austinstair.com » design

good is inspiration

austin stair — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:02:30 +0000

i was looking at the newest issue of good magazine today, and there was a section on neighborhood flags.

For GOOD 019: The Neighborhoods Issue, we asked a few talented designers, artists, and illustrators to create flags celebrating their neighborhoods. The results were published in the magazine – and are now available online. Mouse over any flag below to see the name of the artist the ‘hood that it represents, and click on the flags to learn more.

i scanned through all the flags and found the four that referenced minneapolis (loring, south, powderhorn, AND uptown were all represented! nice work 612!). of course, you know what i did next, right? i googled the designers of each flag.

call me a stalker, but information is my opiate and in this opiate i am inspired.

the south mpls designer, j-zachary keenan, has simple yet gripping aesthetic and i found myself right clicking on many of his images, tabs upon tabs of text and lines and shapes.

j. zachary keenan's south mpls flad

i wouldn’t know him if i passed him on minnehaha, but that’s the glory of these twisted ‘nets. you are connected to someone who could be your neighbor and then you are sitting on the digital domain of a designer thousands of miles away.

call it freaky, but the internet is my opiate and in this opiate i am inspired.

for you. from me.

austin stair — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:15:37 +0000

thank you to the guys at I wrote this for you, Dan Rodriguez, and Choplogik for the gifts today – and i now share the love with you.

the iPad: iWantIt … but do i need it?!

austin stair — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:15:00 +0000

after much speculation, today apple’s website reflects the release of the “iPad” – its first large-scale tablet-like portable device. the iPad looks like an enormous iPhone – and has many of the same capabilities (apps, email, web browsing). my first reaction to seeing the iPad was, “wow, this is SO rad!” – a very similar to a justification for the cell phone in a book i’m reading for a seminar in media and technology that i’m taking this semester.

however, as i thought more about it, i wondered if it’s just a little TOO much. i was talking to my advisor about it, and she made a few hilarious comments about trying to fit the iPad in your back pocket. i responded that, i guessed low-rise jeans were going to be a thing of the past.

seriously, i have to wonder why i think that the iPad is so rad, so sleek, so awesome, that i would even think about setting aside a month’s rent to buy it (don’t worry mom, i won’t!). i love apple, hard, and my iPhone even harder, but is that enough justification – especially since i love hard copies of books, think the Kindle is silly/ugly, and would rather do a crossword puzzle in pen and get newsprint all over my hands then fill in a grid with rote helvetica font.

that all being ranted, my birthday is only a few months away … just sayin’ …

back to basics

austin stair — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 04:41:00 +0000

limbo.

it’s where i’ve been for the past month as far as my digital presence is concerned. i’m ready to step up my 2.0 game. i’m ready to brand myself as something more than beer and bacon. but (and this is where the limbo comes in and where a back bend comes in handy) i don’t know WHAT i want that presence to look like.

actually, you and i both know that’s not true. i know exactly what i want this site to look like – the question is how? … and when? … and how? … and when? …

i don’t seem to have the time to fully devote myself to creating my brainchild, nor do i have all the expertise i wish i had to fit it with all the [subtle] bells and whistles that i envision. in real life, austinstair is about a 1.9. until i can operate fully at 2.0, we are downgrading.

because while i’ve been waiting impatiently for the right moment to upgrade my site, i’ve also been itching to write and ideas have piled up, some lost forever. in homage to those ideas, the ones that may never be recovered, i decided to just scrap most of my stylesheet and start typing.

what you see here is what you get. one or two posts at a time. plain, low-styled text. you’ll have a chance to actually READ what i’m saying and LOOK at my pictures without a distracting, albeit, witty header.

i have no idea how or how long this will continue. for now, this is the moment and this is my blog.

i’m happy to be back.

after all, i did spend the week in nerd camp

austin stair — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:21:00 +0000

amazing use of social media as active learning in the classroom – michael wesch’s twitter and the world simulation

design and content inspiration

austin stair — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:01:00 +0000

there is so much out there these days on ye old interweb that it can be overwhelming to keep all these [nerdy] inspirations from blurring together. from prints and pattern to logos and letterpress, i am going to try and do a better job of cataloging such here.

today i was particularly inspired by this video created by ronnie bruce with a poem from taylor mali. many thanks to one of my new favorite websites [crowdspring] for the link.

watch it … and then i’d love to know your favorite line. i’ve posted mine in the comments section as to not give you a “head start” …

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.