We are HARD WORKERS but realize we must play hard too.
We are CREATORS that can realize your vision through to reality.
We are CURRENT in our knowledge, but realize the value of history.
We are PRECISE realizing form can follow function and still be a work of art.
We are OBSERVERS that can help you realize your brand’s full potential.
We are COMMUNICATORS who realize the importance of managing your program like our business.
We are STRATEGISTS but realize the work doesn’t stop there.
We are DEVOTED and realize a great idea doesn’t always come between 9 and 5.
We are STEWARDS of your brand, and realize the responsibility that entails.
We are SPIRITED realizing passion is at the core of strategy + innovation.
We are LISTENERS that realize the power of a good conversation.
We are INNOVATORS realizing where your product’s future resides.
We are EXPERTS IN OUR FIELDS and realize that you are too.
We are a TEAM, and a FAMILY and realize a client is a partner.
It Started in 1985. Wildly creative and passionate thinkers who were madly perfectionist. Design devotees. Over the next 20 years, expertise in a complete range of services evolved. The brilliance never dimmed, yet it became seasoned with decades of experience and honed with a deep sense of service, loyalty, and responsibility. Our employees are our family. Our clients are our partners. Our allegiance to them both is why we get up in the morning. Realized.
Bob Gibson / President
BOLTgroup is known for learning its clients’ industries inside out to provide superior product innovation and brand strategy. Bob Gibson is one reason why.
For more than 30 years, this award-winning designer has managed international product development teams and created innovative product lines and brands for companies such as GE Lighting, Sears Craftsman, Coca Cola, and Lowe’s. He oversees the day-to-day operations at BOLTgroup and also develops intellectual properties (which means inventing something and finding a market for it, either on our own or with clients.) He directs client relationships on select projects, such as those involving royalties. One undertaking in which Bob takes special pride is an extensive line of mirrors for Rubbermaid/Goody that appealed to women, men, and tweens. “They were looking for something new. We made some interesting connections with specific consumer needs and hooked those into innovative product solutions,” Bob says. “That’s the part of the business I like best – uncovering new insights and converting them into innovation.”
At its most fundamental, Bob Gibson’s job is to make sure BOLTgroup knows who it is and what it can become. An essential component is providing extraordinary customer service. Bob makes sure we give our clients an experience they won’t get anywhere else and that we deliver beyond what our clients expect.
Bob holds more than thirty patents issued or pending across a variety of industries. Prior to joining BOLTgroup in 1990, he was vice president and design director for one of the Southeast’s largest industrial design firms. He was also director of engineering for Techsonic Industries/ Humminbird USA, where he developed 40 new products that revolutionized the sport fishing industry.
Bob is a graduate of Georgia Tech with a B.S. in Industrial Design. He grew up in Philadelphia and still vacations with his family in Ocean City, N.J., every year. If you’re there on the beach next summer, he says you’ll probably recognize him. He’ll be the guy at the barbecue grill, getting covered in smoke and burning the steaks.
Ed Holme / Vice President of Business Development
Since joining BOLTgroup in 1994, Ed Holme has been instrumental in building long-term relationships with clients such as Coca-Cola, Lowe’s, Emerson, Ryobi, Hunter Fan, Oxford Industries, and many others. “Individuals who have moved from one company to another over time have stayed in touch with us. They come back to BOLTgroup when their new companies need product innovation or brand marketing work. Those relationships are what I’m most proud of,” he says.
Ed is responsible for aligning our clients’ needs and goals with BOLTgroup's expertise to maximize what BOLTgroup has to offer – uncovering opportunities, delivering growth, and bringing profits for our clients. He brings a depth of knowledge and experience in brand strategy, research analysis, and sales and marketing, delivering a positive impact to our client solutions.
As vice president of business development, Ed also leads BOLTgroup's sales and marketing strategy.
"BOLTgroup has the unique ability to connect with and influence multiple aspects of our clients’ business," he says, "so it's vital that we approach each client relationship by first gaining a thorough understanding of their business environment, challenges and goals. That starting point helps give us the necessary insight to do what we do best – create growth through strategy and innovation."
Prior to BOLTgroup, Ed gained invaluable sales and marketing experience with international corporations such as Xerox and AM Multigraphics. He also spearheaded market development for a number of entrepreneurial businesses in the United States and the United Kingdom.
