Yuko Shimazu Yuko Shimazu Yuko Shimizu

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

PIXELATED The Art of Digital Illustration opens

Dear friend and fellow illustrator Scott Bakal has curated an exhibition of digital illustration. The show just opened in New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, CT.
I have a piece in this great show of contemporary illustrators who use digital process to create their illustrations.
I won’t be able to attend the opening reception, but if you are near by, please go stop by: August 3 (Friday) 5:30 – 8:00PM.

You can read about the show and see the installation view on Scott’s blog.

exciting new book (sneak peek)

Just got this photo from my AD at Abrams Books Chad Beckerman.
We worked together on Newbery winner Margi Preus’ upcoming young adult book Shadow on the Mountain wrap around cover design.
the book will be available this fall. I cannot wait to see the actual book in person.
Last but not least, I read the book before starting to work on the cover, and it is a GREAT book, even for us grown-ups.

Japanese magazine イラストレーション new article

I have been contributing articles to Japanese magazine ILLUSTRATION イラストレーションon and off for a while.
For the latest issue that is out now (No.195), they asked me to write about working for The NY Times from abroad, which appeared as a 6 page feature.
It was fun interviewing Op-Ed and Book Review art directors, as well as taking photos of them and the new NYT building with my brand new Canon S100 (I love my camera).
This issue also have a huge feature on the world famous Yoshitaka Amano. If you are in Japan (or have a Japanese book store near you), please pick up a copy.
Big thank you to Aviva, Alexandra and Nicholas.

 

new site works great on your mobile devices

Hello, thank you for visiting my new site!
It came live last week, and we (web design team + me) have been getting good review so far. So thank you.
We are still working on adding missing images (right now, working on adding more personal works, etc), and press section still needs a lot of updates. Bugs and broken links are mostly fixed. So, please check back whenever you can.

The site is design to work seamlessly on your mobile devices too. Especially, the grid look on your smartphone is pretty sweet, so please check out on your phone as well.

YESSSSSS, the brand new website!

It is officially official. My new website, which my super talented web design team and friends at Sideways NYC, as well as my dear assistant Keiko Tokushima and myself have worked on, and off, for about a year from the start.
This new site realized the vision I had and what I wanted my new site to be and 500% more. So, thank you thank you thank you for everyone who was involved in making this happen.

This is a holiday week, so although it has launched, we are still working on minor tweaks at the same time: fixing broken links, adding more images and information. Hoping to make it ‘finally official’ by next week. If you hit broken links, I am sorry, I am on it. But, don’t you think the site looks cool? I think so. I hope you think so too.

first kids book. in progress

I am so excited. I just received the color proof for my first children’s book in progress.
The book will be published from Abrams in spring of 2013. I have been working on this project since the end of 2010, so it has been a long journey.
Because the book is not announced yet from the publisher, I won’t be able to share title and other details yet, but more info will come in near future. Just wanted to share this photo for now.

Big thank you goes to: Shigeko Okada, Dadu Shin and Victo Ngai, who helped me along the way. The book would not have finished on time without your help.
And of course, to Chad Beckerman of Abrams, who convinced me that I should work on this project. It was hard and long, but it totally worth the time and struggle to get this out into the world.

say ‘hi!’ to my new studio-mate: Jacob Thomas

While my studio-mate and “NY sister” Katie Yamasaki is busy painting murals and contributing to social change during summer, we have a new ‘seasonal’ studio-mate. Please meet talented and sweet Jacob Thomas. He is keeping me company during this AC season, and inspiring me with his awesome work.
Check out Jacob’s work here and here.  (And of course, this awesome image is his as well.)

wow. spoke in front of 2,500 people (in Spain!)

just came back from OFFF conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Wow, what a conference! Total of about 3,000 attendees and speakers, from all over the world. I met some of the coolest people there. And of course, ate really REALLY well.

My lecture took place last Friday, in front of 2,500 people. I am used to public speaking, but it was probably the biggest crowd I have ever spoken to. I was glad it was received well. Thank you for those who came to talk to me after, as well as writing nice e-mails and Facebook posts.

Thank you  Barcelona. I would love to come back again. Hopefully, soon!

DATE
All