Meet Gabe Hendry - Freelance Designer

I often wonder how I got here… A freelance designer! I have wanted to be a lot of things in my life. When I was young I wanted to be the mail man because they got cool trucks or the UPS guy because they drive with their doors open (a dream I realized part-time just this year, and yes, it is cool). Middle school brought the pro sport dreams; I was going to be the next Ronaldo… In high school I decided I was going to teach 4th grade. In college I wanted to be a pastor. But a designer? No, I was never planning to be a designer. That just sort of happened.

I should have been tipped off in 10th grade when I almost flunked Algebra 2 because I spent the whole semester drawing elaborate designs on my TI-82 one pixel at a time. Or perhaps when I almost missed turning in my final Visual Basic BlackJack application in 11th grade because I decided to make multiple card deck designs for the user to choose from. Everywhere I go, there is something to design:

In middle school I designed and made jewlery to sell at my mom's craft shows
In High School I got a job designing the weekly programs at the local motor speedway
Then the in-house forms and incentive programs as a manager at McDonalds
My first real branding experience was in college as the co-coordinator of Crown Academy & Camps
Then the marketing and signage at the local coffee shop I worked at
When I became the president of a national, web-based phone-notification company, I jumped into web and UX design
The position of designer became official when I started Focus 44, LLC with a friend

Hometown	Spooner, WI
Siblings	6 (2 sisters, 4 brothers)
Married?	Yep, Love you Teresa
Kids	Not yet...
Pets	2 Cats (Nikon & Moses)
Fav. Color	#F27C1C
States Visited	30
Platform	PC, Windows 7, 64bit

For me, design is not a job, but rather it is a reflection of who I am and what I am passionate about. My job is to help clients discover and define business needs, and to suggest and develop design that effectively meets those needs. Since August of 2007, I have been creating designs for clients in a wide variety of industries for both the internet and print. Feel free to take a look at some of my work.

My projects are always changing, but one thing remains constant: my desire to create impacting designs that actively engage the end user while nailing the individual requirements of every project.