You may not know his name, but Eric Medalle was an important gear in the massively successful Pokémon machine. Medalle was the creative design director for The Pokémon Company International – basically, that meant he was in charge of how Pokémon products were presented in The West. That included personally designing logos and packaging, and doing original art for the Pokémon trading card game. Medalle joined The Pokémon Company in 1999, rising to his current position and becoming well-known to hardcore Pokémon fans over the past decade-and-a-half.
Sadly, Medalle, a resident of Bellevue, Washington, tragically passed away when a large tree was blown over by a windstorm, crushing his car. Medalle was driving with one of his young daughters during the incident, but fortunately she escaped with only minor injuries.
Medalle leaves behind a wife and two daughters, aged 2 and 6. If you would like to help Medalle’s family, a campaign to raise the money needed to send his daughters to college has been started by friends of the family. You can donate here.
Eric Medalle’s adventure ends too soon, but at least he got to help bring a lot of fun to a lot of people.