-factory/

Twitter @CraigOSF: OSF Installation crew setting up the MO DECKS for MOVEMBER event at Gladstone Hotel..

Mo Decks at Gladstone Hotel 7-11PM: Join OSF at a Skateboard Art Auction & Fundraiser for MOVEMBER Tonight!

It's great when old graduates come in to paint in the OSF Studio after school....hey, nice first layer down!

Another OSF x LOADED "Get on Board" Award, given this time to a student who hustled up 3 design commissions on a Monday Morning!

OSF students earning Community Hours helping out Roarockit at MakerFaireTO

It's so awesome to see OSF Students develop woodworking design skills in such a short period of time this Semester using Roarockit technology (Custom Symmetrical Freeride for Client in Process...)

Gladstone Hotel 7-11PM: Join OSF at a Skateboard Art Auction & Fundraiser for MOVEMBER Tonight!

Uneasy

Hi, I am a returning OSF student.  I have been working on my brand, which is focussed on two different things.  It's called Uneasy.  I want to embrace two things that are at the opposite of the spectrum. It is bringing together the idea of pretty, but I hate that word and the idea of darkness.  It is sort of like me, people call me "Hippy-Punk".  It is changing people's perception of what pretty is, that pretty can also be dark and disturbing.

The theme of my board intertwines with my brand.  It includes a skull with horns that I drew by hand surrounded by flowers. My inspiration was my grandmother's garden: her flowers were beautiful and I really wanted to put them on a skateboard, with one of my own images to add some darkness.

I pressed the board using 7 sheets of Canadian Maple veneer; two of the veneers were colour infused red using Roar Rocket technology.  I cut out a custom pool deck shape then I rounded the edges.  I wood-burned the graphic and the logo, and water coloured the flowers red.  I incorporated balance into the design to make a more symmetrical design.  I also used line, which is emphasized with the wood-burning technique.

I am trying to change people's perception of pretty or beautiful with the board.  Making this board, I learned it is a lot more difficult trying to make a custom shape but it was worth it. I love my board!

Ramp Tramp

Yo what’s up I’m a new student at OSF and I find myself liking the art and skateboarding world and this classroom is the perfect place to be in for the fact that you are surrounded by upcoming artists and teachers that will open your mind up to those worlds. This is my first board that I imagined and executed myself. My brand “Ramp Tramp” exists to empower people to skate anywhere without the fear of stereotyping. I believe everyone, bros and broads, are equal in the culture of skateboarding. This graphic represent two characters: the male character is rockin’ a hot pink bikini; the female character is killin’ it in some sick skater gear. I purposefully swapped what they stereotypically would be seen wearing to show how as women are still treated as objects and ornaments in the skate world.

This board was made with 7 maple veneers. The bottom layer was spraypainted with a limited colour palette that represents an old style pop/punk feeling that I’m trying to reflect in my Ramp Tramps brand. The graphic was designed as a mirror image of the two characters to represent leveling out the playing field. I wanted to make my logo look like a sticker, so I made the background a bit bigger to give the contour more pop and contrast. The style of my graphic is inspired by Bikini Kill (a riot grrrl band) and cartoons including Family Guy and Rick & Morty animations. I applied my graphic using a tape stencil and aligned each layer using carbon paper tracings. Cutting stencils can really suck sometimes and probably causes carpet Tunnel Syndrome (ha), but it’s a really effective and easy way to get an image on a board.

I am happy with how this board  turned out. Through the process I found that you really need to follow each step and spend extra time to align everything. You also need to be aware of cut marks being too deep; next time I will have less of a heavy hand! My next board will be 500 times better as I learned a lot about the process. I am super stoked to start to develop a logo and get input from my mentors at Anomaly.

Graphics & Woodworking partially done on OSF x MOVEMBER boards...wait till you see the completed boards...you'll definitely want to bid on one of these babies at Wednesday's auction to support men's health (Mo Decks event at Gladstone Hotel Wednesday 7pm)!

