We recently connected with Yuri Miyoshi and have shared our conversation below.

Yuri, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

In 2004, while I was still working in Tokyo, my fate changed when I met a designer who worked for that company. He was looking for someone who could write the characters for the sign of a restaurant in Kyoto in calligraphy. Of course, I had never written the restaurant’s name logo in calligraphy, but somehow, despite the fact that there were several of my colleagues in the office at the time, I could write it! I said.

That reply was the beginning of my life in calligraphy.

I had no idea how to write it, and at first I was really confused. I started to look at the logos of restaurants in my neighborhood and when I went out, I started to look at the logos of restaurants to see what kind of writing style they had. I wrote and wrote and wrote at a pace that I used up the 100 sheets of paper in no time.

I still remember that feeling of relief and happiness when the client finally agreed to one of my designs after meeting and discussing with the designer who chose me over and over again.Furthermore, I even got paid for this, and I started to put it in the back of my mind that I would like to do this job someday, because I had no idea that such a wonderful job existed.

Yuri, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, and started learning calligraphy at the age of 6.

As I mentioned earlier, in 2005, I had the opportunity to design a logo for a restaurant sign using calligraphy, which led me to design logos with a calligraphy brush.

Generally, when you think of a “designer” you think of someone who designs with Photoshop or Illustrator, but in my case, I design letters with a brush and ink.

I am a designer who takes great risks because I can never write the same letter twice because of the very analog way of using a brush and ink.

I use calligraphy to express the message that the client wants to send to his or her clients, and how I do this is by differentiating the thickness of the letters, writing in a rough style, or using thin lines to express elegance.

Usually, before I start writing, I start by asking the client about various aspects of the logo. For example, I find out what kind of atmosphere they want the logo to have and what kind of message they want to convey to the customers.

Let’s say when I am writing the name of a spicy soup and a soup you have when you are not feeling well, which is gentle on the body but not too strong in flavor.

In the case of spicy soup, you want to express the spiciness, of course. In that case, don’t you think it would be better to write the spiciness in a violent manner rather than using gentle lines to express elegance?

On the other hand, when writing the name of a healthful soup, I think that writing it with gentle lines that can express elegance would give the impression that it looks good for the body.

It is not impossible to create this kind of expression using Photoshop or Illustrator, but the font styles included in these tools are not infinite, are they?

But when you write with a brush and ink like I do, the possibilities are endless. And I will never have the same design as anyone else. Because I will never put the same thing on twice.

I am proud of the fact that I can create a unique design that no one else can.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It is a real pleasure to see the satisfaction and delight of my customers, and to see my work being published in the world and being seen by various people.

For the Peace Bell project I undertook last August 2022 to build a bell tower for the temple bell that came from Hiroshima at the Carter Center in Atlanta, there was a plan to build a stone monument with the words “Peace Bell Monument” engraved on the side of the bell tower, and I was in charge of writing the words for the engraving. The thought that this monument will remain for tens of years, maybe even a hundred years, is an indescribably moving experience.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I moved to the United States in 2009 and about a year later, I had the opportunity to teach Japanese. Calligraphy. I had never taught before and I was very worried about whether students would come, but I decided to take the plunge. Despite such concerns, the students started gathering from the first day, and the number of students gradually increased. I think there were about 20 people at most. It was not easy to have students of all ages from 5 years old to adults and different level, but my biggest encouragement is that everyone is having fun practicing in my class. But that joy gradually become a pain. The purpose of leaning Japanese Calligraphy is to write well, but I began to question why it was important? The more I thought about it, the more difficult it became for me to teach. When I asked myself why I was thinking this way, I realized that my joy is to make people happy. While teaching Japanese calligraphy, I was also working on commission work, and I realized that creating custom designs with brush and ink for my clients was my greatest joy and that I really enjoyed myself. And I decided to close Japanese Calligraphy class that I taught for about 5 years in total. It was 2019. Since then, I decided to make a new start as a design Japanese calligraphy artist who creates according to each customers’ request, instead of teaching Japanese Calligraphy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://yuricreations.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yuricreations/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yuricreations

Image Credits
Pat