Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.
Ryunosuke Satoro • Japanese Writer
I began my journey in graphic design in 1998 at Texas State University, where professors Jeffrey Davis and William Meek instilled in me a deeply conceptual approach to design. That foundation was further reinforced during my graduate studies at Texas State from 2009 to 2012.
Years later, I had the privilege of teaching alongside my mentors and friends for five years. Yet it wasn’t until recently that we found the right reason to collaborate again—not as professor and student, but as peers. What began as a desire to keep the good old times alive evolved into a rigorous, honest, and genuinely joyful design collaboration.
As a group, we set out to produce award-level posters for UnMuted 100, a select international collection of posters and motion graphics addressing the global challenges facing our world today—regional wars, limits on personal freedom, authoritarian governments, environmental degradation, famine, the impact of artificial intelligence, and mass migration. Designers from around the world have raised their voices on these issues, and we wanted our work to be part of that conversation.
In the past, during my time as a BFA and MFA student under their professorship and as a colleague during my tenure at TXST, we often spent weekends developing concepts together, responding to briefs from initiatives such as Good 50×70 and Poster for Tomorrow, and organizing weekend design sprints for our students. Those exercises were formative. This time, however, felt different. There were no classrooms and no hierarchy—just long nights of collaboration.
The three of us art-directed, designed, questioned assumptions, and, at times, fiercely defended our decisions. We also jumped into building files together. From roughly forty concepts, we ultimately agreed to submit twenty-four—the strongest solutions. Three posters were selected.
Creatives and designers do not create—or exist—in isolation. For the three of us, as designers and educators, this collaboration was also a way to demonstrate how design truly happens in our industry.
Graphic design, while rooted in artistic knowledge and sometimes natural talent, is not fine art created by a single individual in solitude. It is inherently collaborative. In practice, designers work alongside art directors, typographers, illustrators, copywriters, photographers, stylists, and many others. Powerful, memorable design outcomes are rarely achieved alone.
Even a simple “What do you think?” reflects a culture of shared resources, critique, and questioning—all in service of making the work stronger. Often, this happens simply for the joy of design and the belief that ideas improve through dialogue.
I am deeply grateful for the mentorship that evolved into friendship, for the discipline and generosity of collaboration, and for the reminder that meaningful design is built on trust, debate, and shared history.
I’m proud to share that this work is now part of UnMuted 100, an initiative by Patti Judd, B. Martin Pederson, Kit Hinrichs, and the team at Graphis Publishing. The competition was juried by internationally renowned creatives whose work has shaped the field of graphic design and illustration, including Kit Hinrichs, the Balbusso Twins, Steff Geissbuhler, Huang Hai, Carmit Haller, Fons Hickmann, Anita Kunz, Jean‑Benoît Levy, Hugh Miller, and Ariane Spanier. Three posters were selected from 375 entries by designers worldwide, with only 100 works featured in the final printed collection.
It is also a great honor to share pages in this publication with internationally recognized designers and illustrators, including Atelier Starno, Craig Frazier, Chris Hill, Kit Hinrichs, Michael Pantuso, and Michael Schwab, among others. Being included alongside voices that have long influenced and shaped the discipline makes this recognition especially meaningful.
Whether as an Assistant Professor of Art teaching graphic design at Baylor University, a Master Ideator at Legacy79, or through spontaneous collaborations with Jefe Made, I find that experiences like this reaffirm why collaboration and design education matter—not just as preparation for professional practice, but as lifelong engines of critical thinking, creative rigor, joy, and friendship.
Looking back, what stays with me most is not the selection itself but the process. Revisiting collaboration with those who shaped my thinking reminded me that design is less about individual authorship and more about shared responsibility—to the idea, the message, and each other.
As educators, we often talk about collaboration as a skill to be learned. As practitioners, we experience it as a necessity. And yes—recognition is fun and genuinely joyful. It builds rapport, visibility, and momentum. But for the three of us as professors, it also carries real weight. At R1 and R2 institutions, this kind of work is a meaningful part of tenure and promotion responsibilities. Projects like this sit at the intersection of creative practice, research, and impact, making the labor both personally fulfilling and professionally consequential.
This project lived in the space between teaching and practice, where dialogue sharpens ideas, disagreement strengthens outcomes, and trust allows work to move beyond the obvious. It reaffirmed something I try to pass on to students: strong design doesn’t emerge from certainty but from curiosity, critique, and strong conceptual solutions—yes, concept is still king.
Most of all, it reinforced why I still believe in this field—not for recognition alone, but because design, at its best, is a collective act—driven by conversation, generosity, and the simple joy of making something meaningful that can and should raise awareness.