Siiick OSF x ANDREW POMMIER collab shop deck in the works for January 2015 launch...students are Stoooked!

Event: OSFxMOVEMBER Toronto skateboards auctioned as a fundraiser for men's physical & mental health this Wednesday!

National Post online has another photo of OSF student work for sale at the new SPACING store:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/11/20/spacings-new-retail-store-has-everything-a-person-of-the-ur-toronto-type-would-ever-need/#

@CraigOSF: Proud TDSB Students celebrating with their Toronto themed products included in the SPACING Store Launch today! http://t.co/1BIKi8cXOJ

OSF student designed boards for $120 in the new SPACING store at 401 Richmond as promoted by National Post

TDSB's Oasis Skateboard Factory products for the new SPACING Magazine Toronto Store featured in National Post (Friday, Nov. 21, 2014)

Building a composite sculpture of 6 skaters doing 1 trick (OSF x SCULPTRAITS 3D printing)...next step: morphing into Rats!

Full body scan of a casper-flip (OSF x SCULPTRAITS 3D printing)...

Gr12 OSF Art Students visualizing 3D printing collab sculpture at SCULPTRAITS

Check out OSF Toronto themed boards on sale at the new SPACING Store

OSF x MOVEMBER skateboards being pressed...

OSF designer demonstrates the stool she made out of old skate parts at CONS PROJECT last week...

Detail of OSF x MOVEMBER skateboards in process for the fundraiser Nov. 26 at the Gladstone Hotel

OSF (Toronto) x ROADSWORTH (Montreal) boards in process...

Toronto Reference Library has TDSB's Oasis Skateboard Factory & West End Alternative School student made zines in their collection

http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/arts_culture/2014/11/canzine-2014.html

Gladstone Hotel documents OSF Crew's afternoon hanging with Shepard Fairey/OBEY

Story & photos here: http://www.gladstonehotel.com/uncategorized-1/shepard-fairey-art-installation-/

OSF crew in the new OBEY IN TORONTO video:

Watch video here http://vimeo.com/108507687

SCUM LOVE

I'm a student at Oasis Skateboard Factory school and this is a board I made for my brand Scum Love. Scum Love is something for people who have been told in life that they are worthless scum. A person who won't amount to anything. With punk undertones through out the artwork of SL, we take those negatives and make them positives. Because we are all worth something, we have the ability to make something amazing. Embrace your title as Scum!

On the deck I have the SL mascot, an unnamed punker. His censored eyes shows anonymity; it is not just him but all of us. Dressed head to toe in raggedy clothes he stitched together himself, he presents the DIY motive that SL wants to celebrate. The main colours of army greens, earth browns, black and white were put on the board with spraypaint and paint markers. The board was hand pressed together on a form to make the awesome board you see in front of you!

No Worries

No Worries is about spreading positive vibes through skateboarding and sacred geometry. Sacred geometry can be found all throughout the universe, in all sizes and scales, and in most religions and ancient texts. It has been said that people that have, and understand, a piece of sacred geometry in their everyday life are more positive, and just feel all around better about life. The particular geometry used in this piece, consists of the seed of life, which is the essential form of the flower of life, and the Star Tetrahedron, or Merkahbah. The seed of life represents the creation of life, and the further progression of life. The star tetrahedron, represents the "chariot of assention" or in ancient and Jewish texts it was referred to as the Merkahbah. The graphic itself as a whole represents the progression from birth, to enlightenment, and assention into the next dimension as a spiritual being. It exists to inspire the realization that you are a spirit (or whatever you want to call it) having a human experience, and that you, as an energy, are not limited by anything. Unlimited potential. 

