Campus Life

Graphic Design Professor Alan Hashimoto to be Honored

Alan Hashimoto, an associate professor of graphic design at Utah State University who died suddenly last month, will be honored by friends and family Wednesday, March 20, at 11:30 a.m. in the USU Performance Hall.

“This was a huge loss for many of us personally and for the college. Alan was a man of boundless energy and enormous vision, and he will be sorely missed by all of us,” said Craig Jessop, dean of the Caine College of the Arts.

The service will be a celebration of Hashimoto’s life and work. It’s an opportunity for his students, co-workers and friends to express their gratitude and celebrate his life, said Denise Albiston, marketing director for the Caine College of the Arts.

“Alan impacted so many of us throughout campus and the community,” Albiston said. “He was incredibly active with his current and formers students’ projects and had many collaborations that extended far beyond Cache Valley. He is greatly missed.”

A colleague found the longtime USU digital art and design specialist in his office Feb. 11, 2013. An ambulance transported Hashimoto to Logan Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“Simply put, Alan Hashimoto was a force of nature,” said Art and Design Department head Laura Gelfand after learning about Hashimoto’s death. “His energy was boundless as was his creativity. He touched so many lives in such positive ways, he will be terribly missed by everyone who was lucky enough to know him.”

In his 25 years at USU, Hashimoto instructed courses ranging from typography to interactive media and film. The 58-year-old instructor was known as a creative and innovative artist and teacher whose students were devoted to him. A working artist who expanded traditional graphic design into digital media, video and Web applications — including video games and simulations — Hashimoto produced many creative works and exhibitions and authored a 397-page book, Fundamentals of Design: A Digital Approach.

He also was an art director and consultant in digital applications for a variety of outlets, including Poptropica, an interactive online environment for kids developed by Family Education Network that has more than 20 million Internet users. He was part of a research group that created a variety of online interactive games. Hashimoto also was director and video/animations designer of a 2006 USU production of Macbeth, and helped create a digital design department and degree at the University of Utah.

A Facebook page “In Memory of Alan Hashimoto” has been created as a place for Hashimoto’s friends and students to exchange messages, condolences and memories.

Source: USU’s Caine College of the Arts

Contact: Denise Albiston, 435-797-1500, denise.albiston@usu.edu

USU professor Alan Hashimoto


Comments and questions regarding this article may be directed to the contact person listed on this page.

Next Story in Campus Life

See Also