Yuko Shimizu is a multi-award-winning Japanese illustrator based in NYC with over 20 years of experience. She teaches at the School of Visual Arts and her work spans major publications like The New York Times, TIME, The New Yorker, and covers for DC Comics and Penguin Random House.

She has worked with top brands like Apple, Google, Nike, and collaborated with the UN and Smithsonian. A two-time Hugo Award nominee, Yuko has earned multiple Clio Awards and was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2024. She also received a Caldecott Honor in 2021 for "The Cat Man of Aleppo".

Illustration is Yuko's second career. Though art has always been her passion, she initially took a more practical route, studying advertising and marketing at Waseda University and working in corporate PR for 11 years. It wasn’t until she moved to New York that she pursued art formally, earning an MFA from SVA’s Illustration as Visual Essay program in 2003. Since then, she has been illustrating and teaching full-time.