I hope to inspire skateboarders to push their limits, and to amplify their creativity, positivity, and confidence. The logo you find (NW) by the back truck holes, is actually an unfolded iscosahedron, one of the sacred platonic solids. The iscosahedron is a twenty triangular sided three dimensional polygon, that represents water, going with the flow, in other words trusting and having faith within the universe. On top you find the full Flower of Life, so even when the graphic wears off you still have your grip tape to remind you the universe has got your back ;)

To make this graphic I used left over frozen pizza boxes to make three stencils: The Seed of Life, the star tetrahedron (incorporating the Vesica Pisces, and the ratio of Phi) and the unfolded icosahedron that is the No Worries logo. The graphic was lined up by eye and spray painted by hand. The board itself consists of 7 layers of Canadian Maple and is 32” long and 8.6” wide. Sounds like a boat but this board rides like a dream!

Ninety Nines

Hey there! This is my second year at Oasis Skateboard Factory School. My brand is Ninety Nines. It's a graffiti based brand that exists to spread knowledge and history of the graffiti subculture itself. The theme of my graphic is illustration. I used the quote "All you see is crime in the city" by graff writer Skeme, (which he had also painted) in the graffiti documentary 'Style Wars'.

To make this mini I used 100% Canadian Maple veneers, which included one blue-dyed veneer. Using wood glue, I glued the veneers together and put it into a mold. From there I put the mold with the veneers on it into a Roarockit vacuum bag, pumped the air out and left it overnight. The next step was woodworking. With a surform shaving tool I scraped my edges down so they become flush. After that I hit the edges at a 45 degree angle so I could move on to rounding my edges. To round my edges I used a sanding belt and rounded the edges around the entire board. Next I used sandpaper to sand the faces of the board. I started with 80 grit on both sides, to 180, to 220. The final woodworking step was wet sanding. I took a damp paper towel and went over the board in sections to raise any leftover splinters from the veneer and sanded it down with 220 to get a nice smooth surface. Finally I did my graphic. Instead of doing a tape stencil graphic I wanted to try engraving the board. I resized my original design so it would fit nicely with the shape of the board. From there I took a pencil to scribble the back so I could mimic carbon paper and transfer my design without getting the veneer dirty. I used a dremmel tool to engrave my design. To make it pop I went in with a white sharpie paint marker so the quote would be more visible.

I'm trying to communicate that graffiti can sometimes send messages and to also show how constantly sketching letters can branch out to doing other things, such as creating hand done illustrations, sign painting, etc. I'm quite content with the outcome of my board this year. I originally did not want to use any paint or paint marker in this design but to keep it strictly engraved. While engraving the board I noticed the veneer was completely dyed through, making the design quite hard to read. My classmate recommended that I go in it with paint marker so I tried it out and it looked pretty good. Hopefully I get another opportunity to engrave boards, I really enjoyed doing it and would love to continue using this method.

Gnarwhal Skate Co.

Yo, wassup?! I'm a first semester student at OSF. My brand that I have created is Gnarwhal Skate Co.. For my first board I stencilled the word gnarwhal in a graff font that is also known as a throwie or throw-up. The colour scheme that I chose for my board is yellow, blue and miscellaneous colours that I splattered onto my board. I chose these colours because they're vibrant and nice on the eyes. I used the splatter affect to give it some pop.

The way this board was made was with Roarockit technology. We took 7 wood veneers, glued them, and then pressed them in a vacuum seal bag. After the board was pressed I had to do a lot of sanding. After that I taped up the whole board to create the stencil of my throwie. To get the splatter effect I had to press the cap down really lightly so that it would spit.

My brand is about having a good time and bringing people together; this relates to me because that's what I'm all about, just chillin' and having a good time. I like to skate with my homies at skateparks and random skate spots. I also like graffiti a lot which is why I decide to make the throwie stencil. Some of my favourite graffiti artist in toronto are Kwest, Poser ABM, Agens ABM, WC crew, BA crew, BSM crew, LSD crew, KPS crew, and HSA crew. LOL, I guess almost all crews in Toronto inspire me!

I was pretty happy with the outcome of my board, even though it didn't come out the way it was planned. I ended up doing the stencil backwards and improvised the the whole board from there.
It was kinda stressful, but in the end it was really fun and a good experience.

