“Since winning a hard fought duel in second grade against an aisle buddy regarding who could draw the raddest helicopter; creativity and art has always been a part of my life,” admits Walker.

The only child of two entrepreneurial parents, Walker spent countless hours working in and around the family businesses, of which life revolved. During idle time, when not wrenching on mechanical creations or shooting hoops, afternoons and summer days were filled doodling whatever interesting presented itself.

In 1991, at age 14, emerging technology took him in a new direction of visual creativity, says Walker, “one of the family businesses near the beginning of digital graphic design, purchased a Mac IIci complete with Adobe Illustrator 3.0 and Photoshop 1.0, it cast a spell on me, I was captivated.” Those early days on the Mac would begin a love affair with the blending of powerful images and words for Walker. He created custom designs at every opportunity, from event posters to t-shirts and giant banners.

There was a brief misdirected period in his late teens and early twenties that his focus strayed from design, but not far. “For awhile making and studying music was my primary focus, but swinging the mouse always kept the lights on. I just couldn’t get away from marketing and advertising. I guess deep down I didn’t want to,” says Walker.

Since returning to message making full time in 2001; Walker has created result proven, award winning, and inspiring work for corporations and non-profits time and time again. In 2003 he founded a full service marketing and advertising agency, Kendall Kreative. As a lone ranger he built it to include over 40 clients and a staff of 15 full timers, freelancers, and interns. Walker confesses, “I loved everyday and every challenge in running the agency. Some of the lessens were difficult, but it gave me a unique perspective as to the value of time and a keen ability to ascertain what keeps business leaders up at night.”

While building the agency was a great source of stimulation for Walker, his focus now is a bit more refined. “I’ve been doing this a lot of years, and what I enjoy most is the variety of challenges that have to be overcome when taking a clients message to a specific market. For me, it’s really about the whole process; discovering the game changing insights, forming the strategy and taking an idea all the way through to flawlessly executed production and launch.”

So these days he’s shed the responsibility of agency management in order to focus his energy on the creative. Down the road he is sure he will come back to it, but at the present time happiness resides in the message making. “There’s nothing that excites me more than working with talented, honest, and inspiring people to bring an interesting story to life and in turn seeing the clients product sales or balance sheet grow exponentially.” Walker says his intention is to continue selectively seeking out opportunities where his experience can make a difference whether its on the client or agency side of the advertising business.

The Personal Side of AW