This comment was originally prepared for GDUSA’s February 2026 print and digital magazines which feature our 63rd annual People To Watch and Students To Watch selections. Gordon Kaye has been editor and publisher of GDUSA (Graphic Design USA) for more than three decades. He is a graduate of Hamilton College, Princeton University’s SPIA, and Columbia Law School. He is shown here with Website & Social Media Editor Sasha Kaye-Walsh, herself a Hamilton graduate with an MFA from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.
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I am trying to integrate meditation into my life. It is not going well.
Rather than focusing the mind through guided practice, I find myself wandering into news and politics, tomorrow’s to-do list, snack fantasies, plans for the next streaming binge, snack fantasies, self-recrimination for shortcomings past and present — and, inevitably, more snack fantasies.
(I don’t judge your fantasies so don’t judge mine.)
Despite my lack of discipline, one core lesson from meditation has stayed with me: time flows like a river, and life unfolds in an endless rhythm of gain and loss. Remain centered amid the constant momentary currents of change, remembering that this, too, shall pass. Not Buddhism exactly but certainly Buddhist-adjacent.
“Remain centered” also happens to parallel what many of our 2026 People to Watch are preaching. Their collective message: the shiny tools, technologies and tactics of this moment are being overvalued, while the timeless fundamentals of craft, artistry, authenticity, empathy, strategy and ideas are being undervalued.
A few voices from the group:
“The future of design belongs to those unicorns who can dance between emerging technologies like AI, generative tools, motion systems, and spatial computing — and the one thing technology will never replicate: the human heart.”
— Diana Quenomoen
“There is no question that artificial intelligence is going to greatly influence our industry, but fundamentally I believe the same skills required now will only be heightened in 30 years — the ability to (1) storytell and (2) craft exquisitely.”
— Anjela Freyja
“The industry puts too much weight on novelty — AI aesthetics, fast visual trends, work built for social feeds but not to last. What gets overlooked is durability.”
— Ben Muckensturm
“It is critical to keep up with today’s media landscape, but in doing so, the industry often loses sight of the big ideas that transcend tactics.”
— Ethan Schmidt
“I would like to see the weight of which we are valuing technology, speed and efficiency shift a little in favor of craftsmanship [and] authenticity.”
— Kelli Woodell
“A person brings not just the value of completing a task to their work, but they also bring empathy and a diversity of experiences. I believe prioritizing a human centered purpose over machine driven efficiencies can become a guiding principle in the years to come.”
— Kevin Waldron
To be clear, these are thought-leaders, not Luddites: they acknowledge the potential of today’s rising technologies to support and facilitate the process. They understand that collaboration will be necessary, sometimes desirable.
But they are united in a central belief: the human heart and brain are the ultimate, enduring, timeless tools.
— GK
