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yuko wears a design by Irregular Expressions	ABOUT YUKO SHIMIZU （日本名：清水裕子）
	YUKO SHIMIZU is a freelance illustrator based in New York City and an illustration instructor at School of Visual Arts. Newsweek Japan has chosen her as one of "100 Japanese People The World Respects" in 2009.
	Drawing had been Yuko's hobby ever since she could remember. However, growing up in a traditional Japanese family, pursuing a path in art was just not an option. After receiving BA in advertising and marketing – the most creative of the practical field – from Waseda University she landed on a position in PR for a big corporation in Tokyo. It never made her quite happy, and she was in a mid-life crisis at age of 22. It still took Yuko more than 10 years of office job before she figured out what she really wanted to do and to save just enough so she could go back to school full time for 4 more years. This is how Yuko came back to New York in 1999, where she briefly spent her childhood, and enrolled in School of Visual Arts (SVA).   Yuko graduated with MFA from Illustration as Visual Essay Program in 2003 and has been illustrating since. She also teaches a BFA Illustration course and occasionally advises MFA students at SVA. She works in a studio in Manhattan, a space she shares with two artists whom she considers as her 'New York family'. Yuko has not gotten into mid-life crisis since she became an artist. Whenever she has time, Yuko loves to travel to different cities and countries to lectures at art schools and events, and to meet with other artists, professors and young aspiring illustrators to get inspired. Sorry, wrong person. This Yuko Shimizu did NOT create Hello Kitty.
clients include: Microsoft, Pepsi, VISA, MTV, TARGET, The Gap, T-Mobile, Neiman Marcus, Warner Elektra Atlantic Music, NPR, FUSE TV, M.A.C. Cosmetics, Pentagram, Sagmeister Inc., TIME, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, PLAYBOY, GQ, etc.     awards & recognitions include: Newsweek Japan "100 Japanese People The World Respects (世界が尊敬する日本人100)", Yellow Pencil Award D & AD,  Gold and Silver Medals Society of Illustrators, Silver Awards Spectrum,  Magazine of the Year Award Society of Publication Designers,   Gold and Silver Awards Society of Illustrators LA, Gold and Silver Awards 3x3 Magazine Annual, Art Directors Club, American Illustration, Communication Arts, HOW Design Award, New American Paintings, etc.     lectures & workshops include: ORGANIZATIONS Dahash Museum of Art (NYC), Society of Publication Designers(NYC), Society of Illustrators(NYC), Society of Illustrators LA (LA), Associazione Calturale Teatrio (Venice, Italy), Amarillo Centro De Diseño (Xalapa, Mexico), British International Comic Show (Birmingham, UK) ART COLLEGES (US) School of Visual Arts (NYC), Parsons School of Design (NYC), Pratt Institute (NYC), Fashion Institute of Technology (NYC), Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY), University of The Arts (Philadelphia, PA), West Connecticut State University (Danbury, CT), Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD), Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI), Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA), Savanna College of Art and Design (Atlanta, GA) (Savannah, GA), University of Kansas (Laurence, KS), Cleveland Institute of Art (Cleveland, OH), Washington University (St. Louis, MO), California College of the Arts (San Francisco, CA), Art Center College Of Design (Pasadena, CA), Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles, CA) ART COLLEGES (abroad) University College Falmouth (Falmouth, UK), Akademie Der Bildenden Kunste, Ohm Hochschule (both Nurenberg, Germany), Merz Akademie (Stuttgart, Germany), Von Erlenbach Kunstschule (Berlin, Germany), Utrecht School of the Arts (Utrecht, Holland), Denmark Design School (Copenhagen, Denmark), etc.     books include: Yuko Shimizu (Gestalten, Germany, fall 2011), illustration Now! (Taschen, Germany), Illusive 2 + 3(Gestalten, Germany), How To Be An Illustrator (Laurence King, UK), The PIcture Book (Laurence King, UK), Things I Have Learned In Life So Far (Abrams), Handmade (Gingko Press), It's A Matter Of Illustration (Victionary, Hong Kong), etc.