Theesen solved the college’s design puzzles for 41 years

Kim Theesen, graphic designer, will retire on June 30 after 41 years at the College of Dentistry.

Back in 1980, he was a media assistant at Central Technical Community College (CTCC) in Hastings looking for a new opportunity.

"CTCC’s job placement service listed the job at the College of Dentistry and I applied. CTCC has a dental hygiene program and it probably didn’t hurt to have a few tooth drawings in my portfolio," Kim said.

As a graphic artist and designer, Kim has enjoyed the "puzzle" aspects of his job.

"The designer receives the content and then has to figure out how it all fits together into a prescribed format," he said. "A good example is the scientific poster presentation. The presenter gives me the intro, materials, methods, results and conclusions, plus a handful of photos, graphs or charts, and I get the challenge of the layout and making it all fit into a pleasing and logical format."

Kim’s favorite part about working at the college has been the people.

"We have a diverse staff-and-student population here. I’ve been able to work with people from China, Brazil, Africa, Europe, India, Sri Lanka and Canada. Over the years, it’s been fascinating for me to interact with so many different cultures and ideas," he said.

"Some of my favorite memories are attending numerous student-ran pig roasts and performing on saxophone or guitar at a few college holiday parties," Kim said. "I even wrote and sang an original song, PowerPoint Blues."

One of his most humorous memories involves the paging system.

"One day, after numerous paging attempts, in my frustration I said, "This is Kim. Hello! HELLO!? What the heck is going on?" Only I didn’t say heck. A few minutes later a student stopped me in the hallway and asked if my page was ever returned and that he had heard me on speakers in the clinic. Oops."

A lifelong learner, Kim has taken advantage of the university’s tuition remission program.

"For almost 24 years I was going to night school nearly every semester. I was taking classes for a dollar a credit hour plus the cost of books," he said. "In 2003, I finally received by my Bachelor of Arts in English, which explains my fascination with editing and my disdain for the Oxford comma."

Throughout his career, Kim has seen many changes in the graphic design field.

"I spent many years learning the handcrafted aspect of design work: drawing with technical pens, cutting paste ups with X-acto knives, using wax as an adhesive for the literal cut-and-paste layouts," he said. "In the early 1990s, I started using computer software for illustrations, graphics and printed publications, allowing more time to spend on design instead of the physical production."

College-wide, a major change he’s seen is that faculty now have many options for how to present educational content.

"In an earlier time, a classroom visual had to go through many hands from its journey of early idea to the final screen. The process included an instructional designer, editor, graphic artist, photographer, film processor and then it was into the slide tray," Kim said. "Now a lecturer can be composing slides as the students are entering the classroom. It’s a two-edge sword: one side makes it easy to share lots of content and the other side is that it’s too easy to share lots of content."

Kim’s wife, Anita, is also planning to retire soon and they want to travel, be it around the USA or in Europe.

"I also have an interest in doing some arts and crafts projects. Abstract art is fascinating to me and it doesn’t always have to involve a computer," he said. "I look forward to getting some paint under my fingernails."

Kim’s parting message for his colleagues: "Life is about communication and graphic designers are communication facilitators. Hopefully something I’ve created helped inspire a student to that "Ah ha!" moment and they in turn became a better dentist. It’s the little things that make a difference in the big picture. Try to learn something new about the tools you use to get your job done. It not only saves you time ("work smarter, not harder") but gives you more time to do the fun parts of your job. And if it’s not fun, then what’s the point?"