R. Michael Hendrix is an American graphic designer and entrepreneur.[1]
He is a Partner and the Global Design Director of design firm IDEO, based in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, studio.[2] In 2002, he co-founded sustainable design firm Tricycle Inc., which was purchased by carpet manufacturer Shaw Industries[3] in 2017.
Hendrix teaches [4] entrepreneurship at the Berklee College of Music where is also a co-founder of the Open Music Initiative, a program of the Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship.
He graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design.[5]
While at Tricycle Inc. he was made an AIGA Fellow for significant contributions to the field of graphic design;[6] received the Industrial Designers Society of America IDEA award[7] ; was selected for the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial;[8] and was a Top Nominee (now referred to as Finalist) for the Danish INDEX Awards[9] .
He has also been recognized for design excellence by "American design associations and publications including the One Show, Type Directors Club, Print, HOW and Communication Arts"[10] and is a regular speaker at design conferences including WIRED, SXSW, HOW Design, AIGA, and Design Management Institute.[11]
In 2010 he co-authored an article with Jane Fulton Suri for Rotman School of Management on why design thinking should also be accompanied by design sensibilities.[12]
In 2021 he co-authored, Two Beats Ahead: What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation, with Panos Panay.
Hendrix writes and performs music as R.M. Hendrix. He released one album and two EPs in 2011.[13] In 2014 he released "Urban Turks Country Jerks" on Moon Sounds Records, and was named one of the "fifty finest artists" of the year by Drowned in Sound.[14] He released "Can It Find Us Here?" in 2017.