Charlotte Magazine – August 2019

22 CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JULY 2019

A 35-year-old Columbus, Georgia,
native, Quintel Gwinn founded her busi-
ness in 2014. It was, and remains, a rarity:
a design †rm owned by a black woman.
Even rarer, her four-person staŠ consists
entirely of black women.
Gwinn studied interior design at
Georgia Southern University, then
worked for a small, black-owned archi-
tectural †rm in Columbus, where she
focused on interiors for commercial
spaces like senior living facilities and
community centers. She was laid oŠ
when the recession hit in 2008, and she
and her family relocated to Charlotte two
years later.
Gwinn earned a master’s degree in
Interior Architecture and Design from
Queens University and worked part-time
for a few years at West Elm, a modern
design furniture store. But she created
Quin Gwinn Studios to address social
challenges in poor and minority neigh-
borhoods. “I began to wonder,” she says,
“‘Where are the other †rms that have an
all-black staŠ?’”
Recently, she converted a space inside
the James B. Duke Library at Johnson
C. Smith University for the RCLM (pro-
nounced “Reclaim”) 37 exhibit, a partner-
ship with the Levine Museum of the New
South that uses art to examine the history
and future of the gentrifying Beatties Ford
Road corridor. Gwinn, a mother of three,
manages her business in an industry that
lacks diversity; a little more than †ve per-
cent of African-Americans who earned
degrees in 2016 chose interior design as
their major, according to U.S. Department
of Education data.
Here she is in her words, edited for clar-
ity and space:

AS AN INTERIOR DESIGNER, I’m creat-
ing space. I bring space to life. Function,
style, creativity are all important in trying
to create environments that are respon-
sive to the need. Design needs to be doing
something for the people.

I ALWAYS KNEW that I wanted to do
something creative. I took every art class
in middle and high school.

I WANTED TO ATTEND Savannah College
of Art & Design to study architecture, but
once I began looking into the program, I
realized I was more interested in people,
experiences, and the spaces that people

spend time in. I ended up at Georgia

Southern University because it’s a top

school for interiors.

WHILE IN SCHOOL, I did an internship

at a medium-sized architecture †rm

that had land surveying and engineer-

ing all housed in one—which was great,

because it showed me where my prac-

tice speci†cally with interiors †t into the

grand scheme of building.

CULTURALLY, there were some discon-

nects at that internship and all through-

out college. I wanted to †nd black archi-

tects with their own practice. I eventually

got a job with a black †rm in Columbus,

that had an o§ce in Atlanta. The †rm

had all-black project managers, architects,

estimators, and structural engineers. It

was an anomaly in our industry. I was

the only designer they hired, and when

the economy tanked, my job went with it.

I WAS DEVASTATED. A ̈er that, I told my

husband, Jason, ‘Let’s move to Charlotte.’

I had studied the city and read about the

growth, plus we wouldn’t be too far from

family. We had no furniture, no money.

I WAS ABLE TO FIND WORK part-time

at Restoration Hardware. Then, for the

next few years, I worked at West Elm;

both companies are furniture-based and

were trying to branch into the interior

design sector. I took that opportunity to

shi ̈ and pivot and take my shot. I came

into West Elm as a design associate to

help build and develop what eventu-

ally became their home stylist program.

I became their †rst certi†ed home stylist.

WHILE AT WEST ELM, I started to build

my clientele. I started doing projects as a

side hustle for six months before decid-

ing I could do it on my own. In 2014, I

had three clients. Their projects allowed

me to step out on my own. I worked out

THE BUZZ

Quintel Gwinn,

a Georgia native,

moved to

Charlotte after

she was laid off in

2010 and began

working on more

community-

oriented projects.

JONATHAN

COOPER