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yuko wears a design by Irregular Expressions 		ABOUT YUKO SHIMIZU
YUKO SHIMIZU is an illustrator and a fine artist. She is also an illustration instructor at School of Visual Arts, New York.
Drawing had been Yuko's hobby ever since she was a child. 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 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.
So 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, 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 include: 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 Diseņo (Xalapa, Mexico)

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), 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), Washington University (St. Louis, MO), Art Center College Of Design (Pasadena, CA), Otis College of Art and Design (LA)

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: illustration Now! (Taschen, Germany), Illusive 2 (Die Gestalten Verlag, 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.