Meet Kate & Gray
Founders
Our Story
After starting our careers at some of the world’s most prestigious design firms, we began taking what we knew about applying design methods to big challenges into college classrooms. A decade later, we started taking that back out to clients again.
Together, we’ve started two design programs inside of higher education - first at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and then at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin where we are both still faculty members. Teaching at scale was part of the drive for us to move from client services into academia, but we’ve kept one foot in the design industry the whole time.
What we see time and time again, is that some clients don’t want us to solve their problems and bring them back answers, they want to be a part of the process, and more than anything they wanted to build their own creative capacity and learn to do the work themselves. This is our sweet spot.
Our work at TWOxTWO allows us to bring the nuanced skill of teaching design to clients who join us as both learner and collaborator.
Our Approach
TWOxTWO represents the intersection of two ways of thinking - one steeped in design and creativity, and the other in how people best learn and grow.
In our work, we’ve been highly successful at designing two things at once: innovative new programs inside traditional systems (be it corporations or academia) and effective learning experiences for individuals and teams who want to think creatively to solve problems.
Kate Canales
Professor of Practice and a founding leader of the School of Design and Creative Technologies (SDCT) at The University of Texas at Austin.
In her work as an educator and administrator, Kate draws from her early career as a professional product designer and creative director - first at IDEO and later at frog, both internationally recognized design and innovation consultancies.
She served for six years as the inaugural Department Chair for SDCT’s Department of Design, overseeing the experiences of thousands of design students and dozens of design faculty in one of the world’s most prestigious learning environments.
Prior to UT, she founded the design program at Southern Methodist University (MADI). Kate’s creative practice and curiosity center around instances where design and human behavior influence one another. Her work emphasizes a fascination with “mundane design systems” - the (seemingly) humdrum occurrences that are influenced by design and which design can influence - like laundry, a trip to the doctor, a bus ride. She researches the ways in which a confidence in creativity and design can transform the way we work in any sector. At UT, she teaches classes in design ethnography and generative prototyping, and leads project studios.
Kate holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, where she also studied Studio Art.
Gray Garmon
Founding Director of the Center for Integrated Design at The University of Texas at Austin, where he also serves as an Associate Professor of Practice in Design.
Since joining UT Austin in 2018, Gray has developed and taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses, positioning design as a fundamental human ability that belongs in every discipline.
Gray’s design practice spans consulting, innovation, and social impact. Recent work includes advising the Aga Khan Foundation on a human-centered design toolkit recognized with a Fast Company Innovation by Design Award; participating in the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s Design Science Studio; and delivering a TEDxUT Austin talk on Inciting Peace, his framework for designing a more peaceful world. Gray is former Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana and co-founder of the MA in Design and Innovation (MADI) program at Southern Methodist University.
Gray holds a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from The University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded the AIA Henry Adams Medal and named a Social Impact Fellow.