Yuko Shimazu Yuko Shimazu Yuko Shimizu

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

August 4, 2009

I came back from Venice, Italy last weekend. It was REALLY hot, but teaching there was fantastic surrounded by enthusiastic Italian, British and Canadian students. I will write a blog post about it soon. In the meantime, there are some new posts on my blog this week.

July 20, 2009

I am away from July 20 to 30 teaching an illustration workshop in Venice, Italy. I have no access to my mobile/studio phones and voice-mails. I should be checking e-mails once a day or two. Thank you.

PEPSI MAX Yuko-Can Now Available

I designed this Pepsi Max can about a year and half ago. I never heard from the client that it came out. Then Pepsi changed their logo. I thought it was one of those jobs that never end up reaching the final ‘product stage’… until… a kind stranger, James Lester of UK, e-mailed me that he just drank Pepsi from my can he bought at his office vending machine. He even sent me the photos. Thank you, James.When The Gap T-shirtscame out, a lot of people outside the US and Canada asked me if they can buy them in their countries. Well, you may not be able to get the T-shits, but my Pepsi Max should be available everywhere BUT the US and Canada.(By the way sidetrack…, do we have different Pepsi logo only in the US??)

Be The Best Illustrator In Greater China! – call for entries –

Are you a Chinese illustrator? Then this news is for you!The First Greater China Illustration Awards

has just been announced.It is an illustration competition for artists from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

It is a huge honor that I can participate in this exciting competition as one of the judges. I will be coming to Hong Kong in November to award YOU as the best illustrator in Greater China, so good luck!!

Application and other details can be read on their official website: gciawards.org

MORIBITO II In Stores

The photo on the right was taken at Kinokuniya Bookstore New York this week. The second book of Nahoko Uehashi’s Moribito series is now in bookstores near you. Also, the first book in the series is now out in paperback.The English translation of this award-winning Japanese young-adult fantasy is published from Scholastic in the US. Each book has illustrated wrap-around cover. I also illustrated chapter openers in book interiors as well.

Baby Tiger!

Below are photos of baby Valdemar of Sweden fashionably wearing Libero Tiger diapers with my designs. There is a new post about Valdamar and papa Truls Bärg on my blog page, so please check it out.

Group Show In Rome, Italy

Giappone Tradizione e Innovazione (Japan – Tradition and Innovation) has opened at Casa della Letterature in Rome this week. This exhibition focuses on art and culture from Japan, both the old and the new. Other than showing famous ukiyo-e prints from Edo Period, they also feature works by six contemporary Japanese illustrators. Although I don’t live/work in Japan, as a Japanese illustrator (nationality-wise) I got invited to be one of them as well. The exciting part of it is that one of the other participants is Tatsuro Kiuchi, an amazing illustrator and my dear high school classmate whom I got reconnected a few years back when we found out that we both ended up becoming illustrators.The show will be up till September 10th.

Newsweek Feature: 100 Japanese People The World Respects

Newsweek Japan July 8 issue has came out today with a special feature titled: 100 Japanese People the World Respects. Surprisingly, they chose me to be one of them. I am extremely, extremely, honored…I left Tokyo in the summer of 1999, exactly ten years ago. Since then, I had gone back to school for four years and now working as an illustrator and teaching at the school I studied, I now fortunately have clients all over the world and travel around for lectures and workshops, except for, well, in Japan. So, it really means extra special to me. And, I will try my best to live up to it… You can read the full article here (Japanese). The very special thank you goes to: Colin Joyce, the writer for Newsweek and the person who decided to interview me and convinced the Japanese editing team that I will make a good article (and he really did write an amazing article, which make me look 10X better!), photo-editor Hideko Kataoka, and editor Atsuko Koizumi who happened to be my high school classmate and we ended up having this serendipitous reconnection through this article.Also, Jason Treat of The Atlantic who gives me gallery page in the magazine every month through which Colin first found me, SooJin Buzelli of Asset International and my studio-mate Marcos Chin who made really kind comments about my work, and of course, everyone else who has supported me and be kind to me through out the years.

Thank you thank you thank you.

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