Michael Hirshon

Michael Hirshon serves as an Assistant Professor of Illustration at the University of Utah's College of Fine Arts. A professional illustrator with over a decade of experience, he has worked with major clients including The New York Times, HarperCollins Publishers, Amazon, The Washington Post, Forbes, and American Express.

He received his BFA in Visual Communication and Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His academic background combines artistic training with psychological understanding, informing his approach to visual storytelling.

Hirshon specializes in illustration as a form of visual essay and cultural documentation. His primary research interests include on-location sketching as a method of cultural observation, visual storytelling techniques across different media, and the intersection of illustration with social commentary. He explores how drawing can serve as a meditative practice for understanding new environments and cultural differences, with particular focus on urban landscapes and cross-cultural experiences.

His artistic output demonstrates a consistent pattern of documenting personal experiences through sequential visual narratives. The works reveal a strong emphasis on observational drawing as both artistic practice and anthropological tool, with recurring themes of cultural adaptation, urban exploration, and the documentation of everyday life across diverse geographical contexts from Brooklyn to Amsterdam to Thailand.

• Society of Illustrators recognition
• American Illustration recognition
• Spectrum recognition
• CMYK recognition
• 3x3 recognition

As an educator, Hirshon brings his extensive professional experience into the classroom, emphasizing practical application of illustration techniques while encouraging students to develop their own visual voices. His commercial work spans diverse applications from book illustration to packaging design, including projects for a dog toy company, a taco truck chef's cookbook, city bus exteriors, a dating coach's graphic memoir, and US Senate campaign materials.

Hirshon maintains an active studio practice centered around his sketchbook documentation of surroundings, which serves as both personal exploration and professional development. His approach emphasizes the value of slowing down to observe and document environments through drawing, transforming everyday experiences into meaningful visual narratives.