Musings with Scott Henderson

July 2005

How do you approach your projects?
I try to approach every project with the goal of coming up with some big idea, whether it’s functional innovation or an idea that gives the object a built in, intrinsic, value. I like to create objects where you can glance at it and see its point of view. I try to make things that people see and immediately understand as being more than a dustpan or an ironing board.

How do you keep designs fresh but consistent with your aesthetic?
You can tell that my stuff has a subtle style to it. It’s all based on that idea of built in value, not on trying to duplicate a style over and over again. It’s about creating something new that allows people to relate or make a connection between this object and their own lives. I try to create objects with ideas that people can abstractly tap into, and when they do, we’re communicating through the object. It makes people happy. When we see an object and connect with it in some way, when we catch the wit, or the humor, or the reason for its shape, we all smile a little because we see the idea and we understand it. We like being able to say, “I get this.”

Tell me about your first big project.
My first jobs out of school were designing lighting for George Kovacs and Lightolier. I did housewares for Sunbeam. And at Smart Design, my first big project was for OXO Tools, a dustpan and brush. It was the first on the market to have a whisk brush. The shape allows you to pick up more and bend less, and the brush handle nestled into the pan so they could be stored together. That design generated a lot of media attention.

Do you have your products in your own house?
They’re all over the place but that’s mostly because I have a studio in my house. I’m surrounded by all this stuff all the time. But I do have a few things outside the studio, coffeemaker, and a ton of the OXO products. I actually give a lot of it away.

What does your home look like?
I’m not the biggest hound of contemporary design, the stuff that I have is not very consciously purchased. We have a few things, but most of it’s just been here so long, we’ve kind of gotten used to it. I guess I could start collecting modern pieces, but it’s not something I really think about.

Are you inspired by your kids?
Yes, and I’m working on a lot of juvenile products right now, so having the studio at home and the kids here is really good for me. Some of my clients know that I have kids so I’m getting more projects geared toward juveniles.

I’m making baby gear for the sophisticated urban parent. My client’s brand position is that baby gear is really as much for the parent as it is for the child. So to have it appear overly juvenile in its aesthetic is not necessarily the right approach, it needs a certain contemporary appeal. I’m doing things like a bottle dryer, diaper caddy, and changing accessories.

With good design popping up in Targets and becoming more common, do you worry that you will run out of mundane items to revamp and enhance?
There are so many companies out there that basically just don’t use design, so there’s a lot of bad stuff out there that sells very well. People don’t always care, and I’m guilty of it to. If I need a broom, I’ll go to the grocery store and get whatever’s there, I don’t shop around. But the problem is that people do this with everything, with things like DVD players. And it’s for that reason that bad design sells well.

The companies I respect are those that make a conscious effort to put well-made, well-designed products into the market. And while there has been more of these recently, there are still many more out there selling bad design. In terms of good design, it’s still a barren wasteland, but that’s what I like. Without much of a struggle, you can find so much opportunity to make things better.

How do know when an object is done, and doesn’t need any more tweaking?
When sketch for an object reaches a critical mass I can look down and know that the product’s going to be a winner. I know the idea is there and it’s going to be cool. On one hand it could be a clever geometric configuration, with that intrinsic double layer of meaning in geometric things that touch totally, like with the Spoon & Rest. It’s interesting to think beyond the object itself and of how it relates to other objects in the environment. In itself the idea of one object integrating with another is interesting. And then there might also be some humor. Mint has a Singing Cruet set. It’s a triangulated shape sliced open toward the top and opened up. So when the two face each other, they look like they’re singing. The mouth then is also the pour spout.

Between your own firm Scott Henderson, Inc. and Mint, the design firm you formed with two colleagues, you’ve designed objects from dustpans, to salad tongs, to baby thermometers. What’s your favorite type of project?
The objects I really enjoy designing are the day-to-day items everyone has in their house but never thinks about. For me, the more mundane the item is, the better. The more mundane, the more potential there is to make something totally new. It’s like a built in ingredient for high impact.

I just finished an ironing board. Just an ironing board but this one is different. The legs are an L-shape so you can use the feet to hang it anywhere when it’s folded, and when it’s folded, it’s much thinner and flatter than traditional ironing boards. I also added an outlet right under the board’s surface so you can plug in your iron wherever you are––you don’t have to drag the ironing board around your home to be near an outlet.

I look for opportunities, the need of a design, the gap it leaves. Once all that stuff comes together, I’ve found the object’s point of view, the emotion it has. With Mint, the emotional side is cranked way up. The style is just a matter of where you want to shift that emphasis.