KU Design Professional Lecture Series
For over 40 years, the KU Design Professional Lecture Series (formerly Hallmark Symposium) has enriched educational experiences by introducing KU students to designers and artists working in a wide range of disciplines and professional fields.
Spring 2026 Schedule
Lectures begin at 6 p.m. in 3140 Wescoe Hall on the KU Lawrence campus. Events are free and open to the public.
January 29
JD Hooge is a graphic designer based in Portland, Oregon, currently working on developing Mono Space, a high fidelity listening gallery dedicated to the preservation of music culture, and Strata Foundation, an arts engagement non-profit. Previously, Hooge co-founded the creative agency Instrument and served as its Chief Creative Officer.
February 5
Nicolas Thetard is an industrial designer specializing in interactive displays in production vehicles. Originally from France, Thetard’s career began as an automotive interiors designer and expanded to the design of in-vehicle digital experiences. Thetard’s portfolio includes dozens of production and concept cars.
February 19 *lecture and zine workshop
Jen White-Johnson(she/they) is a disabled, neurodivergent Afro-Latina art activist and design educator whose work utilizes photography, zines, and collage art to explore the intersection of content and caregiving, emphasizing the redesign of ableist visual culture. Her work has been featured in Adobe, Afropunk, and PBS. White-Johnson ’s work has been collected by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
March 5
Matthias Pliessnigis a furniture designer whose work employs computer-aided fabrication and handcraft to create expressively sculptural chairs and benches primarily with steam-bent wood strips. Pliessnig’s work has been exhibited and collected by the Museum of Art and Design in New York and the Smithsonian American Museum and featured in publications that include Architectural Record, Dwell, Forbes, and Interior Design.
March 26
Kellie Waltersis a Color and Materials Design Manager at Ford Motor Company. Her research generates critical design practice and forecasts speculative aesthetic futures considering the connections between humans, objects, climate, and technology.
April 9
Nelson Chan is a photographer and co-founder of TIS books, an independent art book publisher. Born in New Jersey to immigrant parents from Hong Kong and Taiwan, Chan’s work is influenced by the immigrant experience. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, the Boston Center for the Arts, the Museum of Chinese in America in New York, and the Print Center in Philadelphia. His books are collected in the institutional libraries of the Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the San Franscisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and others.
April 23
Rebecca Gilbert a letterpress printer, archivist, consultant, and co-founder of Craft Printing House, Clatskanie, Oregon, which offers design and letterpress printing services for literary broadsides, chapbooks, ephemera, posters, and event materials. In 1999, Gilbert co-founded Firefly Press in Portland, Oregon, which eventually grew into Stumptown Printers Worker Cooperative, a traditional commercial printing house that prints and manufactures unique album covers, custom product packaging, cards, posters, and other crafted paper goods.