Tad Carpenter, graphic designer, illustrator and partner at Carpenter Collective, remembers a time of Kings in The Pitch‘s Questionnaire

Twitter handle: @TadCarpenter

Instagram handle: @CarpenterCollective

Hometown: Kansas City

Current neighborhood: West Plaza

What I do (in 140 characters or less): I co-run Carpenter Collective, a design and branding studio in Kansas City, with my partner and wife, Jessica Carpenter.

What’s your addiction? Take 5 candy bars. I mean, guys, they have pretzels, caramel, peanuts, peanut butter and chocolate.

What’s your game? As a kid I loved the game Guess Who? But have you looked at it as an adult? Yikes, those people are so creepy. It would be a dream job to redesign the game, keeping a few of the creeps, of course.

What’s your drink? Typically a beer guy. Love Tank 7 and Boulevard’s Tropical Pale Ale. In the summer I enjoy a horsefeather. 

Where’s dinner? We are on the run a lot or at work late, so most likely Chipotle. That’s the worst answer. In a perfect world, though, we love Port Fonda, Empanada Madness and Novel — and that is excluding KC barbecue.

What’s on your KC postcard? I love our creative history here in Kansas City. Probably an illustration of some of the heroes: Walt Disney, Charlie Parker, Thomas Hart-Benton, J.C. Hall, Kate Spade. Yeah, it might need to be a big postcard.

Finish these sentences: “Kansas City got it right when …” They added the streetcar. It’s a good start to adding more public transportation to our city, and I’m excited to see it evolve.

“Kansas City screwed up when …” We lost the Kansas City Kings. I know it was a long time ago but, man, I wish we had an NBA team in KC. 

“Kansas City needs …” A new airport. 

“As a kid, I wanted to be …” An artist.

“In five years, I’ll be …” Hopefully five years older. I truly hope to be doing the same type of work in five years I am doing today. 

“I always laugh at …” Photos and videos of dogs driving cars or bikes or just dogs driving anything. Also, old episodes of America’s Funniest Videos. 

“I’ve been known to binge watch …” Friday Night Lights. I hate sports shows but, come on, FNL is more than sports — it’s so good. I binge a ton of old episodes of Parks & Rec and Seinfeld. Way too much.

“I can’t stop listening to …” Kendrick Lamar’s Damn. Still.

“I just read …” An email. So many emails. But as a picture book writer and illustrator, I read a lot of children’s literature. I just read School’s First Day of School. Loved Christian Robinson’s illustrations and the overall story.  

The best advice I ever got: “The harder I work the luckier I get,” by Buck Owens. Not really advice but has always stuck with me.

My sidekick? Not really my sidekick but my partner, my wife Jessica Carpenter. Everything I do is better because of her.

What is your spirit animal? George Costanza

Who is your hero? I look up to a lot people — designers like Alexander Girard, Saul Steinberg, Tom Eckersley and Ikko Tanaka. But there’s no one I look up to more than my dad, Steve Carpenter. He has taught me so much about design, ice cream, everything. 

What’s your greatest struggle right now? Sometimes it feels like I’m playing a game to see how many emails I can send in a single day. Not a real struggle, I know. But finding balance between, life, communication and the time it takes to make what it is I am being asked to make is a constant struggle. 

My brush with fame: After the 2015 Royals World Series, I shared a photo on Twitter of my friend Brad and I at both the 1985 World Series parade and the 2015 parade. The story got picked up and viewed thousands of times on Bleacher Report, the Royals’ website and CBS Sports. Most important, Kelvin Herrera retweeted it.

My soapbox: No real soapbox. I can say, though, I’m truly proud to live and be from Kansas City. I’m lucky enough, like many people, to travel quite a bit. Each trip I go on reiterates how special and important Kansas City is to me. 

What was the last thing you had to apologize for? Probably eating the last doughnut.

My recent triumph: We recently moved our studio into a new space in the Crossroads. It’s a lot of fun watching it evolve into ours.