In the uninterrupted horizons, defining history and humble hallmarks of Kansas, graphic designers Toby Kuhn, f’01, and Bryan Lisbona, f’03, find infinite creative fodder. Since turning that inspiration into a collection of Kansas-centric apparel and other goods, the cousins, business partners and Jayhawks have brought charming expressions of Sunflower State pride to the masses—and even, fittingly, to the stars.
“I got a message about a tweet, and it was a video of an astronaut floating around in the space station, wearing our ‘Ad astra per aspera’ shirt,” recalls Lisbona, who, with Kuhn, co-founded Kinfolk Created in 2017 to furnish unique, meaningful graphics for those keen to sport their Kansas affinity. The duo’s elegant rendering of the state motto appeared on the International Space Station in 2019 and again in 2024, both times worn by NASA astronaut and Kansas native Nick Hague. “We’d never met Nick; it was totally unsolicited,” Lisbona says. “And that’s become our No. 1 claim to fame—that our shirt has been in space.”
Back on Earth, Kinfolk products fill shop shelves at some of Kansas’ top destinations, including the State Capitol and the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka, the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan, and the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson. For Kuhn and Lisbona, the design on each T-shirt and cap, decal and postcard, patch and pin is an homage to their home state as well as a beacon to fellow explorers.
“With Kansas, you can get the knock of, ‘It’s flyover country,’ but that’s easy to say if you’ve never taken the time to experience it,” Kuhn says. “Once you really explore, there are so many interesting places and things to do that you might not expect.” Kinfolk’s designs capture such attractions with a style and nuance authentic to the state’s characteristic spirit: confident, but unforced; down-to-earth, but dusted with subtle swagger.
“Our designs are focused on Kansas, and we’ve found there’s 100% a market for that,” Lisbona says. “Being ambassadors and champions for Kansas is something we really enjoy dedicating our art to. And it’s very, very rewarding to design something because you want to design it, put it out there, and someone likes it enough to spend their hard-earned money on it. That’s pretty awesome.”
Creative roots, KU heritage
Kuhn, who is from Overland Park, and Lisbona, from De Soto, grew up in households where creativity was modeled and nurtured, and where the value of a KU degree was enshrined through example.
Kuhn’s parents, Richard Kuhn, f’71, founder of Kuhn & Wittenborn ad agency in Kansas City, and Marcia McCown, f’71, an interior designer, met as students at the university. Continuing the KU tradition was an easy call for Kuhn, though he admits initial ambivalence about pursuing an artistic discipline himself. “Everyone in the family was in some sort of creative endeavor; I thought maybe I could buck that trend,” he laughs. “But it didn’t happen.”
From his earliest memory, Lisbona aspired to become an architect and work with his father, Larry, a’74, a’77, founder of an architecture firm. Lisbona credits both his father and mother, Margie, a paraeducator, with fostering his creative instincts. The idea to channel his talents into graphic design hatched at KU, also thanks to family influence.
“I’d go hang out with Toby and see the work he was doing in graphic design, and I liked it a lot,” Lisbona says, adding that he was especially drawn to environmental graphic design, a branch focused on how people experience and engage with physical spaces. The wide-ranging field encompasses everything from navigational signage in a hospital or park to immersive, branded settings such as a museum or sports venue. “KU was the first time I was exposed to something like that, and it felt like a way to take my upbringing in architecture and apply it on a more intimate scale. That was appealing to me, and I decided to change my major to graphic design.”
After graduating, the cousins—Kuhn’s mother and Lisbona’s father are siblings—each embarked on careers as graphic designers: Kuhn in advertising at Kuhn & Wittenborn for 15 years, and Lisbona in environmental graphic design at two Kansas City-based firms over five years, where his projects included collaborative work on the Booth Family Hall of Athletics in Allen Fieldhouse.
In 2008, Lisbona and his wife, Kristin Powers Lisbona, c’02, g’04—an audiologist at the Kansas City VA Medical Center—welcomed their first child. Looking for a more flexible work schedule, Lisbona decided to strike out on his own. From his basement, he launched Kinfolk Creative, a design studio specializing in environmental graphic design, branding and logo design, and digital media design. In 2016, following years of invitations from his cousin, Kuhn joined the studio full time. (Today, Kuhn and Lisbona refer to their design studio, Kinfolk Creative, and their merchandise line, Kinfolk Created, collectively as simply Kinfolk.)
Kuhn and Lisbona’s clients range from national brands such as Sonic Drive-In and Farmers Insurance—they recently designed several large-format anaglyph 3D canvas prints for the lobby of Farmers’ new Kansas City, Kansas, headquarters—to distinctly Midwest gems such as the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield.
“We’ve gotten to build our own thing,” Kuhn says of the business. “And with that, there’s always room for growth and trying something new, and it’s special to have that in your work and career.”
