Two creative brains, same first name. Photographer Craig Cutler and illustrator Craig Frazier met while working on an assignment with a winery client and quickly realized they enjoyed the collaboration. So, they launched a 52-week creative personal project they dubbed 2Craigs.

“The idea was pretty simple,” says Cutler. “We each came up with 52 words, we threw them into a bowl, a third party picked the word, and we had one week to create an image that represented the word,” with Cutler using camera, lens, and light and Frazier using pencil, pen, brush, and paper. Neither of them was allowed to see the other’s creation until the end of each week.

The dueling works they created during that year were so compelling they collected them into a book, “Project 2Craigs” (Goff Books). At the beginning of 2026, the duo launched a follow-up project in a call-and-response style that “we like to think of as 2.0,” says Cutler. It feels like a tennis match between two artists. Cutler began the match with a photo of a spiraled wood shaving and Frazier hit back with an illustration of a person’s profile made of paper with a curling tear down the center. The “conversation” has continued from there.

What both Craigs say they enjoy most about the project is the ideating. “Creating ideas woke me up to what is important—pure thinking and rediscovering how to concept without any tools or crutches,” says Cutler. Frazier agrees. “It has reminded me that the satisfaction of executing a good idea is reward unto itself,” he says, “and that simple is always best.” 

Amanda Arnold is a senior editor.