I got hooked to Murakami books since my long time friend and then coworker Yuko Saito (then Chikamoto) got me into reading her collection of Murakami books. It was the early 90s, Norwegian Woods was already a best seller, and I was a bit skeptical of reading books by such a hugely popular writer. Only to realize and reminded why so many people have been enchanted by his writing.
And here is a disclosure; illustrating for this issue of the Book Review was not an accident. As a fan, I had read the book in Japanese when it came out, and I knew when the English version was coming out. About a month prior to the US release, I wrote to Nicholas Blechman, AD of Book Review, whom I had years of working together on multiple projects, to see if the Book Review was planning on using illustration to review this upcoming book, and if they would consider me as one of the candidates.
I don’t usually do this. I am more of ‘wait for clients to contact you’ person than a go-getter. But this was something so special, I needed to write that e-mail. He got back to me right away and gave me the project. (read the behind the scenes article written by Pamela Paul, editor of Book Review here)
It was a happy accident that it turned out to be a cover, and that NY Times filming crew decided to came to interview and document the whole creative process.
Thank you Pamela, Nicholas, and thank you Robin Lindsay and the filming crew.
3) and in the latest issue of GQ
And, I made a fun set of postage-stamp size illos for the August issue of GQ (US). Reviews the book with funny Murakami novel trivia quizzes. (Look for Kanye cover in newsstand near you) Thank you Martin Salazar for the project.
German-based design publishing giant, Taschen has just put out 100 Illustratorsa jumbo two hard-bound book in sleeve box. I am honored to be a part of this gorgeous box set among with 99 other illustrators who’s beautiful works are represented in here.
As soon as the book came out right at the end of December, it was already chosen as Huffington Post‘s The 30 Best Art Books of 2013 among numerous other recognition and press.
You can read more about it, and purchase the book on Taschen webstore, Amazon or order from bookstores near you. Available world-wide in multi-lingual edition of English, German and French.
Big thank you to Taschen, Steven Heller and Julius Wiedemann for including me in this book.
2013 is quickly coming to the end. And I want to thank you all, friends, family, clients and those of you who support my work though I may not know you in person or even live in the same country. A few years ago, I started seriously thinking about who I want to be as an artist and to keep growing. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had to come out of my comfort zone and to branch out and try out things that I have not done before. I feel very fortunate I was able to work on projects I could not have imagined on working a year before. None of them were easy, to be absolutely honest. But because they were not easy, there was this feeling of accomplishment I get whenever I was done with each project. I am not athletic, but it is probably how those mountain climbers feel when they reach the peak. photo by Giorgio Arcelli
I proved to myself I can draw for kids too:
I have mostly created images for grown ups for last ten years, and I understand some publishers were scared of me (?) because I am quite aware some of my works can look risqué. Nobody offered me to do kids books till I got contacted by Chad Beckerman of Abrams. Chad wasn’t scared of my work. My first kids book Barbed Wire Baseballcame out in April.
It was one of the hardest projects I have ever taken on for sure. I am used to making one image per project, then move on. For this book I worked on and off for about a year and half. During the busiest time before the deadline, I suddenly lost my hearing from stress, and had to run to ER because it was a long weekend and my doctor was not around. Luckily, I was OK, and now I have the contacts for some of the best ear doctors in New York along with a book that bare my name. SEE THIS PROJECT HERE
designed something that got painted on an 80 foot wall:
To push you to the next level, the best you can hope for is to have someone who you trust and respect who pushes you harder than you would normally do by yourself. Makes sense? Everyone who has ever worked with or studied under Stefan Sagmeister all say he is an amazing collaborator / art director who pushes you to where you have not gone before. It is always extremely exciting, and scary as hell at the same time. I had worked with Stefan twice before (and the second project is not out yet. Possibly in 2014), and that was always the case. He asks me things I have never done and not sure I can do, but he comes to me confidently believing I can do it, and then I get to work. I had spent chunk of the summer working on this mural project now you can see in DUMBO, Brooklyn. This was also the first time the fully colored illustration I had created only served as a ‘sketch’ for the mural painter Coby Kennedy, who single handedly paint both of the two walls in just ten days, all 160 feet of them. Well, it was a challenging project for me, but Coby should definitely get most of the credit. (and of course Wade Jeffree for being an amazing designer) SEE THIS PROJECT HERE
photos by Daniel Greenfeld
animation REALLY is a never ending work (but there is a reward waiting):
I mostly stayed away from animation projects in past, and after finishing one now, I have to be honest that I will most probably keep the same position except very few exceptions where I would strongly feel that I want to take on that project knowing what awaits me. Animation REALLY is a TON of work. Along with art-loving friends, I had worked on short 2D animation projects when I was in high school (yup, long time ago), so I knew how it goes, but 3D animation was a completely different beast that was just as, or even more time consuming.
