Profile: The Long Version
The Reasons Why I Am Who I Am Today
1. My entrepreneurial father encouraged his children to become international in an environment where we often met foreigners.
2. I had a super-smart older brother who read encyclopedias like novels. My mother told me, "You have to study hard because your brother took the most of your brain." I believed her and became a hard worker.
3. When I was two years old, one of my drawings got selected for an exhibition curated by the local town hall. My mother was delighted - "She is a genius artist!" - and encouraged me to pursue art.
4. At the age of three, I suffered third-degree burns on my left arm and neck due to an accident. My parents taught me to hide them. When I became a teenager, my father told me, "I don't think any man will marry you, but you can live with us forever." I didn't want to do that, so I thought, "I have to be financially independent."
5. I excelled in sports, but I couldn't wear short-sleeved sportswear since I had to hide the burn scars. I declined to participate in any tournaments and eventually gave up on my wish of becoming an athlete or a dancer.
6. After I failed to be accepted by the elite Tokyo University of the Arts, my father sent me to an English Intensive school in Vermont, USA, without asking my wish. After eight months, I moved to New York City and felt at home for the first time.
7. I enjoyed a successful career as an illustrator in my 20s to 40s and worked with many leading corporations and organizations including New York Times, American Express, and United Nations.
8. Contrary to my father's prophecy, I had a colorful love life and got married twice. Even though both ended in divorce, I learned a lot from my ex-husbands.
9. I always wanted to have children, but I could not conceive (a long story). But, I was lucky to have adopted a half Asian - half white newborn girl who grew up to be a remarkable woman.
10. I worked at an art gallery in the Chelsea section of Manhattan owned by a successful Japanese woman. I learned the joy of working with Japanese clientele.
11. After my father's sudden passing in 2013, I took over one of the two small companies he left behind, a shipping and remittance business for Filipinos living in Japan. I managed the company by commuting between New York and Tokyo for two and a half years. My father's best friend, a former president of Marubeni Philippines, taught me everything about how to run a company. I restructured the company from the ground up.
12. Two years later, my brother, who was only two years older than me, passed away. This event made me examine my life. I sold the company to the direct competitor, returned to New York City, and founded a business and creative agency, CoCollaborations, to bridge Japan and the U.S.
13. Then the pandemic arrived! In the summer of 2021, I bought a small old house in Upstate New York and started a new life.
Conventinal Profile
Coco Masuda was born and raised in Tokyo. In 1979, she was sent to the United States to study and graduated from Parsons School of Design. After working as a graphic designer/illustrator based in New York City, she started working as a fine art painter in 2009. She executed a series of cityscapes and portraits of her adopted homeland, New York City. In 2012, she led a program called Onishi Project at a Chelsea art gallery to introduce Japanese artists to the United States. She continued to work as a director for a year and a half. After her father's sudden passing in 2013, she took on the president's role and managed his shipping/remittance company in Tokyo. Two and a half years later, she succeeded in selling the company at a profit. She decided to use her language skills and connections to run a business that would serve as a bridge between Japan and the West, and established CoCollaborations, LLC, in 2017. In 2020, she started to revive her illustration and painting business as well.
2023
Launched an online store, CoCollaborations The Store, with the concept of "Artful Living."
2023
After building the online store for BUNZABURO, a brand based in Kyoto, Japan, and helping it to grow globally for a year, became the Overseas Manager.
2019
Vision Marketing, Tokyo, Japan, Collaborator
2017-Present
CoCollaborations LLC, NY, Founder/Managing Director
2016
Solo Show, "Coco Masuda | New York Cityscapes", Isetan Shinjuku, Tokyo
2016
"Equal Rights for Women" was featured in "Resist!" distributed during The Women's March
2014-15
Two series of portrait paintings, a total of 13, used for an advertising campaign for Itochu Corporation of Japan, which won the grand prize for the prestigious Nikkei Advertising award.
2013-16
Forex Japan, Tokyo, President
2012-13
Onishi Project, NY, Managing Director
2011
Jury for Society of Illustrators' student scholarship show
2008
Jury for Society of Illustrators' student scholarship show
2007
FIT, NY, Illustration Dept. Adjunct Professor
2005
Poster design and illustration for United Nations' "Beijing at Ten" held in New York City
2004−Present
2001−10, 17
Poster illustration for The US Courts, Office of Public Affairs
2000
Jury for Society of Illustrators' annual show
1995
Poster design and illustration for United Nations's "The Women’s Conference in Beijing", for The International Women’ Day
1994
Chosen to create the first illustration cover since 1970s for Fortune magazine
1992−2003
Freelance Illustrator
1992
Cover illustration commissioned by Time, Newsweek, U.S.News&World Report, within two weeks
1988-89
Cygnus Production, NY, Design Director
1986−91
Quatorze Design, NY, Principal
1984−86
David Curry Design, NY, Graphic Designer
1983−84
Unit (Clothing Company), NY, Partner
1983
Parsons School of Design, NY, BFA
Hobbies and Interests
⭕️ Nihon Shuji (Japan Calligraphy) 5th degree, Certified Instructor
Maybe I will teach children someday.
⭕️ Cooking
Cooking is my relaxation. I often procrasti-bake, too.
○ International Karate Organization, Kyokushinkaikan, 1st Dan Black Belt
The best years of my life were spent at the dojo with my daughter. I obtained my black belt at age 54.
#ニューヨーク在住日本人ブログ、#クリエイターブログ、#女性経営者ブログ