Chris McCray
McCray & Co.
Chris McCray has a strong and varied background in interior, industrial, furniture, and lighting design. Chris’ greatest strengths are in his passion for design and his ability to come up with interesting and unique design solutions for each and every client. He also really likes breakfast tacos and riding around on his restored 1964 Vespa.
In the mid-1990s, he founded Chris McCray Designs, a multifaceted design firm based in Richmond, Virginia, with projects ranging from high-end interior design to branding, furniture design, systems and experience design. After a decade of watching (and facilitating) the problems of overconsumption, Chris decided to close the business and become part of the solution.
Chris received his Master’s degree in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008, and it was during his tenure there that he realized his passion for collaboration. He worked as part of a multidisciplinary team on a one-year research and development project with Target Corporation, and he discovered over the course of the project that he learned just as much from his peers as from his professors. Chris used this model of collaborative problem-solving as executive director of COLAB, of a cross-campus interdisciplinary initiative which promoted and facilitated collaboration between students, colleges, community, and corporations at Syracuse University. The goal at COLAB was to use the methodology of design thinking to generate new and effective solutions to wicked problems.
Chris moved to Austin and co-founded McCray & Co. in the summer of 2011 and has been enjoying the sunshine ever since.