Gekek

I am a native graffiti artist trying to make my mark in the business industry. The theme of my personal skateboard is native art infused with graffiti. My inspirations are the skate company Crooked, Ojibwa art style, and Nouns who is a Toronto graffiti artist who helped me get into the world of graffiti. The materials I used were spray paint, paint markers and stencils. My use of the Principals of Design includes two different tones of yellow and a feather stencil to give the background a misted, textured effect. I also used colours from the medicine wheel to create a more Native feel. I am trying to communicate who I am and what graffiti and native culture means to me. I feel my first skateboard came out pretty good and sends a nice vibe about my company.

Gluttonous

I'm a student at Oasis Skateboard Factory. I have been attending this school for about a year now and ever since I started I have loved every minute of being here. This beauty is my personal deck. I wood burned "That's Gluttonous" on my deck because whenever I see someone putting so much passion and energy into something they love, the first thing that comes to mind is my brand. You could say I see the hunger that someone goes through when they really want to accomplish something. My brand's theme is passionate hunger; the feeling that fills up your whole body with a need or a undying hunger to go for what you feel most passionate about. What inspired my brand is the seven deadly sins from an anime called Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. I also did some research on the sins to learn more about them. My brand is based of the sin gluttony, which is the act of over eating or to put it simply, to over indulge in something you enjoy a lot.

When making this board I used 7 veneers of 100% great Canadian maple that I vacuumed sealed with wood glue on a foam mold that has the shape of the board that I wanted to make. After the board was done being pressed, I began scraping away at the edges to make them even with each other. Then I made a 45 degree bevel to start rounding the edges of the board. Once that was done, I begin to do a surface sand, starting with 80 grit sanding paper then 180, and then I finished with 220. Finally I finished sanding the board with a wet sand. A wet sand is done using a damp sponge and lightly wetting the board just enough to raise the grain a bit to get a perfectly smooth surface. Once I finished all of that, I began to wood burn my text.

I chose to keep the style simple, because I like to think of my brand as pretty simple.  I chose a black veneer because I thought it would look nice to have a black background.  I chose the font style because it is kind of rough and raw in a way, similar to the passion I see in other people.  What I am trying to communicate is just simply the phrase, my brand, "That's Gluttonous".

I chose to do a mini board because I already have a long board and street deck. Personally I love this board, I feel it came out really well.  I learned how to wood burn doing this board, and in terms of the designs I come up with, this is an easier way to get it on the board.

ISMS Apparel

I am a first semester Grade 12 student at Oasis Skateboard Factory. The brand that I started is called ISMS Apparel. ISMS Apparel exists to disrupt the mass cultural acceptance of graffiti and bring the art form back to its true roots.

I chose a black white and grey graphic that reads “STREET ART IS A CRIME” across the center of the deck, with a portrait of a police officer on the nose end and a modified ISMS Apparel logo on the tail end. The design was inspired by the “GRAFFITI IS A CRIME” posters that a graffiti writer may see in a police station after being arrested. This design was meant to remind the people who love street art and hate graffiti of the fact that it all starts with a creative act of vandalism.

I made my board by pressing 7 Canadian maple veneers using a Roarockit street deck mold. Then I shaped the edges and sanded the entire board with 4 grades of sand paper. After that I drew a sketch and got to work on my graphic which I applied using spray painted tape stencils. Overall I was happy with my finished board, but next time I would like to plan out my graphic better so that I would not have to use so much paint.

I Doughnut Care

I’m a new student to OSF this year, and I’m syked to be at this school. Being able to create cool graphics and earn credits for it is one of many awesome things about this school.

This semester my brand is “I Doughnut Care” and it exists to empower people to be self expressive through morbidly adorable graphic expression. I chose this as my brand because there isn’t a lot of alternative styled brands that suit my interests or others like mine, and by that I mean brands with bold and awesome graphics that are cute, fun and...gory!

I named it “I Doughnut Care” mainly because I don’t care if others don’t like what I’m into or they don’t like what I wear because I like it. I wanted my brand to empower people to be more like this and just feel ok with being themselves. Why I chose the doughnut as part of my brand? Easy: I have
yet to meet someone who has an immense hatred for doughnuts…who doesn’t love them, I know I do!

