Matt Olin from Charlotte Is Creative broadcast live from the new BOLTGROUP office space for his weekly segment featured on WBTV’s afternoon news program QC@3. He shares what makes the Charlotte design firm’s new space special and a little bit about some past BOLTGROUP design work.
It was great to have Matt, a long-time friend of the company and frequent collaborator, feature us and what we do.
Take a look at our segment in the clip below, starting at the 2:50 mark of the video!
Cheryl:
All right, welcome back to QC at 3. Today is National Fun at Work Day. I know, it’s incredible. It falls on the last Friday of January, and it’s a good excuse to boost team morale by playing a game or doing something you wouldn’t normally do. But there are some offices in Charlotte where they don’t need an excuse to have fun, right? They keep it creative and fun year-round. So, our friends from Charlotte is Creative are always in the know with fun places in the QC. Matt Olin and Tim Miner join us now live each from a different spot.
Hey guys, good to see you both.
[transcription resumes at 2:50 mark]
And Matt, you’re hanging with the BOLTGROUP. What is that exactly? And how are they having fun?
Matt:
That’s right. I’m over here in the North Graham Street area in the brand-new offices of BOLTGROUP. This is not a new group to Charlotte, not a new company by a long shot. They’re in their 36th year as a design innovation firm. They’re having tons of fun here designing brands and products and experiences. They’re essentially like creative engineers who can create pretty much anything. And they do it in such a way that it has a lot of meaningful impact on companies and communities and culture.
This office is very cool. Brand new to them. They’ve always been visionary. They were in the South End area for 25 years before it was even South End. Now, they’ve relocated to the North End in this beautiful adaptive reuse development of a mid-century diesel repair shop. And they’re going to be sort of an anchor of sorts for the creative community out here. Just a beautiful, fun-filled, very creative place to work.
Cheryl:
It seems super creative. Okay, engineering, digital design, brand design, communications, like all of that cool stuff. It looks very interesting by virtue of this video here. What have you seen that’s fun?
Matt:
Yeah, so that’s the thing. How can you not have fun working at a place where one day you’re watching to see if a grizzly bear can pry open a bear-proof trash can—this prototype that they designed. The next day they’re designing what the future of shopping for tools might look like. And then the day after that you’re working with experts in childhood development to design inclusive playground equipment. This is the sort of work that they do day in and day out.
They designed this entire Kobalt brand for Lowe’s. They designed the actual wrenches, the packaging, the brand. I mean, if you’re a designer at heart, you would have a blast working in a company like BOLTGROUP. It’s amazing stuff.
Cheryl:
I mean, that’s real innovation, and it’s going to one of the top stores in the nation. That’s pretty incredible.
You’ve met some of the people who work there. Are they the kind of people who can use the left side of their brain and the right side of their brain all at the same time? Because that’s pretty cool.
Matt:
Yes, I love that. The rare breed of creative that can work both the business side and the creative side. And the BOLTGROUP is full of folks like that. Both sides of their brain are firing. All the synapses are going. And that’s one of the reasons we love them. They really do have, for years, for decades, treated their craft as a business, and it’s paid off.
Cheryl:
I love that.