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Merchandise
Design Brief

Design Competition Guidance · July 2026

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What We're Looking For

Job of the merch
01
Feel clever

Designs should layer meaning so the second glance rewards as much as the first.

02
Educate

Convey the lesson of the source article.

03
Conversation

A reason to ask "where did you get that?"

04
Sense of Belonging

Feel part of a movement or community.

01 — What We're Looking For
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Audience and Context

Seeing it

  • "This changes how I see the world."
  • "This person is intellectually interesting."
  • "Where did you get that?"

Owning it

  • "I feel cool and clever using this."
  • "I belong to the people building the future."
  • "This is beautiful."
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Creative Standard

Each design should have two or more layers of meaning

First glance

The item is visually desirable, intriguing, funny, provocative, or elegant.

Closer inspection

It reveals a second idea, mechanism, visual truth, quotation, data relationship, or physical transformation.

The deeper layer must strengthen the same concept — never behave like an unrelated gimmick.

Three tests

AT 3 METRES

The attraction

Silhouette, composition, phrase, or image is strong enough to attract attention.

AT 30 CENTIMETRES

The discovery

The viewer finds the hidden structure: microtype, diagram, data, transformation.

AFTER THE EXPLANATION

The memory

The idea becomes more memorable and discussable — it earns a story in the shop and in conversation.

02 — The Creative Standard
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Ways to build the second layer

Macro / micro

A simple shape becomes text, data, people, or detail up close.

Cause / effect

The visible outcome contains the hidden mechanism that created it.

Figure / ground

The silhouette reads as one thing at a glance; the space around it resolves into another.

02 — The Creative Standard
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A poster is an article, not an SKU

Each one is curated, sourced, and thought through, the same as anything we publish.

Humor and provocation are welcome. QR codes can be used for extension. AI tools are fine to use in the process — the result just shouldn't look AI-made.

03 — Brand World
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Techno-past: use an aesthetic of the past to propel us into the future.

Elements of cyberpunk and steampunk, but distinct from those. Real exploration, real science, real civilization-building — with a UT lens.

03 — Brand World
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Creative material

Cartography & geography

Topography, coastlines, chokepoints, trade routes, rivers, cities, skylines, slopes — causal information.

Historical exploration

Expedition records, field notes, engraved plates, navigation instruments, sailboats, hand-touched textures.

Science & civilization

Scientific diagrams, patent drawings, evolutionary trees, demographic charts, founding documents, laboratory notebooks.

Frontier

AI, rockets, Mars bases, vertical farms, sea fertilization, global warming and cooling — where the story is headed next.

Cartography — dos and don'ts

Do — use as causal information: relief, trade routes, power.

Don't — decorative map wallpaper, or lead with precision maps — unless you're sure you can get it right.

03 — Brand World
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Type & color

HeadingsCormorant Garamond
BodyCrimson Text — for running copy and quotations
Labels / dataSPACE MONO — COORDINATES, CAPTIONS, SPECS
Sienna dark#99532a
Sienna mid#bc7044
Sienna light#d49267
Cream#f4efe6
Ink#2b303a
Teal dark#1f4248
Teal mid#205a62
Teal light#2f8487
Gold dark#8e6a37
Gold mid#c1a170

Extended palette — for illustration and product variation where meaning requires it. Core identity stays sienna / teal / gold / cream / ink.

For reference. Posters don't need to sit within the brand guidelines necessarily.

03 — Brand World
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Marks & brand line

Dragon, ship, and globe marks

"Understand the world to navigate the future."

A GeoHistory-specific item may use "...the past to navigate the future."

Dragon, ship, and astronaut are recurring characters, not a corporate logo lockup.

Dragon and astronaut reference
04 — Potential Source Bank
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Every design starts from a real idea, already published.

Designers may propose other UT sources — but must name one, and isolate a single, clear idea.

04 — Potential Source Bank
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Geography Is the Chessboard of History CONCEPT 01

Geography Is the Chessboard of History

First readAn elegant chessboard, terrain, or strategic field that works as a graphic object.
Deeper readThe board is real causal geography — relief, waterways, chokepoints, and trade routes shaping where power accumulates.
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/geography-is-the-chessboard-of-history Full GeoHistory archive →
The Map Is Not the Territory CONCEPT 02

The Map Is Not the Territory

First readA compelling map, grid, silhouette, or cartographic form.
Deeper readExposes the mismatch between representation and reality — projection, scale, distortion, or the territory breaking through the printed map.
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/maps-distort-how-we-see-the-world
04 — Potential Source Bank
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The Future Is Already Here CONCEPT 03

The Future Is Already Here

First readThe William Gibson line — "The future is already here, just not evenly distributed."
Deeper readThe image embodies uneven distribution — today/tomorrow split unevenly across the surface, revealed gradually as the eye moves across it.
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/distribute-the-future Full Future History archive →
100 Billion Humans CONCEPT 04

100 Billion Humans

First readA bold, optimistic statement about scale and a much larger human future.
Deeper readMake 100 billion cognitively visible — nested scales, repeated marks, density that only resolves up close. Abundance, not panic.
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/100-billion-humans Full Society archive →
04 — Potential Source Bank
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We Can Already Stop Climate Change CONCEPT 05

We Can Already Stop Climate Change

First readA provocative, optimistic line that rejects helplessness and apocalypse aesthetics.
Deeper readReveal the solution architecture inside the claim — energy, cost, intervention hidden in the typography or image.
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/we-can-already-stop-climate-change Full Energy & Climate archive →
What's Your Skill Stack? CONCEPT 06

What's Your Skill Stack?

First readA confident typographic or modular graphic — "What's Your Skill Stack?"
Deeper readSeveral complementary, attainable skills combine into a rare profile — layered bands, tools, coordinates, not generic building blocks.
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/how-to-become-the-best-in-the-world Full Self-Help archive →
04 — Potential Source Bank
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How to Create a Masterpiece CONCEPT 07

How to Create a Masterpiece

First readOne beautiful, resolved work, symbol, or form.
Deeper readUp close, it's made from volume — attempts, drafts, failures, iterations. Why producing more shots creates the outlier.
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/how-to-create-a-masterpiece
GeoHistory & the UT Characters CONCEPT 08

GeoHistory & the UT Characters

First readA rich, playful scene built on a real GeoHistory mechanism — e.g. why warm countries are poorer — with, where useful, the dragon, ship, or astronaut.
Deeper readThe character dramatises navigation across time and geography. The article mechanism stays primary; the mascot is not the whole joke.
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/mountains
05 — Takeaways for Designers
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Concept, typography, illustration, and product thinking — in one coherent voice.

Designers who work with real data and source material, and turn an intelligent premise into something that only looks simple after it's been carefully crafted.

Understand the world to navigate the future.