masako kubo +

I produced 6 designs and a cover illustration for a new year card book, which will be published quite soon! It’s basically a catalog of new year cards with a CD-ROM so you can print your favourite designs on your own new year cards. It’s got this embossing effect on the cover illustration. Nice.
The cover is quite pinky, but the book includes a variety of designs with different tastes, so I hope the book will be attractive even if you are not into girly stuff. I will put my 6 designs sometime later.
気が早いですが、予告編ということで。来月発売の『わたしだけのとっておき おしゃれ年賀状 2013』（秀和システム）に私の作った６種類の年賀状が入りますー！表紙の絵も私が担当しました。年賀状を準備する場面を劇的にロマンチックに演出したような？そんな表紙です。
表紙はかなりガーリーですが、７２人による年賀状デザインは大人っぽいものやフォーマルなものもあって、幅広いニーズに応えてくれそうです。ちなみに、表紙の絵もデザインの１つとして使用できます。表紙の全体像と６種類の年賀状の方はまた後日…！
発売時期は、アマゾンでは１０月初旬、書店では１０月下旬頃から並び始める予定です。

A small Kyoto map for éclat magazine in Japan.

エクラ（集英社）の別冊に京都マップ作りました。40代後半〜50代の女性向けの雑誌ということで、お洒落で落ち着いた大人の雰囲気です。

I’m really excited to receive this poster today! I created illustration and some hand lettering for Chigasaki Lusca, a shopping mall in a coastal area. They’ve just started the autumn campaign today, and my illustration can be seen in some of their promotional tools. I’ll visit the mall soon to see how my illustration is used inside the building.

The poster is about 100cm tall and unfortunately there is no such big space on my wall, so it ended up on the floor! I also made some illustrations for newspaper insert (I put it here) and small cotton bag.

茅ヶ崎ラスカにて今日から始まる「スタイリッシュ・オータム フェア」のイラストを担当しました。今日ちょうどデザイン会社様からポスターと折込のサンプルが届き、その大きさだけでも我ながらびっくり！普段イラストはせいぜいA3サイズくらいまでが多いので…。

館内や駅からの入口などでもイラストが使われてるそうなので、近々観に行きたいと思います！

Yes, a map again! This is a Wallonia (in Belgium) map for the Telegraph.

テレグラフ紙（イギリス）にベルギーの地図つくりました。はい、地図ばっかとか言わないでくださいね（笑）地図好きなんです！

I’ve already mentioned it on my website, but I thought I would talk a bit more here. This is a mock-up of the book cover I created for a competition. Actually I made it after the entry just to see how it looks like. This kind of classic fiction is likely to be a paperback.

In the competition I had to choose one or more titles from their list. I’ve picked ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ by F. Sagan as I had not read it properly, and I wanted to add some modern look to the existing cover. The existing cover uses a photo but it was a bit out of date (looks like 80s, I think), and not really reflecting the story.

My intention was to show a subtle sadness in a place where everyone is supposed to be happy (summer holiday in French coast).

I entered a couple of other titles too and unfortunately none of them won a prize, but I was shortlisted (I don’t know for which one yet). You can see the winners’ works here. I felt that most are rather abstract and somehow artistic (not particularly design-oriented). But they have different judges each year and it might not be the case next year.

ギャラリー主催の装画コンペに出した作品の一つ。エントリー時はタイトルや著者名を入れることはおろか、もちろんこんな模型を送ることは許されていません…ので、勝手に自分で作ってみました。受賞はしませんでしたが、エントリー作品のどれかは最終選考に残ったようです。

I am so happy to be able to put it up here! My illustration map is in the latest issue of Sotokoto, a LOHAS magazine in Japan, which is just published today!

My map is in the feature of Mt. Apoi and surrounding areas in Hokkaido (a northern part of Japan). I absolutely loved the feature itself, the freedom I was allowed, and the people I worked with. How lucky am I!

今日発売のソトコトで、アポイ岳を特集した地図を制作しました。今月号は丸ごと北海道特集！アポイ岳は、えりも岬からほど近い場所にある、独特の自然体系を持った宝石箱のような山です。

特集自体も、はっとするほど綺麗な大自然の写真がたくさんあって、自分も登山したような気分。癒されます。ぜひとも本屋さんへ！

“T for Typewriter”

I made this to celebrate the day (23rd June 1868) the first practical modern typewriter was patented (my image is a mixture of several typewriters).