Ex-pat Kiwi Simon Endres is one half of the New York-based design company Team Pro-Am. He is also a self-described poppa, VP, CD, AD, CFO, amateur tennis player, sometime bass player and chimney sweep. TheNewDowse will be featuring a graphic mural in vinyl by Team Pro-Am in the first instalment of their new Hit the Wall programme - just another addition to their impressive portfolio, which includes work for Kompakt Records, cable gaming channel G4 and branding for Amnesty International USA.Ex-pat Kiwi Simon Endres is one half of the New York-based design company Team Pro-Am. He is also a self-described poppa, VP, CD, AD, CFO, amateur tennis player, sometime bass player and chimney sweep. TheNewDowse will be featuring a graphic mural in vinyl by Team Pro-Am in the first instalment of their new Hit the Wall programme - just another addition to their impressive portfolio, which includes work for Kompakt Records, cable gaming channel G4 and branding for Amnesty International USA.During what hours of the day do you feel most inspired?
12.30am-2am.

How would a good friend describe your aesthetic or style?
Husky.

Who would you most like to design something for?
George W Bush and Dick Cheney.

What aspect of your creative practice gives you the biggest thrill?
The formative stages, when everything seems permissible.

How do you think your environment affects your work?
It's the difference between being excited, focused and happy, and being merely professional.

What's the philosophy behind your company Team Pro-Am?
Doing work we like, with people we like, for the benefit of as many people as possible.

Do you like to look at the big picture or focus on the details?
Definitely both, but we're trying to move towards the bigger picture stuff (I'm definitely not the type-noodler I once was.)

We're learning that with larger projects someone needs to maintain an overview without getting too involved in the details, so that the original vision and the general momentum is sustained. That being said, involving yourself in the details at strategic moments is essential to give whatever you're doing extra depth and a sense of craft.

Tennis features prominently on your website. If you could challenge anyone in the world to a match, who would it be and why?
Well, there's Federer - hands down the best player that ever walked the face of a tennis court (shut up all you haters!). Just to see whether we could get a few balls back - that would be an achievement. Jimmy Conners, my childhood hero. Maybe Billie Jean King in a rematch of the 1973 Bobby Riggs 'battle of the sexes' game. Showing once again that strong women will always kick a wise guy's ass.

Describe the ways in which your childhood play has influenced how you work as an adult.
I'd spend hours making models out of cardboard for my 'man dolls' to have adventures in. Big Jim and Action Man never had it so good. I got into drawing logos and markings on them to give them that extra detail and authenticity. I also played lots of tennis and was obsessed with all the tennis brands back in the early '80s. Unfortunately they were super expensive so I'd get my mum to embroider them for me - what a fake! ...Thanks, Mum.

What are the best and worst things about working in New York?
The people. The people.

Which of your projects to date has given you the most satisfaction?
We did a record cover for Andrew Thomas who was putting out an EP called HUSHHH on Kompakt. We built a tiny model of a New Zealand bach with a really long jetty extending out across the folds of a hairy old army blanket. It was all pretty lo-fi - we used an old lamp from the living room for the sun and shone it through the windows, then shot directly at the lamp. I think we even lit some incense to create some atmospheric haze. We shot it as lo-res digital so the light just blew out into the rest of the image which helped mask the whole artifice. We ended up with these pictures that were really ambiguous in terms of scale, and intriguing because of their lack of detail which seemed to suit Andrew's sound really well. It's one of those pieces that I liked straight out of the box, which is a rare thing.

The other ones would be designing record covers for a couple of my music heros from Detroit (Kenneth Dixon Junior and Paul Randolph) and creating the new identity for Amnesty International USA, which was embraced throughout the organisation. It's cool seeing stuff that you've worked on being used by activists marching on Washington.

If you could go back and choose a completely different career path to the one you've chosen, what would it be?
Apart from professional tennis player you mean? I think I'd like to make art full-time again.

What place is always with you, wherever you go?
Oh yeah, it's got to be Hamilton. Just can't shake it!

What's the best way to listen to music?
At home. At dusk. With the lights off.

You are given a piece of string, a stick and some fabric. What do you make?
A flag of surrender.

What's the best stress relief advice you've ever been given?
Breathe.

What's your favorite word?
Fool.

What's great about today?
My sweet honey of a wife and my impish son who already knows how to push my buttons.

Interview by Cass Hesom-Williams