team - two or more art directors/designers, copywriters, production artists, and a creative director, possibly some account execs, that work on a project together
sometimes a team can be difficult - especially with designers - who can be more than willing to share ideas and collaborate on a project and who can turn around and want total autonomy aka "ownership" on another.
we have egos. we have those projects that we really really want to win a place in CA with our name underneath and our name alone. maybe that's just me. and maybe all i've met are designers that feel the same way - strong designers with strong books. and when the project is yours - you don't mind getting external input - but its your decision whether or not you want to take it - its not something you have to agree on.
i read the school of visual arts CRIT blog this morning, and there was a discussion about collaboration, with many pro and con opinions posted in commentary. one of the comments i read mentioned something that hit home - since i encountered the same problems in school. someone not pulling their weight. and of course, on the contrary side - there are always those in collaborative efforts who try to pull too much of the weight.
but don't get me wrong - there are a plethora of reasons that support a team atmosphere - but in my experience, the best environment is one where there's multiple designers working on individual projects in close vicinity helping each other out whenever they can. they should replicate this more in design school, and i'm not talking about the "group critiques" bc those could just be stages for some students to say what they think the professor wants them to say.
if more design schools tailored their classes to mimic the design firm setting - where in class, lets say a mandatory design lab, you worked on your designs among other students doing the same. little cubicles where you can turn to joe, and say, "hey, what do you think of this" and to marie and say, "that's really cool, what if you..." - bc that's what it's like in the real world - unless you're freelance.
so, it's been almost five years since i graduated from university - graduated the communication design program - and yet, the book, "the elements of typographic style" is again infiltrating my desktop. but instead of the wooden desktop i used to work on - the one full of scratches, sticky with spray mount and decorated with the out-of-the-line markings of prisma colors - it's my 2-d computer desktop, with the rotating pictures of my nephew and my cat. 
