Chris Rudd is an activist, educator, and design leader. Built on his commitment to community organizing, social equity work, systems change, and youth development, Chris founded ChiByDesign, a Black-owned and people-of-color-led design firm in Chicago. In addition to leading ChiByDesign, Chris is also an Instructor and Lead of Community-led Design for the Chicago Design Lab at the Illinois Institute of Technology Institute of Design, where his work focuses on developing the co-design practice and the anti-racist design field. Chris is a former Stanford Institute of Design (d.school) Civic Innovation fellow and a current Chicago Urban League IMPACT fellow.
Chris is dad to three daughters: ages 15, 6 and 3.
In this episode, Chris talks about how his strong socio-political views were forged in an interacial household with activist parents and the countless ways this world view manifests in his children's lives and his own anti-racism work. Chris shares some larger-than-life stories about his father and the working class wisdom he imparted when Chris became a dad at 22. Chris discusses his time at Standford's d.school, the limits of human-centered design, and why he ignored the allure of startup culture and Silicon Valley to remain committed to place-based social innovation in Chicago. Finally, we talk about the connections and similarities between leading (and serving) community projects, a creative consultancy, and one's own family.
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