Steven Stines is a professional and an educator in the entertainment and publishing industries, working with collaborators and clients in multiple areas of design and illustration as well as project management, presentation, writing, styling, communication and supervision. He is experienced in sourcing, budgeting and purchasing, as well as administration and organization.

His primary artistic influences are Archie comics, the color palette of 1970s Mattel toys, and television variety shows, in particular the designs of Bob Mackie.

Other sources of inspiration include ancient Egyptian art; Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Postmodern design; Paper Moon greeting cards; the work of Helen Dryden, Léon Bakst, Antony Tudor, Adrian and Astaire and Rogers; and all things Chér.

Steven moved to New York in 1983. The first Broadway show he saw was MIchael Bennett's Dreamgirls, followed the next night by Tommy Tune's Nine, both with their original casts. Life has never been the same...

THEATRE

As a theatrical costume designer, Steven Stines has specialized in musical theatre and dance. He has designed costumes for Sheryl Lee Ralph, Marlo Thomas, Olympic skater Linda Fratianne, and a multitude of moonlighting Rockettes, and has worked in New York as resident designer for 29th Street Rep and Spectrum Stage, and in a number of regional theatres. He has costumed performers on cruise ships and at theme parks and designed the The Music City Holiday Spectacular at Opryland.

He has also designed numerous industrials and events, with clients including Rite-Aid, Mazda, Prudential Real Estate, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, the Tournament of Roses, the Pencil Awards, and Miller-Coors. His work has extended to spectacles and events, and he has costumed “neo-burlesque” performers in New Orleans and Las Vegas.

Steven worked as an assistant designer and sketch artist for The Cosby Show, and has been a sketch artist for television, films and commercials. As an assistant designer, he has worked with designers Carrie F. Robbins, Sarah Lemire, Michael Sharp and Stephen Hendrickson, and with Lauren Bacall, Chita Rivera, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and was associate designer for Disney's Magic Kingdom on Ice.

His design work has been featured at FAO Schwartz, the legendary toy store on Fifth Avenue, and at numerous trade shows. He was also an assistant wardrobe designer for the renovation of the Rainbow Room, a complex of restaurants and nightclubs atop Rockefeller Center.

ILLUSTRATION

Steven has illustrated dozens of book covers for St. Martins Press, Little-Brown, Random House, Knopf, Time-Life Books and other publishers. His artwork has appeared hundreds of times in a variety of magazines (Including a number of covers) and in the newspapers The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times.

He has created characters for digital animation, for websites and for an animated television series, “Supertranz.”

He has designed posters, ads and interior décor for nightclubs in New York, and many posters, ads and promotional items for theatre and dance, including for Musical Writers Playground in New York, the Louisville Ballet, Charlotte Ballet and Alabama Shakespeare, and for HBO Home Video.

As an illustrator, he has created hundreds of greeting cards, including every conceivable variation of Santa Claus, as well as dozens of international postage stamps.

PUBLICATIONS

Steven is one of the authors of The Art and Practice of Costume Design (Routledge, 2016), wrote “Cloning Fashion: Uniform Gay Images in Male Apparel” for Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion (Intellect, 2017) and, with Jeanmarie Higgins, is currently at work on Dressing Dance: Costume Design from Court Ballet to Postmodernism.

His artwork is in the permanent collection of the Leslie-Lohman Museum in New York and the Out of the Closet Gay and Lesbian Philatelic Collection, and his costume designs were included in the Aetna Gallery exhibit Hartford Ballet: Behind the Scenes, An Exhibition of Sets and Costumes.

His Illustrations and theatre designs have been published in Still Twisted After All These Years: A Look at the Past 30 Years of Wild and Edgy Humor (Smart Alex), Gay by the Bay (Chronical Books), A Symphonic Crazy Quilt of Designs for Stage and Screen (New York University) and Artist's and Graphic Designer's Market (Writer's Digest Books)

Steven was one of the illustrators profiled in Robert W. Richards' documentary Men Who Draw Men and his costume designs were included in the United Scenic Artists presentation Design for Non-traditional Venues.

TEACHING

Steven has taught costume design, costume history, and rendering, as well as 20th Century style and pop culture, at the University of Florida, Tulane University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and has been a guest artist at Western Kentucky University, St. John’s University and SUNY Stonybrook.

He is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and the United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT), for which he has been Vice-Commissioner for Student Interests and the coordinator of costume portfolio reviews.

He holds an MFA in design from New York University and studied theatre, dance, art and journalism as an undergraduate at Western Kentucky University.