Stories

Where can you find nearly every issue of MAD Magazine, Twin Peaks trading cards and a Star Trek tie? Perhaps more likely to be...

2020 has been a momentous turning point in our lives. A global pandemic. Massive protests for racial justice. A divisive election. Moments that have amplified our fears, hopes and memories. We asked Toledoans what they would place in a time capsule from this historic year to be opened in 50 years. Here is what they would leave for the Toledoans of 2070.

For the last several decades, malls across the country have been closing one after another, leaving behind not only abandoned buildings, but also renewed interest in what malls mean to people, why they are disappearing in the first place and what can be done to save them (or if they should be saved at all). Toledo, Ohio, for example, remains enamored with the memory of its long-gone shopping complexes and what they meant for a thriving, mid-sized, Midwestern city. Cover graphic by Jessie Walton for Midstory.

The saying goes that you can only have two of three options: good, fast, cheap. In a world challenged by COVID-19 and other underlying unrest in 2020, however, designers are tasked with satisfying all three to solve complex societal issues. This piece outlines how formal and informal design can shape a world in trouble, and attempts a more human response to extraordinary circumstances. Cover graphic by Whitney Baxter for Midstory.

The word Ohio is one that elicits conflicting emotions and thoughts in me. The state is my home but also a place I’ve sought to leave. It’s a source of both pride and frustration. Leaving for college and then returning on a quasi-temporary basis has helped define the nature of my relationship with Ohio—one that’s been aided by distance. José Pablo Fernández García is a sophomore at Princeton University, currently residing in his hometown outside of Cincinnati during the pandemic. (Part I of a two-part series.)

It might seem counterintuitive that entertainment and cultural icons thrive during tremendous times of hardship, but history has proven it true.  During the Great Depression,...

Toledo ABCs is a mini-series that highlights, from A to Z, just a sampling of those aspects that make Toledo unique and, in some cases, world-renowned. Designed to be viewed individually or as a set, the graphics use archival images, photography and white space constrained by typeface outlines to memorialize the beauty and significance in what we often might see as mundane.

Vintage whiskey bottles, faded newspaper clippings and lengthy historical descriptions are perhaps most likely to be found in a small, eclectic museum. But Toledo, Ohio’s history buffs have found an unlikely place for archiving, research and lasting connection: Facebook. With as many as 15,000+ members and 20+ posts a day that garner hundreds of comments and reactions in a single group, the community is one of the most lively public forums in the mid-sized Midwestern town.

Few things are quite as Midwestern as long, open roads on monotonously flat stretches of land, broken up by fantastically mismatched billboards firmly staked...

Geography, politics and demographics are all typical ways we define regions, but Twitter account @midwestern_ope demonstrates a more creative approach: jokes, memes & good ol’ fashioned self-deprecation that make fun of but also highlight the people and day-to-day characteristics of the Midwest. In the process, these tweets highlight Midwestern identity in a manner often left out of the national conversation recently focused on the region’s politics.