Design Innovator, Scott Henderson, Inc.
Scott Henderson is among the top Industrial Designers working in America today, and a respected voice in the IDSA community as a regular columnist for INNOVATION Magazine. Scott’s product designs for his global fortune 500 client base have become best selling industry disruptors. Scott's New York City-based design studio, Scott Henderson Inc., specializes in industrial design, engineering, digital design, branding, IP/patent generation, and manufacturing sourcing. Scott's point of view is that design should achieve “clever-freshness". "Clever" is ingenuity combined with a sense of wit. "Freshness", in turn, evokes feelings of health and happiness – lightness as opposed to burden – a feeling of rebirth and an inspiration to move forward. Aside from his world-renown and award-winning work in industrial design, Scott is a consistent generator of unique intellectual property, as evidenced by his portfolio of over 50 patents in the U.S. and Europe for novel innovations in fields as diverse as housewares and home accessories to consumer medical products and electronics. Scott’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Museum and the Alessi Museum. Scott is a sought after presenter on the topic of design, both nationally and internationally. Over 90% of Scott’s projects have been mass-produced, a track record few designers can claim. More to the point, products Scott has designed have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for his clients. Indeed, many of Scott Henderson’s products have become industry best sellers.
If you’re an IDSA member receiving the quarterly print issue of INNOVATION magazine, you’ve probably read Scott Henderson, IDSA‘s “Design DNA” column. Perhaps you’ve heard that he’s a judge on the new TV series “New York by Design: Innovations,” airing Saturdays in the NYC metro area through December 26 and featuring other IDSA members Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA, Stephan Clambaneva, IDSA, and Mauro Porcini, IDSA, among many more designers in New York City. Scott also appeared on the “California by Design: Innovations” series that aired this summer on channels in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas.
There’s a good chance you’ve seen one of Scott’s designs in public this year, too. The ZShield face shields from ZVERSE have been worn by politicians, celebrities, and frontline workers throughout 2020; and for Scott, the project was especially meaningful.
“The gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic and how my home of New York City became the first epicenter for the crisis in the United States really effected how I view design,” Scott says. “I saw firsthand the devastation wrought by this terrible disease, watched the streets of the busiest city in America become deserted overnight, and empathized with the heartbreaking loss that so many New Yorkers, Americans, and everyone around the world have experienced. I think as designers we are uniquely positioned to use our problem-solving skills and vision to help tackle the world’s most dire problems, and 2020 has made it crystal clear that the time is now.”
So when ZVERSE asked Scott to help them rethink the face shield, he says he jumped at the opportunity: “Not only because it was a great challenge well-aligned with my core strengths, but because I wanted to take part in history by creating a product that would help ease the worst health emergency in modern times.”
Scott heads the design and product development studio Scott Henderson Inc. in Brooklyn, NY and was recently featured in NYCxDESIGN’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide. As for what’s next, he’s excited to continue evangalizing the importance of design through platforms like the “By Design” series of television shows. Also, “I’ve really enjoyed writing for INNOVATION over the last year and a half, so I am very interested in taking that further by writing a book about design,” Scott says. “I want to delve deeper into my observations and the philosophy I’ve developed over the last 30 years as a member of our thriving and vibrant design community.”
