The practice
About
Kenny Arnold Design is a circular economy strategy and design studio based in San Diego. I work with product and sustainability teams to build circular thinking into how they actually operate.
Vision and method
Circular systems require behavior change, and behavior change requires participation. Play drives participation at scale across workshops, in products, in public installations, and in learning programs. Backed by fifteen years of evidence across toy design, civic interventions, gamified learning, and field-tested workshop methods.
My strategy stems from innovation consulting with Fortune 100 organizations and from three years inside the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, where I worked on circularity programs with some of the world's largest companies. My design approach rooted in play was defined as an RCA graduate while studying creativity, creating public installations that turned litter pickup into a fishing game, and playgrounds designed by the kids who use them.
Recent recognition
Senior Service Design Manager, Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2023–2026)
Eco-Expert, iF Design Award (2024-25)
Play Everywhere Challenge winner — $50,000 grant for the Play Path, KABOOM! and the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation (2021)
Waterside Gobbler featured in the Evening Standard (2019)
Approach
Three principles that shape the work.
Hands on, minds on.
Circular strategy disconnected from real products tends to stay disconnected. Every engagement starts with the physical thing - the product, the material, the waste stream -and stays anchored to a real business challenge.
Design with play.
Play is gravitational. People don't change because they're told to - but if it's fun, they'll try. Play isn’t just for kids, it is also foundational to learning and survival. Each activation is informed by fifteen years of toy and game design from escape rooms to playgrounds.
Serious fun
Play and rigor aren't opposites. The methodologies behind every engagement come from fifteen years of toy and game design, three years inside the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and a creative practice honed at the Royal College of Art. Activations and outputs map to the ISO 59000 family of standards.