Yuko Shimizu

Yuko Shimizu is a Japanese designer/illustrator who is known for creating the Hello Kitty franchise. I chose to research her due to this point, as Hello Kitty is a franchise that appears to be oriented toward the children's market, particulate of the female gender.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Yuko_Shimizu_20100702_Japan_Expo_2.jpg < image reference at this link.

She is based in Manhattan, NYC, and is an instructor at the school of visual arts.
Some of her clients include the GAP franchise, Pepsi, DC, and The New York Times.

http://paperbotz.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/hello_kitty001.png < image reference at this link.

This very simplistic character has proven a successful franchise, and is known around the world.


She claims that she got started in illustration by self promoting her work, whilst she was in school. She states that every time that she created new pieces and work, she would upload them to her website.
Her artistic career begun by her receiving magazine work, which went on to larger jobs.

On the site that I am looking at, she lists some great points for new, and upcoming illustrators to take note of. I will directly quote her words below this text, as I feel that the information included is very important to me, and also may be of importance to others who view my blog posts.

1. "Build a really good website; It doesn’t have to be elaborately designed. Just make it user friendly, organized and show who you are as an artist. Once you are out of school, you need a real website and not just a blog.
2. Update your site as often as you can. Website that does not get updated often is worse than not having a website, especially in the early stage in your career.
3. utilize social-networking skill and promote your site and work well. You are young, and you know how to use them better than I do.
4. Get a real e-mail address. Free e-mail address makes you look like an amateur. Get “mail or your name@yourdmain.com”, you can even forward that to your gmail. At least you look like a pro to them.
5. Learn to write good e-mails. E-mails are often recipients’s first impression of you. Don’t be a spammer, don’t be a stalker. Don’t write like if you are text messaging a friend. Ask politely if you are asking stranger questions or favors.
6. Do research on whom you want to work with. Make your own mailing list by visiting newsstands and writing down information one by one. Sending cards is a good old fashioned way that stil works. 50 hand-picked names on the list works a lot better than 5000 random names on a list you buy."

Quote reference can be found at this link. > http://yukoart.com/category/qa/

Yuko features her self on various social media, and this is really important in this era. Social media can be a 'free' way of self promotion, and allows for a larger potential audience.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yuko-Shimizu/113407815290 < link to her Facebook page.




Thomas.