OSU psychology alumn finds career in design

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Kyle Hart, Class of 2013

By Katie Livermore, CLA Student Writer - February 12, 2025

Catching an early flight to California in 2012, Kyle Hart, Class of 2013, was barely awake at his gate when the man next to him, decked in an all-white velour suit and a mop of dark curly hair, instigated a conversation. Little did he know, Hart had already seen this man many times before, but didn’t know where from. 

A group of travelers approached to shyly ask the man for autographs, but Hart convinced himself he didn’t recognize him. "Must be a California thing," he thought. They conversed for an hour before boarding the flight. 

It wasn’t until he awoke from a dream that Hart finally realized: this man was Richard Simmons.

An American television personality, Simmons swept the nation with his prominent fitness regime in the 80s. His programs featured aerobics routines on shows titled The Richard Simmons Show and Sweatin’ To The Oldies. 

But Hart and Simmons’ story wasn’t over yet. Hart met Simmons again at baggage claim. He apologized for not recognizing him sooner, but Simmons brushed it off. An avid artist and always drawing, Hart asked Simmons to sign his sketchbook. 

“He left his email address, and invited me to visit his dance studio 'Slimmons' at some point during my stay, which was very strange,” Hart said.

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Kyle Hart has always been drawing. It’s always been a hobby, but he’s transformed this talent into his career and philanthropy work. 

Hart grew up in the small southern town of Grants Pass, Oregon. He lived as an only child in the countryside.

“Naturally, I spent a lot of time sort of in my head, for better or worse,” Hart said. “It fostered a really honest and sincere imagination. My parents were always really encouraging me to be creative and to have fun doing that. I have always liked drawing.”

In early education, Hart started out in a Catholic private elementary school before moving on to the public middle and high schools. Hart was the “class clown” in A.P. classes. With his Catholic background, asked many philosophical questions, not afraid to raise controversial topics. 

“I'm spiritual and religious, but I appreciate honest dialogue,” Hart said. “People who are just like, ‘this is the way to do it,’ and ‘everything else is not right,’ you close yourself off to growth that way.”

As for art, of the one art teacher at both schools, there were none that fostered Hart’s creativity. That didn’t stop him from practicing art in the margins of every assignment–to some teachers' excitement, others’ dismay. His drawings were the outward expression of his imagination.

Throughout school, Hart played many sports–basketball, baseball and cross country–where he frequently played through sprained ankles, broken fingers and toes. 

Everything changed, however, when he blew out his knee in his junior year. Hart was forced to undergo a major reconstructive surgery and leave his sports career behind.

It was the first time he felt truly lost. 

“I experienced my first dream dying because I have always been very disciplined. I worked really hard to try to at least get to play college basketball,” Hart said. “I knew that my odds were slim at making it to the NBA, but I think you have to believe in your own dreams.”

In a state of depression, Hart leaned into drawing and spent most of his time immersed in art. He developed a hobby of dying laceless-style Vans shoes in different colors for his friends.

Upon graduating high school, Hart, a lifelong Duck fan, landed upon Oregon State University for college. He was unsure of what to study, but he decided to begin with business. Not long after, he changed his major to undecided and enrolled in an Exploratory Studies class. From there, he found psychology.

“I'm getting chills, because I remember thinking, 'this is really cool;' how people think, why they think it,” Hart said. “I've since learned about my own mental health stuff, but there were things that I experienced as a kid and even as a young adult, where I was like, ‘I want to learn more about why I do the things I do.’”

As his last assignment for Exploratory Studies he was tasked with shadowing a person from a career that interested him. At that point, he wanted to study exercise and psychological impact. 

Hart immediately thought of Simmons.

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Hart with Simmons in 2012

“My professor looked at me and was like, ‘if you interview Richard Simmons, I'll just give you an A,’” Hart said. “It was great. I interviewed him. We had a great conversation.”

Hart fell in love with psychology. He revels in sociology, writing, and nearly every facet of the social sciences. 

Not limited to fine arts to express his imagination, Hart also wrote psychology-focused articles for The Daily Barometer and hosted a love talk show, “Quit Playing Games,” with his friend for KBVR-FM, OSU’s radio station. 

“I just feel like the brain is still something we don't fully understand,” Hart said. “As it pertains to psychology, I just think that it's moving faster than we can study it.”

After graduating from OSU with a psychology degree, Hart worked for a sandwich shop in Portland for a few months before landing a job on the Nike support service team. 

On the side, he illustrated and wrote his first children’s book, titled The Mustache that Cured World Hunger. This book was a self-published labor of love, and 50 percent of proceeds went to The Oregon Food Bank. 

“There are people in this world who are dedicating their lives to doing good things and in organizations who actually want to see the world heal,” Hart said. “I was financially broke, barely making rent, I was like, but maybe I can make something and try to give back in some way. So I wrote and drew this book.” 

Hart was working on contract at Nike when social media marketing started to boom, then, he transitioned to working for different social media agencies copywriting, editing photos and video, and more.

Hart then was hired to work in Intel’s user experience psychology lab, where he applied his psychology skills.

“We would set up these like tests, essentially to take participants through user experiences with smartphones,” Hart said. “When I was there, we were working on, for Intel, it was Cortana, but like Siri and voice recognition stuff.”

The lab, however interesting, wasn’t the work that excited him. Fueled by his love of basketball, Hart went back to social media to work for the Jordan Brand team. From there, he moved on to become a producer, but it wouldn’t amount to a full-time job. 

About to be kicked off his parents’ insurance, he got to work on Nike’s campus.

“I just started networking a lot,” Hart said. “I started meeting every color designer that I could, and really applied what I learned from Oregon State. I picked color design over graphics or materials because color, is one of the most subjective parts of our world.”

Since he never stopped creating, Hart’s physical portfolio was bursting with tee shirt designs, books, posters and graphics. This, along with a concept footwear project he created, Hart caught designers’ attention and got his foot in the door as a color design assistant. 

“I've always been making stuff, it’s how I express myself,” Hart said. “There's a flow state for the most part, that I feel when I'm drawing or creating, that I just don't get from a lot of other places.”

Suddenly, Converse, all the way in Boston, was hiring. But Hart was born and raised an Oregonian. 

When he got the job, Hart planned to bring the offer back to Nike in hopes they would match and he could stay comfortably in his home state. Instead, the vice president of Nike Color Design at the time gave him advice he’d never regret taking. 

“I was afraid to move across the country. I don't know anybody,” Hart said. “The V.P. said, 'Nike's gonna be here. Nike's not going anywhere. Go to Boston and get some experience.' Looking back, it was some of the best career advice I ever got.”

Hart’s risk led him to work as a kids’ color shoe designer to basketball shoes to mens’ shoes. 

Now, he’s Converse’s Lead Trend & Concepts Footwear Color Designer. He uses trend and current market indicators to inform decisions on color palette. He has published five children's books and 100 percent of the proceeds go to a non-profit organization based on the story’s topic, for example, coping with grief as a child which is the subject of his fourth book, The Sideburns that Empowered Everyone. 

Hart’s message is that everything is creative and everyone has imagination. 

“I gave a TEDx talk at OSU about how imagination isn't constrained to the arts, because we all have to envision the life that we want,” Hart said. “Every decision takes imagination because you have to imagine what life is going to be like if you make that decision or if you don’t.”

What he imagined, Hart accomplished on a journey of jobs, leaps of faith and a dash of imagination.

“If I could go back and tell this to my past self, I’d say, 'you don't have to be defined by what you studied,'” Hart said. “When I try to plot and plan every move, it often doesn't work the way I want or expect it to. But always believe in yourself and the person you want to become.”

To view more of Kyle Hart's work, please visit his website.