Hi, I’m Austin and I’m a Full Stack Designer

The title “Full Stack Designer” was something I coopted from the Full Stack Developers I work with a while back. In its most simplistic definition, a “Full Stack Developer” means that you can build both front end and back end software. While it’s a catchy title, I think the “full stack” designation is a bit of a misnomer though, because everyone’s “stack” is a little bit different. There are an endless number of both front and back end languages and technologies, and no one person can truly have mastery of them all, right?
Obviously you couldn’t give a Full Stack Dev, who spends most of their time in JavaScript, a task in GO and expect a flawless and timely output. It’ll always be beneficial to have some experience with the domain you’re working in, but I think the perception of a “Full Stack Developer” is that, given time, they have the critical thinking skills to solve a problem in an unknown domain with their knowledge from other domains. I believe this to be true for designers as well. I may not know the first thing about woodworking, but given time, I can use my skills as a Designer to understand the audience, the environmental context, and the intended uses to effectively communicate through a coffee table or a website or a poster.
“If you can design one thing well, you can design everything well.”
— Massimo Vignelli
So that’s a bit about my philosophy on design and my professional title, but if you’re looking for some more specifics about who I am, look no further that this neat list of my likes and dislikes.
Likes:
- 35mm Photography
- Woodworking
- Football (Portland Timbers & Leicester City are my teams)
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Gardening
- Vegan cooking
- Making and experiencing art
- Building things
- Fixing things
- Doing things
- Thinking about things
Dislikes:
- The idea that designers just “make things pretty”
- Banana Laffy Taffy
- Touching cornstarch or wet plastic bags
- Squeaky windshield wipers
- Drippy faucets
- Salad on plates