In his free time Ed puts his boots on and helps his wife Katie manage the non-profit horse rescue organization Healing Horses. He also enjoys whipping up gastronomic delights in the kitchen. Educated in England, Ed holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Studies and Marketing from the Trent University Business School.
James Boiter / Principal,Senior Brand Director
Jamey Boiter thought he’d be an architect when he started college – until he took a graphic design course. “I was intrigued by the ability to communicate a concept graphically or visually that you can’t always do verbally,” he says. “You can do it in a way that portrays the passion or attributes that are really behind the concept – whether it’s a company or a product or even a person. When you look at some of the iconic work done in the mid 20th century by some of the great graphic designers, you see how well they were communicating a thought. It felt like something I had to do. That’s where my passion comes from, and my desire to facilitate better communication.”
Jamey is a nationally recognized brand strategist and practitioner. As BOLTgroup’s brand principal, he leads all brand strategy, development and graphic design teams. He has received numerous awards of excellence, ADDYs, and citations for his work in brand development, packaging and corporate identity, including award-winning projects for Lowe's, IZOD, Nat Nast, G.H. Bass, Marc Ecko, McDavid Sports, and Forté Cashmere. Jamey has been involved in strategic brand development and design management programs with world-class brands such as Kobalt Tools, Ryobi, Coca-Cola, Kraft, IZOD, and Phillips-Van Heusen, and has been a featured speaker at national conferences and college campuses on the subject of brand strategy and development.
From his more than two decades at BOLTgroup, he’s especially proud of his work for Kobalt Tools, creating a brand that had immediate appeal to consumers. For the luxury men's clothier Nat Nast, he and colleagues built the brand by using stories to communicate a lifestyle to consumers. Jamey is currently involved in the brand strategy and development of a company that could have a huge impact in environmental protection worldwide. But he says every project is meaningful to him. “I’m extremely proud of all the work my designers do every day.”
Prior to joining BOLTgroup in 1987, Jamey was owner of a design consultancy. He also served as Director of Design for an architectural signage firm. He attended Clemson University and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Design from East Carolina University.
When not thinking about design, or collecting toys, he's renovating houses, and spending time with his wife and 3 children.
Monty Montague / Design Principal
The state of North Carolina faced a challenge. Its Department of Vocational Rehabilitation needed a way to test drivers with disabilities. Monty Montague and colleagues at BOLTgroup designed an ingenious mobile testing system. A technician takes the system to the driver’s home and determines which additional steering, brake and accelerator controls are needed to make it possible for the person to drive. The state then adapts the car, giving the person the ability to drive and return to the workforce.
That invention attracted regional acclaim and gave Monty his first IDSA Gold award. Since then, Monty Montague has become a national leader in product innovation. At BOLTgroup, which he co-founded, he leads multi-disciplinary teams in product and brand strategy, market and user research, industrial design, ergonomics, engineering, prototyping and brand development. That’s a fancy way of saying he has one of the coolest jobs around, helping well-known companies invent profitable new products. His clients include Applica/Black&Decker, GE Lighting, Herman Miller, Lowe's and Maytag. Monty also leads BOLTgroup's focused effort in developing products and brands for the home.
Monty pursued this career in part because he loved to build things with his father, an engineer. He studied art and initially thought he would be a sculptor. He holds a Bachelor of Product Design degree with honors from North Carolina State University and received the School of Design's Distinguished Alumni Award for 1999. His work at BOLT combines his passions for product innovation, art, design and engineering.
Monty holds many patents for both product design and function. He’s received numerous international design awards including four Gold IDEA Awards from IDSA/Business Week. BusinessWeek’s Innovation and Design ezine (link) interviewed him as part of its “Innovation of the Week” series, featuring the latest from radical innovators and designers in business.
Monty has written for design journals in Europe and the United States, including Innovation Magazine, the Design Management Journal and the PDMA Journal. He’s also an occasional columnist on innovation (LINK to: How We Think > Our Published Point of View) for the Charlotte Business Journal.
Monty serves on the board of directors of the NCSU Design Guild and has presented an annual lecture series on social and environmental design issues at GE Plastics Training Centers and at the NCSU School of Design.