For 2 minutes short animation film project for Italian fashion brand Trussardi, which just got released in Tokyo in early December, I spent most of September working 12-14 hour days every day, working on character designs and elements that goes into the film. I honestly thought I would not survive. I miraculously did, thanks of Rovina Cai, who is the most level headed, calm, ultra fast and super skilled coloring assistant god has sent me. (I mean, seriously, and I am not even sure if I believe in god, and I still say this, so this is major.)
It depends on how you count…, but I probably worked on close to 100 illustrations, if not more, in about one month period. But after seeing the finished animation, I knew that the work was even harder for the animators. It is quite a magical moment to see my drawings moving, in a way I have never done by myself. Kudos to the animators. I have higher respect to you now, more than ever. SEE THIS PROJECT HERE
Sarajevo and Bogotá made my head leveled and allowed me to grow up a bit more (+ amazing new friends)
I recommend anyone to travel, especially to those places where you don’t think of as typical tourist destinations, where you don’t know so much about. I guarantee the experience is richer.
I didn’t get to travel much when I was younger, so I am now catching up. I almost never say no when I get invited to foreign trips, most of the time workshops and/or lectures. I was so lucky this year brought me to places I have never thought I would visit. In April, an illustration conference brought me to Bogotá, Colombia, then in October I found myself in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina for a design conference. (If any organization anywhere have interest in having me over, contact me directly anytime!)
I learned about power of students, and pain of the war in Sarajevo:
After close to 20 years, Sarajevo is still recovering from what the war has done to the city and its people. Not many things are working quite well (museums are closed for last two years, not enough heat is provided in the winter, no water at night, bullet and grenade marks are all over the building facades), but the students at Akademija Likovnih Umjetnosti (Academy of Fine Arts) are focused and enthusiastic, they have organized their own design conference called SOS Dizajn Festival which started in 2012. We worked a lot, laughed a lot, and also cried a lot (during the war tour of the city and hearing the locals’ experiences during the war time). Experience was rich and dense though I only stayed there for 4 and half days.
No, Colombia is not what you think it is:
Please don’t think of Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Colombiana, when you hear the word Colombia. I can guarantee those are Colombians’ least favorite Hollywood imagination of their country of all time. (Just like we think Karate Kid 2 is totally messed up and wrong). No, it is not dangerous. No, Bogota is not a small town in a jungle, and people are warm and friendly, design is booming, and it is quite an amazing experience, I guarantee it.
So…., thank you all again very much. It was tough at times, but it was a year full of great experiences that made me grow slight bit more as a person, as an artist. Wishing you all very happy and prosperous 2014, filled with fun, challenge and adventures.
cheers to you all,
Yuko
Just came back from Tokyo.
Main reason of this visit, first time in 14 and half years since I left there in 1999, was to attend Italian fashion brand Trusssardi‘s event at Two Rooms in Aoyama, Tokyo. The event was to release a short animated film SKY WATCHER celebrating 40 year anniversary of their famous greyhound logo.
The film was directed by James Lima, a big name in fashion film. I was involved in the project as a concept artist, dedicating most of September and October to work on close to 100 drawings that were then turned into 3D objects then to an animation film.
The film was released on December 4 in Tokyo as well as at Trussardi flagship store in Milan, and can be seen online on Trussardi website and on YouTube
As an illustrator working in the field for more than ten years, I have recently been thinking about how to bring my work to the next level, to something more than just print media. To expand one’s horizon, one have to take risks of loosing a total control of one’s work, meaning, teaming up with third parties who take one’s images and create something completely new out of them. It is a scary thought, then again, without the risks and trust for teams of professionals who are good at what they do (in this case animation) there will be no progress.
Thank you creative director Gaia Trussardi, director James Lima, Tomaso Galli, Federica Salmerigo, Giulia Lupo, Trussardi Japan, Aaron Barr of BA-Reps, and everyone on the team for giving me this rare opportunity. And, last but not least, thank you Rovina Cai who came into my studio almost every day to help me scan and color numerous drawings through out the process.
some of the characters and Milan City designs I have created that were later turned into 3D objects:
the whole event space in Aoyama was turned into Sky Watcher world (all the photos from the events are copyrighted to Trussardi): from left: Gaia Trussardi, James Lima and me at the event
2013 is coming close to the end. My life is never perfect, but I think I had a pretty good year. How about you?
One of the best part of the year was that I was able to travel to places I never thought I would have a chance to visit, and met some wonderful people along the way.
