Episodios

  • S3•E3 Sara Cantor + George Aye

    S3•E3 Sara Cantor + George Aye
    Oct 6 2025
    On this episode, host Doug Powell is joined by Sara Cantor and George Aye, co-founders of Chicago-based Greater Good Studio, a design firm dedicated to the public sector, taking a people-centered approach to their work with non-profits, philanthropic foundations, and municipal and government agencies.

    Earlier this year, Greater Good Studio launched Angry Hour, the "happy hour for pissed off optimists," as a way to bring designers together with community members and activists around local issues and organizations. They’ve held Angry Hours in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Austin. Now they are building on the momentum of Angry Hour by with the first ever Livid Conference, which will bring together designers who want to make a greater social impact through their work, with social sector professionals who are looking to be more creative. Livid Conference will be a hybrid in-person and online event in Chicago on November 3.

    Registration for Livid Conference is now open at lividconference.com, and listeners of TIAP can get a 40% discount on in-person and online registration by using the discount code DOUG-FRIEND.

    Doug Powell is an award-winning designer and executive design leader with more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of design disciplines. Learn more about Doug's practice as a consultant, educator, and coach at his website dougpowell.design.
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    56 m
  • Special Edition: Building Diverse Design Teams, Part 2

    Special Edition: Building Diverse Design Teams, Part 2
    Sep 25 2025
    On August 28, I hosted a webinar on Building Diverse Design Teams in which I spoke to some of the top leaders in design about the importance of building a more diverse, equitable and representative profession—and what we as individual leaders can do to make that happen. The event was also a fundraiser for an organization called Diversify by Design, and their program DESIGN=, which provides design curriculum kits, teacher training, mentorship, and career guidance to middle- and high-school classrooms in marginalized communities.

    My co-host for the event was design leader, educator, author, and tv presenter, Kevin Bethune. In part two of this two-part episode, Kevin and I are joined by Tysonn Betts, Omari Souza, and Debbie Millman, and we also heard from students who are working with the DESIGN= curriculum kits in the classroom. In part one—which dropped last week—we were joined by Oen Hammonds, Shawn Williams, and Ellen McGirt.

    Doug Powell is an award-winning designer and executive design leader with more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of design disciplines. Learn more about Doug's practice as a consultant, educator, and coach at his website dougpowell.design.
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    43 m
  • Special Edition: Building Diverse Design Teams, Part 1

    Special Edition: Building Diverse Design Teams, Part 1
    Sep 18 2025
    On August 28, I hosted a webinar on Building Diverse Design Teams in which I spoke to some of the top leaders in design about the importance of building a more diverse, equitable and representative profession—and what we as individual leaders can do to make that happen. The event was also a fundraiser for an organization called Diversify by Design, and their program DESIGN=, which provides design curriculum kits, teacher training, mentorship, and career guidance to middle- and high-school classrooms in marginalized communities.

    My co-host for the event was design leader, educator, author, and tv presenter, Kevin Bethune. In part one of this two-part episode, Kevin and I are joined by Oen Hammonds, Shawn Williams, and Ellen McGirt, and we also heard from teachers who are working with the DESIGN= curriculum kits in their classroom. In part two—dropping next week—we are joined by Tysonn Betts, Omari Souza, and Debbie Millman.

    Doug Powell is an award-winning designer and executive design leader with more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of design disciplines. Learn more about Doug's practice as a consultant, educator, and coach at his website dougpowell.design.
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    45 m
  • 2025 State of Black Design Conference

    2025 State of Black Design Conference
    May 20 2025
    The State of Black Design conference was launched as a virtual event in 2020 during the wake of the murder of George Floyd at a time when our country, and the design industry were confronting the sobering reality of racial inequity. Since 2020, the State of Black Design has grown into a vibrant and thriving community of design leaders, practitioners, educators, and students. On Juneteenth that community will come together in Minneapolis for State of Black Design conference, We On Point: A Celebration of Black Design Excellence.

    In this special episode, I speak with the founder of State of Black Design, professor Omari Souza, and with one of the moderators of the upcoming conference, Chanda Smith Baker.

    Omari Souza is a designer, educator, and community activist. With industry experience at organizations such as VIBE magazine, Capitol One, and CBS Radio, Omari is now Assistant Professor of Communication Design at University of North Texas. His forthcoming book, Design Against Racism: Creating Work That Transforms Communities, explores the role of design in perpetuating and repairing racial harm.

    Chanda Smith Baker has spent her career of more than 25 years at the intersection of philanthropy, business, government and community. Founder and CEO of the Minneapolis-based consultancy Smith Baker, Chanda is an experienced executive leader, board member, and public speaker who focuses on nurturing diverse talent, and activating audiences toward racial equity and social impact. Her podcast, Conversations with Chanda can be found wherever you get your pods.

