I think that, in comparison, New Yorkers and Northerners are so guarded.

It's not about doing over the living room of someone who has bad taste in color. This is about restoring historic buildings and instilling pride in a community, which can be done through designing new public spaces and social gathering spots.

The birth of any show is always a rough one.

I'm a designer, I love it, and I haven't worked this hard to do bad work.

The Deep South has a completely different history, both good and bad, that is fascinating for everybody. It makes people work together who usually don't, and that sounds like a cliche in so many ways, but it actually happened... and it happened because of a beautiful idea.

Design can have such a positive impact on the way people live and on their relationships and moods.

I think taking design out of the studio and really having a relationship with the people that you're making it for really convinced me of how powerful a thing design is. It's not just an aesthetic decoration.