Matt:

Hey Chris. Thanks for doing the Biscuit Blitz with me today. I appreciate it!

Chris:

Absolutely. It’s fantastic to be here. I’ve watched what you guys have put out and it’s a pleasure to be on. Thanks for having me.

Matt:

We love your work in the community too and we love BOLTGROUP, and there’s a lot about the Chris universe that we’re big fans of, but let’s start here. Just introduce yourself to our viewers: your name, how long you lived in Charlotte, and your role.

Chris:

My name is Chris Cureton. I grew up in Waxhaw, which is about 40 minutes south of Charlotte. I did leave North Carolina in 2005, but I quickly moved back around 2009, and I’ve been in Charlotte for 11 years now.

Matt:

What’s your role at BOLTGROUP?

Chris:

I am the Creative Director at BOLTGROUP, which is a design innovation firm, and we’ve been a part of Charlotte for 35 years now. The company is made up of expert designers, strategists, researchers, and engineers and we focus on a people-centered design thinking process that allows us to do product design, brand building, designing digital experiences, as well as service design.

Matt:

We’re big fans. We know Monty to Ed to Jamey and everyone else over there. We just love  all the work that BOLTGROUP does, but also what BOLTGROUP represents for Charlotte. It is a pillar of the design community here and it’s pretty amazing that we have you all here in Charlotte.

Chris:

We’ve got a great ground a bunch of people here.

Matt:

Let me start the Biscuit Blitz countdown clock and we’ll just dive in. Let’s start here: tell me a little bit about how the pandemic that we’re in the throes of right now—how has that been impacting you personally and or professionally.

Chris:

To be honest, it’s impacted basically everything that we’re doing right now. We’re definitely, from an individual standpoint, we’re feeling the impact in our day-to-day lives and how we’re working together, but we’re also seeing the impact on our clients and we’re in a unique position to see the effect across a broad range of industries just from the nature of our business.

What we’ve been trying to do is be proactive with our existing clients, making sure they are solid and grounded in their purpose, which we often help develop, and that helps influence how they are going to shift their products and services. We’re helping new clients analyze where they fit in into this new normal. What’s been really interesting is that during this time, all of the action around the black lives movement matter movement, has really added a refreshed level of social consciousness for businesses as well. There’s opportunity to look through all of this through a new lens and it’s really exciting. There’s a renewed sense of humanity with everything right now.

Matt:

There certainly is. When you have stirred up energy like that, you just realize that it becomes a cauldron where change and impact can be born from that energy. To that point, and speaking of shifting, there’s a lot of shifting happening in our society right now. And you’re passionate about inspiring diversity in the field of design, and I’d love to hear more about that and the challenges that you’re putting forth to your colleagues around that topic.

Chris:

This has been a major concern for me because the truth is that media and design industries have a lot of impact on how people view other people every day. Working within an industry that deals with communication in general, we understand the power of images and words and a lot of problems that we’re seeing right now I believe stem from a lot of the stereotypes, which is a form of communication, that in the past these industries have used quite recklessly if I’m honest.

The issue with that is that stereotypes—we’ve talked about this people-centered design—definitely strip down that humanity that we want to preserve. Because stereotypes cause us to treat people really not like people but as more generalities or commodities even. I actually like to refer to myself as part of the human race because I believe races are treated too much like generalities and it’s always about that that individual person, whether we’re designing something or a product or just communicating.

I think the problem for blacks is that generality began in this country as a commodity and commodities have no humanity. I think that’s what black lives matter really is trying to say is that blacks have been fighting to gain this complete humanity in America for a long time. From a media standpoint it’s easy to forget that we’re not that far removed from needing the Civil Rights movement. In fact, John Lewis’s death recently is a great reminder that we’re not so far from that, and so these conversations around diversity inclusion are definitely important to me.

Matt:

What I hear you saying is this acknowledgment that the work that you and your colleagues do helps to shape American culture, perspective of views—world views—and there’s a responsibility that comes with that. In shifting the way that people in your field approach their work we can reshape our community moving forward in many ways.

Chris:

100%. There’s so many benefits that we see around diversity especially from a creative standpoint. It’s easy to see that when you get a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds and experiences, there’s so much creativity that comes out of that, and that is essential. What I think we need to remember is that lack of diversity is where a lot of stereotypes can come from and if we’re not seeing certain people represented in media, in art, in film, it is easy to go down that path where it leads to a lot of oversimplification of people that it’s not good.

Matt:

Let’s end with this then. Behind this passion, this drive of yours, how is it materializing? Is it with frank, honest conversations with your colleagues in the field? Are there other more specific ways that this work is starting to take shape?

Chris:

That’s why it’s so important—we have power to influence not only ourselves internally and around Charlotte, but we’re working with companies around the world. Hopefully this perspective, this people-centered design that we’re focused on, can help influence how people are depicted in general. That brings us all closer together when we can bring the humanity from a design standpoint.

Matt:

Chris, I’m really excited to talk to you about this. I feel like this is just the beginning of a longer, much deeper conversation around this incredible work that you’re putting forth into the community, so thank you for that. And thanks for all the creativity you’re putting out into Charlotte as well, both through the BOLTGROUP and otherwise. You’re an amazing creative Charlottean, and it’s been awesome to spend a few minutes getting blitzed with you in the afternoon on the Biscuit Blitz.

Chris:

This is a conversation that we could go on and on about. Looking forward to the next one.