Krate is the creative studio of Jamie Kennard.
For over twenty years Krate has shaped emerging brands and growing organizations through thoughtful design, brand strategy, and website development. Clients include Outside Magazine, Zeal Optics, Aether Apparel, RXR Sports, French Embassy, Vignelli Associates, Alex Mill, American Folk Art Museum, Cornell University, Olnick Spanu, Helen Keller International, and Mandarin Oriental, among others. Krate’s design work has been recognized by PDN and Graphic Design USA.
In 2015, Jamie and Tracy Kennard opened Brunette, a wine bar in the historic waterfront district of Kingston, NY. The bar received high praise from Bon Appétit, Zagat, Vogue, Food & Wine, Eater, and Saveur. Esquire magazine named Brunette to its coveted Best Bars in America list.
Four months before her passing, Tracy detailed her battle with stage IV cancer in this 2021 New York Times opinion piece. Jamie established the Tracy Kennard Emerging Writer’s Award in her memory and to help future writers shape their voices and tell their stories.
In March of 2024, Jamie, and his brother, Doug, finished skiing the 46 Adirondack High Peaks. Their ski mountaineering quest took 10 years to complete. The last (and only) time the Adirondack Mountains had been skied in their entirety was 1996, 28 years prior.
Their journey came on the heels of their first complete ski of the Catskill 3500 range in 2014, and capped off a long held ambition to ski all 81 of the “classic” High Peaks in New York State (Catskill 35s and Adirondack 46ers). The Times Union detailed it in their story, “81 Peaks: A Mountainous Effort”. Mountain Gazette called it “a New York skiing achievement like no other.”
Jamie has been profiled in Hudson Valley Magazine, Times Union, Upstate Sports, and Powder, and a guest on One Step Beyond, Inside the Line, and The 46 of 46podcasts. He has been a contributing writer for LocalADK and Adirondac magazines. His photographs have appeared in Outside, Backcountry, Flylords and AndNorth.
VARIABLE, his 2024 documentary film, was an ISHA (International Skiing History Association) film award winner and received ‘Best Sports Documentary’ honors at the Vermont Film Festival. His 2025 documentary, Queen of the Catskills, was selected for the Girl Winter Film Tour and won ‘Best Short Documentary’ at the Femmes en Montagne Film Festival (Annecy, FR).
His forthcoming memoir, The Exquisite Weight of the Mountains, weaves together the grueling quest to climb and ski every high peak in the Adirondacks and Catskills with a portrait of his lifelong relationship with his late wife. It will be published by Avid Reader Press (Simon & Schuster).
Other projects include a series of vignette films, limited edition wildlife fine art prints, and further exploration of the outdoors with skis on his feet and camera in hand.
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Get in touch: jamie@kratedesign.com, find him on Instagram, or subscribe to his Substack The Early Riser.
