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R Kikuo Johnson

  • Illustration
  • Animation
  • Books
  • News
  • prints
  • About
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Upstairs, Downstairs

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

A brief write up about this piece at The New Yorker.

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A Mother's Work

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

A brief write up about this piece at The New Yorker.

This Illustration won the 2025 Gold Medal in the Editorial category From the Society of Illustrators,

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Genuine Style

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

A brief write up about this piece at The New Yorker.

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Bodega Cat

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

A brief interview about this piece with The New Yorker.

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Miami Design District

Multimedia campaign for the Miami Design District. Key illustrations and many smaller assets were used in a variety of applications including billboards, animation, and print.

Art Direction: Matt Delbridge

Photos by Luis Gomez

Metal Hurlant

A cover for a cat-themed issue of the French sci-fi comics magazine, Metal Hurlant.

Art Direction: Timothy Giger, Jerry Frissen

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Wall Street Journal

“The Financial Missteps to Avoid When Sending Children Off To College.” Cover illustration for The Wall Street Journal

Art director: Siung Tjia

Double-parked

Watch a short video about the creation of this cover on the New Yorker’s website.

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

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Shut Up This Is Serious

Cover illustration and lettering for the novel, Shut Up This is Serious.

Art Director: Joel Tippie

Superman

Action Comics #1063 variant cover featuring Superman and Bizarro.

Art DIrection: Eddy Choi, Paul Kaminski

Delayed

"Delayed," a cover of The New Yorker published during a wave of anti-Asian violence in America. This piece was widely shared on social media and was the subject of multiple news features.

An interview about the cover with The New Yorker

This Illustration won the 2021 Gold Medal in the Editorial category From the Society of Illustrators, as well as the 2022 American Society of Magazine Editors Best Cover Contest in the "News and Politics" category. It was acquired by the Library of Congress.

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

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Lord of the Flies

Jacket illustration and text design for William Golding's Lord of the Flies (Penguin). The back cover repurposes elements from an unused alternative version. Art director Paul Buckley and I share some of what went into designing this piece in the book, Classic Penguin: Cover to Cover, excerpted below.

Art direction: Paul Buckley

Nike

Nike "Basketbaltar" ad campaign. Basketbaltar is a mechanical fortuneteller who offers predictions for the 2015 NBA playoffs via social media. