Why I Give: Corey Damen Jenkins
Corey Damen Jenkins
“I always told myself if I was able to climb the ladder of success and get to the top, I would not pull the ladder up after myself. I would leave it down for others to climb.”
Corey Damen Jenkins is the founder and principal of the eponymous firm, Corey Damen Jenkins & Associates. The firm’s design team has developed interiors for towers in New York City, private residences on Nantucket and Hawaii, hospitality spaces in Saudi Arabia and Washington, D.C., and
even the Yellowstone Club in Montana. Jenkins is an inducted member of Architectural Digest’s AD100 and ELLE Decor’s A-List. In 2021, the New York School of Interior Design awarded him the Larry Kravet Design Industry Leadership Award. His bold interiors have graced the covers of House Beautiful and Traditional Home and received extensive features in publications, including Vanity Fair and The New York Times. When we caught up with him for this interview, his first coffee table book, Design Remix: A New Spin on Traditional Rooms (Rizzoli), was entering its fourth printing. He was also in the process of creating a product line with Kravet Inc. called Trad Nouveau, scheduled to launch in spring 2022. His business is on fire, yet Jenkins always finds time to give of himself to people and nonprofit organizations. Through his firm, he founded the Corey Damen Jenkins Diversity Scholarship at NYSID and will personally mentor several NYSID students this year. We discuss what motivates him here.
NYSID: Why have you chosen to support the College’s diversity scholarship fund through your firm?
CDJ: Representation in design is very important to me. So many people love the art of interior design and decoration and want to find their way into this world, but not everyone has a clear way to get there. I want to help make that pathway accessible for others. I always told myself if I was able to climb the ladder of success and get to the top, I would not pull the ladder up after myself. I would leave it down for others to climb. When I launched my firm in 2009, I reached out to established designers for advice and so many people just didn’t want to share any information. I always felt that if I found a measure of success, I wouldn’t be that way. So that’s what this scholarship means to me. I intend for it to benefit talented and creative people who just need a ladder to climb to get into this industry.
NYSID: I’m told you will be mentoring two students this year at NYSID. Will you tell me about your vision for the mentorship opportunity you plan to offer?
CDJ: The vision for the mentorship is to fill in information that I don’t think is readily available in academic design programs. In school, you might learn how to be an incredible designer, but you don’t necessarily learn how to make a living, how to charge, how to compete for business. So my goal will be to fill in those gaps. I want to show my mentees how to be left-brained enough to apply business acumen and right-brained enough to handle the creative aspect.
NYSID: Who were your mentors in interior design?
CDJ: Well, Michigan is an incredibly competitive market for interior design, so as I’ve mentioned, other designers were not forthcoming about sources or contacts when I started my firm. I made mistakes, and I learned from them. There wasn’t anyone to guide me. There was, however, Patty Mulkiten, who was the manager at the Robert Allen, Beacon Hill, showroom. She became a friend and confidant. Our dynamic was like mother and son, and she became my sounding board for the challenges and concerns I had when I opened the firm.
NYSID: Why did you decide to get involved in the New York School of Interior Design?
CDJ: I appreciate NYSID’s vision for the student body, the work they do to outreach to communities, and the quality of the design curriculum for the students. Often it comes down to people, and it’s clear to me that David Sprouls (NYSID’s president) and Joy Cooper (NYSID’s development director) care for the students and approach their work with warmth, generosity, humility, and kindness.
I’m impressed by the work NYSID has done to create opportunities for Pre-College courses (through the Kravet Pipeline to Design) for young people involved in Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, a charity that is dear to my heart. Anything we can do to help children have an upwardly mobile life is something I want to be involved in. I want to help young designers get over the rainbow to the other side. Part of our company’s culture is to give back and nourish creative talent. I have a world view informed by different life experiences than most people in this industry. At Corey Damen Jenkins & Associates, we want to be in touch with what’s going on in most of the world, which is why it’s my privilege to be involved with organizations like NYSID and Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club.