To make this board I used standard Roarockit techniques: I glued 7 Canadian maple pre-cut veneers
together and put them in a Roarockit air sealed bag overnight and then sanded them board thoroughly. Next was the fun part. To make my graphic I drew out a design template for my board. Then, using tape stencils, one layer at a time, I spray painted and sealed this awesome doughnut board.

I’m very happy with how my board the turned out. It has my four favorite things: cute stuff, gore,
junk food and pink! I learned so much from this school already and I can’t wait for more.

The Chosen Juan Ink

I landed in Canada about four years ago from Colombia due to multiple issues that my family and I had to go through, and simply were not able to overcome. As my life continued on Torontonian grounds, I quickly started to identify the contrast between the South American ways and the “Canadian Dream”, where youth are bombarded with so many opportunities that they don't know how to take advantage of them and some (I'd even say most) decide to conform with a good-paying job that makes them sort of happy. That's is why The Chosen Juan Ink is all about challenging conformity and revolting against the nonsensical norm...slaughter them with kindness!

This board is meant to illustrate the vast contrast that we see these days around us in between those whom are unhapply satisfied with their lives surrounded by mediocrity, feeling trapped by the idea of comfort and not justifying a change, and those who have been going against the grain since day one, wrongfully believing that there should not be any sort structure or balance whatsoever. Then, we have the Slimer green being us – youth, attempting to create a change like everybody else but this time, we want to do it right. Not by fighting against anyone's ideas without a compelling argument, but rather trying to comprehend where they are coming from and maybe then understand, out of the margins of the already established “Good and Bad” mentality, why they think the way they do. This will be the only way we will ever be able to make a change what matters and lasts.

When designing this board, I wanted to utilize the wood in a much more organic, fluent way. Working with the wood grain of the wood veneer was my choice. First I applied frisket on the graphic side of the board (resulting in a much easier and cleaner stencil) and then I cut out what would become black wood grain. I created an original acrylic-fine-liner type of tool to be able to apply small, elongated amounts of paint that later on I'd scratch with a sharp, pointy object to get the jagged effect of the woodgrain division. In terms of branding, I wanted to do something different and wood burning sounded interesting. I'm quite satisfied with this product and look forward to creating more multi-media work.

Mint

This is my first year at OSF.  For my personal board assignment I decided to paint a feather in a watercolour style using acrylic paint onto a longboard. I originally saw a similar image as a tattoo and decided that it's shape would be well suited to the shape of a longboard. I also decided to leave the natural woodgrain showing in the background as it sort of added to the "organic" feel.

This all ties in quite well to the feel that I am trying to create for my brand, Mint. It's something clean and fresh as this type of "fine arts" approach to skateboard/longboard graphics is not something I typically see. I am trying to keep with an organic feel to the graphics, using nature ihages to inspire me.

The board itself was made by pressing together 7 maple veneers on a mold using a vacuum seal Roarockit bag. Then the edges were sanded down until they were all flush, and then rounded. After everything was sanded down one last time and then I began to paint on my graphic.

I learned a lot about forethought and planning when it came to this project, and about paying attention to detail. Overall I am satisfied with how this came out.

Olympian

Hey, this is my first year at OSF. I’m heavily interested in skateboarding and graffiti. My brand name is Olympian, and I aim to remind my fellow skaters about the heavenly escape from reality that is skateboarding.

The approach is a clean abstract crystal effect and calligraphy. My inspiration pulls from multiple artists impacting the current handstyle or “calligraffiti” scene; Saber, Faust, Sniper, StompDownKillaz, etc. Templates used for the InTrap videos on Youtube influenced the abstract triangles used. The deck was personally pressed and hand crafted. The geometric shapes were achieved by a misting technique I use that utilizes overspray. The calligraphy was free-handed and faded onto the board through tape stenciling. The Elements and Principles of Design I used were Shape for the background, Proportion for the calligraphy, and Contrast for the colour. With this board in particular I was promoting the modernization and evolution of graffiti beginning with handstyles/tags. I’m quite fed up with graffiti’s reputation to be looked at as old-school and grimey. The graffiti world has moved on people!  

