Tim Hossler

Tim Hossler joined the University of Kansas in 2011, bringing over two decades of professional design experience. Originally from Dodge City, Kansas, he launched his career in New York City, where he served as in-house art director for renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz. During his tenure, he played a central role in shaping some of her most iconic images, books, and exhibitions of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Hossler holds a degree in Architecture from Kansas State University and an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has collaborated with a wide range of cultural institutions nationwide. He has held leadership roles as Director of Design at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and Art Director at The Wolfsonian–Florida International University in Miami Beach. As a freelance book and exhibition designer, his clients have included British fashion photographer Tim Walker, artist Jared Sprecher, Detroit Institute of Arts, Wichita Art Museum, KU’s Spencer Museum of Art, and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

At KU, Hossler served as Chair of the Department of Design from 2022 to 2025. He redesigned the department’s Design History curriculum and created a new course in Design Ethics, drawing inspiration from Victor Papanek’s iconic book ‘Design for the Real World’. Since 2015, he has led the school’s Miami+Havana Study Abroad Program, offering Architecture and Design students immersive experiences in Cuba and opportunities to engage with local creatives.

Hossler is a core faculty member in KU’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, an affiliated faculty member at the Kansas City Design Center, and a leader of the architectural preservation group Lawrence Modern. In collaboration with sociologist Paul Stock, he co-developed the ‘New Farmers’ project, which has been presented at national and international conferences including Yale and Harvard. Their book ‘New Farmers 2014/2018’ was named one of AIGA’s 50 Books | 50 Covers of 2018 for its distinctive design and visual language.

His academic research focuses on experimental visual narratives developed in collaboration with photographers, artists, and institutions, exploring how visual culture helps define our sense of time and place.