MEIJI 100 YEARS

30 December 2016 ● 1 min read ● 9 images









To celebrate their 100th anniversary, MEIJI asked me to draw a parade thats travelled the length of Japan and included all of their most iconic products and characters. The final images were printed in papers nationwide as well as displayed in Shibuya station earlier this year.

This was easily the longest and toughest of project of 2016 (taking up roughly 3 months) and whilst I'm incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to push myself and work on projects of this scale, I try to find a balance throughout the year of big and small projects. 

A big challenge for this project was getting permission for characters (drawn by other illustrators that would be happy for me to re-draw them in my style), buildings and landmarks to be drawn and included in these illustrations as some were far stricter than others. I think the last OK came the day before the deadline... (looking at you Kyoto)

Seriously cool, Andrew! I saw the display in Shibuya Station and thought it was fantastic! Must be such an amazing feeling to see your work used in such a way.

Fabulous, amazing work!! Can't imagine how much it took!
Personally I'm happy to see my country Yoghurt on each pane :)

Thanks Mark Mcfarlane
Yeah, seeing it out in the open is always nice. Especially if it's been a long project.

Cheers Petar Tasev
Yeah, that yoghurt got prime placement! It seems very popular.

Well done Andy! I can't imagine how many hours it took you to do this.

This is great.

Daniel Schallau Thanks mate. Yeah, many, many hours were lost...they'll always be remembered.

Erica Ward Thank you!

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About Andrew

Andrew Joyce

I'm an illustrator in Tokyo, Japan

I'm an illustrator from the UK currently living in Tokyo. I specialize in cityscapes, hand drawn lettering and observational illustration.

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