One quiet afternoon, Tatiana and I sat in a cozy coffee shop slash book store located right near now closed bull fighting arena to have a conversation. She has recently published it both in Spanish and English, so I wanted to share with you. Also, some pictures I took during the magical trip to Bogota are posted here as well. read the interview in Spanish here. read the interview in English here.
Tatiana and me, in front of the cathedral, on a rainy day in Bogota
Hope you had a nice Labor Day weekend (if you live in the US, that is…)
School just started and I am back to teaching two classes a week. Just when I came back from the first day of teaching this afternoon, UPS guy came knocking on my studio door with this gorgeous book in his hand. ILLUSTRATION NEXT is a new book just published from Thames & Hudson of UK, edited by young and talented (American) illustrator Ana Benaroya. One of the unique feature of this book is that the editor had paired up illustrators in the book to collaborate on multiple pieces just for the book. I collaborated with very talented Ahu Sulker, whom I met through this collaboration.
I have seen many books on illustration coming out every season from various publishers, but can I mention this is one of the most beautiful book filled with ultra high quality work I have seen in recent years? Surprisingly, I am not familiar with many of the artists in here, so I have to really sit down with this book in front of the computer and check more of their works on their website.
Some of the usual suspects include friends like Henrik Drescher, Olimpia Zagnoli, Edel Rodriguez, Mu Pan, and my MFA classmate and ultra talented Benjamin Marra, also, my former studio neighbor Jungyeon Roh, AND my former students Shigeko Okada and Keiko Tokushima, both of who had helped me with my studio work over the years. I am so proud of them. And I am excited to be a part of this book.
The latest issue of JUXTAPOZ Magazine(September 2013) has a big feature called Art School 101, where recent graduates from four different US art schools ask questions to their professors about life after art school.
I had an honor to represent School of Visual Arts where I have been teaching illustration classes since 2003. One of my former students and very talented young artist Jensine Eckwall and I had a conversation which is featured in this article.
The whole conversation took place in my studio earlier this summer. We probably talked and talked for more than an hour. JUXTAPOZ editors did a great job condensing the essence of conversation into just three pages. Since there are a lot of you out there, some outside of the US where you can get this magazine, who have the same questions Jensine has, I wanted to post the whole conversation here. *correction: my friend is an ‘art director’ at Victoria’s Secret, not a ‘director’ as in the article.
If you are a creative, your Wacom tablet is most probably something that you cannot live without. I am the same. I am on my third Intuos pen tablet, and about to upgrade it to Cintiq.
Well, if you are not in the creative industry, you may say “what the hell are you talking about?” But you may change your mind and get a Wacom product once you log on to their new website that just launched. Because “creativity is for everyone”. YES.
Irene, Anton, Juan and I all met as speakers at design conference OFFF in Barcelona in May 2012. We hit it off, and since became good friends. When Wacom website redesign came to Fi, Irene and Anton got us onboard. Thank you for this great opportunity, and thank you for the friendship, guys. It was a lot of fun! please set your browser to permalink view to watch the video:
Visit Wacom new site here
Read behind the scenes of making of Wacom site on Fantasy Interactive blog here
PS: The back story was that this was supposed to be just a test video to show as a sample to the client as a concept, and supposed to have been reshot after approval. The client ended up liking the original raw and casual video, and asked us not to reshoot. So, I am here with hair grown tad bit too long, and make up not done exactly well for camera. But hey, life is funny like that!
Asian pop culture and news blog Rocket News 24 came to visit my studio earlier this summer, and recently posted bunch of photos and a short article. It is a virtual studio visit experience. You can choose to read in English or in Japanese.
and, here is Mr. Bruiser video (my famous personal assistant)
The new book dedicated to the controversial novel by Vladimir Nabokov LOLITA The Story of a Cover Girl (by John Bertram and Yuri Leving, Print Books) has just come out.
It is already getting a review and a very insightful interview to John Bertram in The New Yorker.
One of the fantastic main features of this book is to have graphic designers and illustrators re-imagine Lolita covers. (Below is the one I created, which is included in the book.) As Mr. Bertram speaks in the New Yorker interview, the original book is not what most of the people, who have only known Lolita from the famous movie and popular culture references, think.
To create the cover, I have revisited the novel for the first time in many decades since I initially read it in high school. I do also clearly recall thinking “oh, this was not what I thought this book was” back then.
Some fantastic new interpretations of the covers are included in this book. I posting some of my personal favorite here.
September is quickly approaching, and I am thinking that this would make a GREAT assignment for Marcos and my senior students at SVA. So, if you have signed up for our class, maybe you should start reading!
