TWOxTWO

Our design consulting work takes advantage of our twin capabilities: design practice and design education. We work with clients in three ways, usually more than one at a time:

• Teaching/Learning: We lean into our extensive experience in the classroom to create impactful learning experiences in which clients learn design and practice integrating new methods into their work.

• Advising: We work closely with leaders as strategic thought partners regarding the integration of design into the particular culture and infrastructure. We act as a trusted confidante and a creative partner for leaders.

• Fractional Creative Directors: We operate as part-time design leaders for your organization. This includes supporting specific team members to learn, practice, and execute design work on existing, on-going projects. 

We rarely take on workshops without additional advising or project work. And we never take on “traditional” design work that doesn’t include a client’s pursuit of design learning. (We know lots of talented folks who will do this and are happy to refer you!)

Starting our careers at some of the world’s most prestigious design firms (IDEO, frog, Herzog & De Meuron), we spent many years creating beautiful design outcomes for clients. Later, we worked together to start 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. 

We picked the name TWOxTWO because it represents the intersection of two ways of working that we are experts in: design practice and design learning.

Today we offer clients a range of ways to advance transformation work using design as an anchor. Learning and development is baked in from the onset because we want teams to do the work themselves. We believe that an impactful, effective learning experience is rarely an accident. It is designed. There are lots of short courses and one time workshops out there, but we think real creative leadership and human centered design take time and investment to cultivate and grow, so we work with clients who often have long term goals and understand the value in having a creative partnership.

We don’t think there is anything wrong with outsourcing design deliverables and know some wonderful agencies and individuals doing that work today but that is not what we do. We believe that growing creative teams that can produce innovative work for their organizations requires ongoing learning alongside doing, and that creativity - a confidence to make things better and do things in new ways - ultimately leads to better agency and stronger creative muscles that serve an organization well long term. While AI is helping us do things more productively and efficiently, an organization that invests in its people and their creative growth is well positioned to respond to market demand and customer needs. Over the long term that also means more satisfied, engaged teams that are thriving because they are learning and growing.    

Consistent skills that we look to advance in our projects and work can be grouped together in two categories. 1) soft skills that are nuanced and easy to see in action but often hard to describe; for example, creative leadership and human centered design, problem solving and navigating ambiguity, collaboration, facilitation and empathy. 2) hard skills like rapid prototyping to test ideas, sketching to express an idea, and design research to get user feedback early on. We do this in a variety of forms - from workshops, to office hours to sprints to coaching and advising. 

We teach design to undergraduates while supporting clients with core innovation work. In any given week we are tackling client work at TWOxTWO and leading large student cohorts through an academic semester. Because most of our client engagements have a coaching model, the timing works out quite well. Coaching can be a buzzword - we define it as helping people get better without doing the work for them. Being on the sidelines at the game and getting into the drills at practice.

The Summer Studio is one very specific TWOxTWO offering. We take advantage of summer availability of design educators to take on client work in the summers - then we bring on mid-career designers who are looking to upskill in team leadership. Honestly, it’s pure magic for everyone involved. If you think you might be a good client for The Summer Studio (or you might want to send an up-and-coming colleague to The Summer Studio leadership fellowship), reach out!