Friday Fives: Kendall Henderson
September 25, 2020
Every Friday we give #highfives to a different designer from our extended family of PNCA students, faculty, alumni, and guest lecturers. 🙌🏾🙌🏻🙌🏽 We ask them five questions. Sometimes we get to chat a bit more.
Aiming to create a conduit between “free agent” collaborators and purposeful projects, Kendall works as design director and one of the founding partners of the creative collective Please Respect Our Neighbors.
He believes that all work should be aspirational, driven by curiosity and the desire for new approaches beyond just expressive visual stimuli. And, this work remains rooted in efficient design process and graphic communication.
Kendall uses many communication mediums and design disciplines to create and redefine brands and campaign-driven concepts. He has worked with clients like DKNY, Nike, Google, and more, but above all seeks collaborative projects that have a longer life; those that progress the spaces in which they are developed. He aims to positively affect environment, behavior, and society; using subtle and lasting, design-based influence.
Rudi Szilvasy '22, Lizzy Whitney '22, and Ashley Conjugacion '22 spoke with Kendall in September, 2020, and provided designs for this feature.
Designs by Rudi Szilvasy, '22, using images courtesy of Kendall Henderson.
Q: What or who inspires you?
A: I find myself having to work hard to be inspired, unfortunately. But, a concept of inspiration I have been exploring, is looking for the subtleties in the things that really excite me.
Q: What feels vital to the future of design, to you?
A: Vital! hmm...
Definitely getting away from this attention-deficit-relationship to visuals, that our behavior has allowed social media to accentuate.
Q: What are you listening to right now?
A: I feel no shame for this, but I have Jaden Smith's new album on repeat recently.
Designs by Ashley Conjugacion, '22, using images courtesy of Kendall Henderson.
Q: What is one thing you want to learn right now?
A: I want to learn to be a better writer. I want to learn better (and by better I mean faster and more efficient) ways to discuss ideas, visual or otherwise.
Q: Is there anything you wish you had known just starting out, that you know now?
A: You, Kendall Henderson, will run out of energy. I know it doesn’t seem like it… but trust me. You will.
Q: What is your favorite trick for “keeping it all together”?
A: No tricks here. No choice. Hahaha, the world is falling apart...
You, Kendall Henderson, will run out of energy. I know it doesn’t seem like it… but trust me. You will.
Designs by Lizy Whitney, '22, using images courtesy of Kendall Henderson.
Q: A question from a previous interviewee... “Why do you do what you do?"
A: The "why" changes quite a bit. Or, maybe its my understanding of the why that changes. But, I'd say I started for some connection I have to developing a way of looking at things, people, life, words, icons, places, etc...etc...
Q: What question do you WISH you had been asked here? (We will ask the next person!)
A: The missing question is… Are we “working too hard?” wheeeew.
Design concepts courtesy of Kendall Henderson.
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Follow along with our #fridayfives on instagram @pncadesign.
Hear more from Kendall in conversation with students and faculty in our Design Panel Series, held over zoom and recorded on September 16, 2020, recorded below. Co-hosted by PNCA Graphic Design and FISK.
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See more Kendall at kendallhenderson.com, or follow him on instagram @hendersonkendall.
Rudi Szilvasy '22, Lizzy Whitney '22, and Ashley Conjugacion '22 provided designs for this feature. All other images courtesy of Kendall Henderson.