50 years ago in Japan, Yuko Shimizu, a 24-year-old artist, put pen to paper and created something that would go on to generate $84.5 billion, according to a 2022 Forbes report..
“I used a Japanese fude brush pen and Japanese sumi ink to draw the original. That was how it was done at that time,” he told BBC Witness History.
The original he’s talking about was a simple sketch of a cat with a button nose, an oversized head, no mouth, and a bow over its right ear.
She took the name “Unknown White Cat”.
You probably know her better as Hello Kitty.
“When I was studying at university, I was majoring in oil painting, but I personally felt that I was lacking in that area, so I gave up on the idea.
“So I turned my attention to teaching art. But there were no positions open at the time.”
Desperate to find an outlet for her creativity, Yuko began looking outside of art classes and in 1974 stumbled upon Sanrio, a former silk producer that had a runaway success when it produced rubber sandals adorned with a strawberry print.
Eager to repeat this success, they had begun hiring illustrators to create characters they could sell.
Kawaii
The artists working for Sario had to focus on one word: kawaii.
It means cute or tender, even adorable, and in the 1970s it began to make its mark on Japanese culture.
With an aesthetic that accentuates simplicity and features that evoke vulnerability, Kawaii went from being an adjective to the name of a globally recognized phenomenon for its colorful and childlike aesthetic found in fashion, art and everyday objects.
And one of the main characters that drove him was the one he was about to create, Yuko.
“I sketched it for several days, but I remember finishing it in the afternoon.”
But what inspired you to draw a cat?
“When I was a little girl, my father gave me a little white kitten as a birthday present.
“I was very moved and the memory stayed with me, so I decided to create a character based on the kitten.
“I was very happy to have modeled the character on my beloved kitten.And I incorporated some of the poses I remembered into the design.
“I enjoyed it very much.”
Hello kitty
Yuko’s kitten came into the world without much fanfare, she didn’t even have a name.
“When it was first designed, it was printed on a small bag, which was released for sale alongside six other different character products.
However, since that “unknown white cat” sold much more than the others, the company decided to focus on developing it further.
It was then that the character was given a name.
“I had included the word ‘hello’ in the design and this contributed to the name. Kitty comes from the English word for kitten: kitten“.
The friendly feline came to adorn much more than a small plastic bag.
It was a massive hit and quickly became Sanrio’s best-selling character.
“As Hello Kitty grew, people had to work in different areas. I worked on a Hello Kitty picture book and designed the original Hello Kitty fabric.”
With sales continuing to rise, it became necessary to give Kitty a personality.
“Hello Kitty’s main theme is friendship.
“When I first created her, she was part of a family, but then Hello Kitty started appearing in other scenarios.”
That family has Mary, her mother, George, her father, Anthony, her grandfather, Margaret, her grandmother, and Mimi, her twin sister.
Fans will also know that she has been romantically linked to both Tuxedo Sam, a talking penguin, and beloved cat Daniel.
But we are not here to speculate about her love life.
Yuko’s, meanwhile, had been changing.
“I got married at 27, after having been in Sanrio for a while.
“A year later, I got pregnant and left the company.
“When my son was around two years old, Sanrio asked me if there was any way I could go back to work, which led to my second stint there.”
Cat/girl
Upon her return, Yuko noted that during her absence, “the company had put a lot of effort into making the brand what it is today.”
That included giving his furry creation a backstory: Hello Kitty is English and lives on the outskirts of London.
But when she’s not hanging around the UK capital, she’s a Brit abroad who, having no mouth, speaks from the heart to say: “You can never have too many friends!”
With her unchanging red bow over her left ear and ascetic expression, It came to adorn some 50,000 products sold in 130 countriesbecoming the center of an empire that encompasses toys, animations and all kinds of consumer trinkets.
Millions of people grew up surrounded by Hello Kitty stickers, thermoses and pillowcases.
There were also adult appliances on offer, including toasters, computers, cars and televisions on which to watch various Hello Kitty TV series and even an exercise video.
There are two officially licensed theme parks, she has had her own line of wines and diamond jewelry.as well as credit cards with which to purchase them.
Famous fans include celebrity Paris Hilton, who has confessed to having been obsessed with the character since she was a child, as well as pop royalty Mariah Carey and Lady Gaga.
Katie Perry has it tattooed, while Avril Lavigne released a single titled “Hello Kitty” in 2013.
And she is a UNICEF children’s ambassador.
As if that were not enough, in 2014 Sanrio sent her into space.
But recently, on the eve of its 50th anniversary celebrations, Rumors began to circulate that shook fans to the core..
In July, Jill Koch, Sanrio’s senior vice president of marketing and brand management, confirmed them.
He pointed out that The iconic character is not a cat but a girl British bird named Kitty White measures as much as five apples and weighs the equivalent of three.
She likes to bake cookies, has a cat, a boyfriend named Daniel, and hundreds of friends.
Although that had been the official version before, the revelation provoked the anger of many fans.
Yuko, who spoke to the BBC when it was all a rumor, said that “The kitten changes depending on who looks at her”.
“For example, I received a letter from a little girl who was in the hospital telling me that her Hello Kitty doll talked to her every day and that it was really comforting, which shows how the essence of Kitty’s character can change a lot.”
Perhaps she is right: the abstract quality and simplicity of Hello Kitty, admired by designers, has not only allowed it to adapt to changing trends and tastes but also to be interpreted in different ways.
His expressionless face is a blank canvas on which anything can be projected..
But while Hello Kitty is one of the biggest marketing phenomena in history due to its impact and longevity, it is losing ground.
In the official Sanrio character rankings for 2024, she came in 5th place, with two million fewer fan votes than the winner, Cinnamoroll, a white puppy “born on a cloud in the distant sky.”
Furthermore, it has gone from representing 99% of the company’s business in the US in 2013 to 60%, and barely 30% worldwide.
Yuko, for her part, continued to create new characters and even had another massive hit: Rebecca Bonbon.
“Rebecca Bonbon came about after I saw a black and white French bulldog in a magazine. The concept is based on the realization of a little girl’s dream.
“I think it’s very elegant.”
For her, it is “natural for a human being to find these types of characters cute, whether it is a pet or something similar.”
“The first drawing is something round with eyes and a nose, and I think that deep in their hearts people have a deep feeling of nostalgia related to that image.
“So it is possible that both children and adults have a feeling of nostalgia with that kind of image and may have a calming effect“.
* If you want to listen to Yuko Shimizu on BBC Witness History, Click here
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