Destination: Kansas
When the Kansas City Royals won the World Series in 2015, the tidal wave of local pride was a light bulb moment for Kuhn and Lisbona.
“We started to see all this passion for Kansas City, and people making all sorts of things with ‘KC’ on it,” Lisbona says. “We thought it was cool, but there was kind of a dissonance for us. We’re Kansas kids, and Kansas is the story we know. So we decided, ‘Let’s do what they’re doing, celebrating Kansas City, but let’s do it for Kansas.’”
Lisbona did a trial run in 2017, printing $1,000 worth of Kansas-touting T-shirts and decals and renting space at the Leavenworth County Fair. His booth sold out.
“We found out quickly that our hyper-focus on Kansas was something that really resonated with people,” Lisbona says. “So we started designing more things. We started selling online and went wholesale. I called the Kansas Museum of History, and that was our very first retail customer.”
The pair’s side venture venerating the Sunflower State steadily gained steam. The Kansas Department of Commerce honored Kinfolk among its 2021 Kansas Business Award winners, and the Kansas Sampler Foundation lauded Kuhn and Lisbona’s efforts with a 2022 We Kan! Award, presented to organizations that help sustain the state’s rural culture. In 2022, the HBO series “Somebody Somewhere”—set in Manhattan—commissioned Kinfolk to create custom designs for cast and crew mementos. A Patrick Mahomes-inspired Kinfolk graphic made its way to the quarterback’s native Texas, where it caught the eye of staff at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock. Kinfolk is now the center’s exclusive licensed apparel provider.
In 2024, Kuhn and Lisbona notched perhaps their biggest milestone yet with the opening of Kinfolk’s brick-and-mortar location in downtown Bonner Springs. They’d spent two years transforming the site—a former mercantile annex built in 1910—into a sunny retail shop in front, featuring their full suite of merchandise, and their design studio in back. Kuhn and Lisbona hope that, along with store and studio, the space will also serve as a springboard for Kansas exploration.
“We want people to come in, learn about Kansas, plan a trip and go see something,” Lisbona says, noting the shop is a Kansas Tourism affiliate and stocks the free, official Kansas maps and guidebooks. “We want this space to be a Kansas adventure headquarters. As a tourism destination, Kansas has so much to offer, and we want Kinfolk to be where you come to discover all those great places, whether you want to get outdoors and go hiking or you’re looking for the best place to go for pie.”
Proudly displayed in their studio space are Kuhn and Lisbona’s KU degrees. Of all the Kansans and Kansas travelers they meet, they say they feel a particular kinship with Jayhawks.
“KU opened so many doors for us, and a lot of that was through the network of people we met there,” Lisbona says. “We still work with many of those people today. That KU bond is something that transcends a piece of paper in a frame. It’s a shared experience of being shaped by this place and being a product of this university.”
“It’s like, even if I don’t know this person, I know they’re probably good people,” Kuhn says of even passing encounters with fellow KU alumni. “There’s an automatic familial feeling.”
Adds Lisbona, with a smile: “We were all shot out of the same cannon.”
A Kinfolk-curated Kansas day trip
Beginning in Lawrence, head west on Interstate 70.
Alma Creamery
32691 K-99 Highway, Alma
Browse the shop’s variety of cheeses—including the creamery’s signature curds—all made in Alma from local milk.
Wabaunsee County Historical Society & Museum
227 Missouri Ave., Alma
A trove of local history.
The Volland Store
24098 Volland Road, Alma
A stately 1913 mercantile reimagined as an art gallery. (The gallery has limited hours; check availability online in advance.)
Council Grove
Have lunch at historic Hays House or Trail Days Cafe & Museum, and visit the Last Chance Store, a former trading post on the Santa Fe Trail.
Flint Hills National Scenic Byway
Kansas Highway 177
A quintessential Kansas drive, with serene views of rolling hills and wide-open sky.
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
2480B K-177 Highway, Strong City
Of the 170 million acres of tallgrass prairie that once covered North America, less than 4% remains, most of it in the Kansas Flint Hills.
Chase County Courthouse
300 Pearl St., Cottonwood Falls
The courthouse, built in the early 1870s with local limestone and in the French Renaissance style, is the oldest Kansas courthouse still in use.
Matfield Green
This tiny town with a rich art culture is a favorite among rural explorers.
Teter Rock
2555 300th, Eureka
The area surrounding Teter Rock—a 16-foot limestone slab jutting skyward—offers panoramic prairie views, with wild horses sometimes dotting the terrain.
Flint Hills golden hour
Take Interstate 35 north back to Lawrence, timing this last leg with the setting sun. Stop for ice cream at Braum’s in Emporia to make the return trip even sweeter.
Approximate round-trip mileage from Lawrence: 260 miles.
Megan Hirt, c’08, j’08, is managing editor of Crimson & Blue.
