Yuko Shimazu Yuko Shimazu Yuko Shimizu

Award winning Japanese illustrator based in New York City and instructor at School of Visual Arts.

My ‘Killed Job Of The Year’

Christian Louboutin - Fall/Winter 2009 Shoe Collection: Submitted Illustration

You realize you are a ‘pro’ when a killed job does not hurt your feelings anymore.Of course, nobody likes rejection and it does need a bit of get used to in the beginning. But in this world jobs get killed all the time; editorial change happens regularly, articles do get canned, ad campaigns that never happened is also quite a common practice…

It’s not you, so hey, let’s not get upset. The only time you should be upset (with yourself) is when a job is get killed because you did a bad job. Let’s hope that won’t happen..

But then again, there are jobs that get killed that you were pretty happy with, and looking forward for them to be seen by others. Oh crap, it happens.

Since it is the end of a year, I decided to go through all my killed illustrations and find ‘the one’. And here it is: Christian Louboutin fall-winter shoe collection! What a fun subject to illustrate? I had a great time indeed. (Call me a fashion victim, but all my close friends know about my more than 30 pairs of designer boots collection.
)

So, I decided to make sure my killed-Louboutins see the light of the day at Drawger. Thank you for looking, friends.

Christian Louboutin - Fall/Winter 2009 Shoe Collection: Sketches
Those were two sketches I submitted. I liked the left one a lot, but it was a bit too ‘out there’ for the client, which I totally understood. Maybe I should finish this one for myself?
Christian Louboutin - Fall/Winter 2009 Shoe Collection: Different Shoes
All the shoes were based on actual Louboutin Fall-Winter collection. I had fun illustrating the different materials, and yes, the signature red leather sole!
Christian Louboutin - Fall/Winter 2009 Shoe Collection: Inspirations On A Mood Board
Inspirations, or my ‘mood board’. These images are not exactly my references, but important part of a creative process to focus on the ideas and mood of a piece.