    Doug Powell is an award-winning designer and executive design leader with more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of design disciplines. Learn more about Doug's practice as a consultant, educator, and coach at his website dougpowell.design.
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    37 m
  • S2•E10 Kevin Bethune

    S2•E10 Kevin Bethune
    Oct 8 2024
    In this episode—the finale of Season 2 of the series—I speak with renowned design leader and author Kevin Bethune.

    Kevin’s remarkably divergent career spans engineering, business and design over more than 25 years. He’s worked as a nuclear engineer at Westinghouse Nuclear, designed sneakers at Nike, and consulted with global enterprises at BCG. Kevin currently leads Dreams • Design + Life, a think tank that delivers design & innovation services using a human-centered approach.

    A Board Trustee for ArtCenter College of Design and a Board Director for the Design Management Institute, Kevin is the author of one of my favorite design books, Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation, which was published by MIT Press in 2022. Kevin’s next book, Nonlinear: Navigating Design with Curiosity and Conviction will be published in February of 2025.

    Doug Powell is an award-winning designer and executive design leader with more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of design disciplines. Learn more about Doug's practice as a consultant, educator, and coach at his website dougpowell.design.
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    44 m
  • S2•E9 Jenna Date

    S2•E9 Jenna Date
    Sep 10 2024
    “We keep thinking that things are supposed to be static, but it’s always changing. It’s about reinvention and seeing the beauty in that.”

    As we’ve discussed throughout Season 2 of this series, we’re in the midst of a challenging time for the global design industry that is causing many established design leaders to face unexpected change and uncertainty — many for the first time in their career.

    My guest for this episode, Jenna Date, is a pioneering design practitioner, entrepreneur, educator, consultant and executive design leader. With deep experience leading design and innovation programs in the healthcare industry, Jenna also spent a decade teaching at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. More recently she has relocated to Burlington, Vermont where I met her on a recent visit to that city.

    Jenna has navigated changing circumstances many times in her long career, and she brings a refreshing candor to our discussion, openly sharing the challenges and joys of professional and personal reinvention. Together we discuss the emotional strain we’re seeing in many of our design leadership peers, the increased need for supportive community connections, and specific tactics for approaching mid-career job searches.

    Doug Powell is an award-winning designer and executive design leader with more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of design disciplines. Learn more about Doug's practice as a consultant, educator, and coach at his website dougpowell.design.
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    45 m
  • S2•E8 Richard Hollant

    S2•E8 Richard Hollant
    Aug 20 2024
    Throughout this season of the series I’ve been speaking with leaders who have used their design superpowers in community and civic leadership roles, and in this episode I continue that thread in my conversation with Richard Hollant.

    In 1988 Richard founded CO:LAB as a design consultancy with a focus on brand design and product launches. Over time the firm moved from its original home in Boston, to Hartford, Connecticut, and has shifted its focus from brand design to social impact work, engaging with community and cultural organizations in Hartford and across Connecticut. CO:LAB has won awards from PRINT, HOW, and Cause/Effect among others, and Richard has been featured in Business Weekly, Communication Arts, and Fast Company. A longtime leader in AIGA, the professional association for design in the US, Richard was appointed Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of Hartford in 2017, and during the Covid pandemic he was tapped by the Mayor of Hartford to lead the strategic reopening of the arts, culture, and recreation throughout that city.

    In 2019, Richard founded Free Center—a collection of rehabilitated community spaces providing free access to arts, culture, trauma healing, and advocacy programming in forgotten neighborhoods across Connecticut.

    Doug Powell is an award-winning designer and executive design leader with more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of design disciplines. Learn more about Doug's practice as a consultant, educator, and coach at his website dougpowell.design.
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    44 m
  • S2•E7 Daniela Marzavan

    S2•E7 Daniela Marzavan
    Aug 6 2024
    I caught up with my guest for this episode, Daniela Marzavan, in the middle of an 8 week design road trip she is taking through Europe with her partner and 2 children—she’s calling it the Traveling School of Design Thinking.

    Based in Portugal, Daniela, is a self-described “pracademic”, fluidly straddling the line between design practice and design education. Daniela is fluent in 7 languages, and puts many of those languages to use in a practice that takes her across Europe and around the world working with universities, startups, scaled enterprises, NGOs, and governments, infusing these organizations with design thinking, innovation, and human-centered ways of working. Daniela is the co-author of the new book Creativity for a Sustainable Future, which seeks to harness the power of creativity as a driving force for positive change in complex environmental, social, and economic problems.

    We covered a lot of territory in this discussion, and I really enjoyed getting Daniela’s refreshing perspective on the trends she is seeing in the global regions she’s working in—trends that don’t always match what we see in parts of the design industry dominated by North American tech companies.

    Doug Powell is an award-winning designer and executive design leader with more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of design disciplines. Learn more about Doug's practice as a consultant, educator, and coach at his website dougpowell.design.
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    48 m