 My first personal board came out exactly the way I wanted it to, but I can’t ignore the few lessons and personal notes I’ve learned along the way. #1 thing I’ve learnt is to keep an eye on your bag when pressing your deck to avoid delamination and warping. I’d also like to create my own mold the next time around so I can fully personalize my brand.

BS

Why hello there and thank you for taking to time to read my totally awesome artist statement. So first off, I am a student attending Oasis Skateboard Factory… which is actually a school if you can believe it! But yeah, considering the fact that I’m currently 21 and still in school, I’m glad I have actually found an intriguing program that has practical use and such a unique way to go about earning credits, because now I find myself actually eager to attend and finally finish.

So enough about me, lets talk about this board… I decided to do my own distorted / altered Canadian flag that is shredded and covered in blood, and a bloody handprint as the centerpiece instead of the maple leaf. I have an American flag popping through the rips of the Canadian flag to express the fact that we as a nation are losing our individuality and that we are basically being reduced to being another star on their banner.

The message that I’m portraying is basically that we as Canadians have lost our individuality as a nation, and that over the last 10 years political powers have gotten puppets like Harper, Bush, and Obama to sell all of our natural resources, our borders... and in some cases… our citizens (Marc Emery) and Ultimately they have made the North American Union… so 100% we are just the 51st state of America.

I’m really into dark imagery or art that has a powerful message and has a unique / graphic way to express that message. So with that said, obviously my main inspiration would be Sheppard Fairey (creator of the “Obey” brand) for his iconic art has made him an undisputed legend in street art history. His whole body of works such as his murals, brand, and his style and his political messages are 100% what I could only hope that I could come close to.

Out of the elements & principles of design, I mainly only wanted to focus on contrast because I feel that contrast is what really brings out an images composition and really makes things POP. So I decided to stick with the limited colour pallette of black, white, and different shades of red because I feel that it captures the aggressiveness and emotion I wanted to convey.

This board was crafted with 7 Canadian maple veneers, pressed together with Roarockit technology, then shaped, sanded, tape stenciled, and sprayed to perfect imperfection (ha!) with my own hands with various colours of Montana Black spray paint.

I feel that there is obvious room for improvement to be quite honest. But I’m still rather happy with the overall result, but I need to keep it simple next time.

FEW GEN

Hey readers, I've been skating since 2009. I started skating years after playing Home League American Football for the North York Grizzlies. I became lazy and thought the skateboarding culture was very interesting. Skateboarding was a culture in itself, but the interesting part was the way it blended itself with fashion trends: hip- hop culture, art culture, etc. Born a Sagittarius, my mind is known for being highly creative. I’m big on Astrology and Numerology. I believe that the sky we all look up to today I view differently than most. So why not explore the 4 corners of my brain and put it on my board?

I decided to make the theme Zodiac constellations, stars, and planets with life on them. There are no aliens in this mythology but there are Egyptian Gods and Queens creating new generations on these planets and bringing the futuristic life styles to the past-life with technology we haven’t seen to this day. The Kings and Queens will wear gold crowns with their cities moulded into them with futuristic accessories to represent their royalty. This mythology allows me to be very creative and free with different ideas. 

My biggest inspirations involving music has to be Tyler the Creator and Kanye West. Both rappers are big on fashion and art, and excel in it. As for skateboard companies, Supreme, Vans shoes and Girl really inspired me to start skating. Personally I’m more than impressed with my board! I started off with a blue wood stain to help create the outer space look I was going for. Oasis helped me make this possible and now I’m more than excited to put this board on my wall. I will treasure my board as if it were a child.

A handsome way to upcycle an old skateboard (OSF x MOVEMBER)

Oasis Skateboard Factory Student Crew achieve a 92% Course Pass Rate at Midterm Report Cards: TDSB Alt9 schools = Student Success!