S2•E4 Bill Grant

Any podcast episode that begins with “I was born in Dalton, Georgia, the carpet capital of the world…” must be a good one!

Throughout Season 2 of this series, host Doug Powell is speaking with guests who have established themselves as leaders in design and then have become leaders in a completely different space. Nobody embodies this leadership journey more than Doug's guest for this episode, Bill Grant. Bill is the founder and president of Grant Design Collaborative, the award-winning design firm he has led for over 30 years, and he’s a former national president of AIGA, the professional association for design in the U.S. Bill is also serving his second term as mayor of Canton, Georgia, the small town outside of Atlanta where he lives and works.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Bill discusses his early influences as a designer, and how he has brought his core qualities as a designer into public service and civic leadership with remarkable success. In a time when many small towns are struggling, Canton is thriving under Bill Grant’s leadership, and now proudly carries the moniker of the coolest small town in America.