Yūko Shimizu

Yūko Shimizu

Yūko Shimizu ( Japanese 清水 侑 子 , Shimizu Yūko ; born November 1, 1946 in Chiba Prefecture ) is a Japanese designer and creator of Hello Kitty .

Shimizu, who originally wanted to be a teacher, went to Sanrio after graduating from the renowned Musashino Art University and initially designed various fruits for a while. When company boss Shintarō Tsuji commissioned his designers to develop animal figures, they decided on a cat, particularly inspired by the cats in Alice behind the mirrors and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll . Shimizu experimented with her designs, first turning the cat on its side to show its profile, then back to the frontal view. After some time of tinkering, Hello Kitty was ready: a white head twice the size of the body, no mouth, yellow nose, six whiskers, two dots as eyes that stare at the viewer head-on, plus a blue overalls and a slightly crooked red one Bows on the head. Tsuji thought the design was "not bad", but never dreamed that this cat would one day become Sanrio's most important figure. Shimizu wanted to develop a story around Hello Kitty to give the character a personal touch and gave her a "personal" name with Kitty White . The name "Kitty" comes from a kitten in Carroll's Alice Behind the Looking Glass , with whom Alice plays at the beginning of the book.

At Sanrio, Shimizu also created Happiness Balloon , Koro-chan and Honey-chan . In 1976 she left Sanrio and has been working as a freelancer ever since. She then created the characters Angel Cat Sugar and Rebecca Bonbon , among others , but also published some picture books.

Web links

Commons : Yuko Shimizu  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

supporting documents

1. ↑ Ken Belson, Brian Bremner: Hello Kitty: The remarkable story of Sanrio and the billion dollar feline phenomenon , Wiley & Sons 2004, ISBN 0-470-82094-2 , pp. 68-71
2. ↑ Hello Kitty, You're 30 . In: St. Petersburg Times . Retrieved June 4, 2012.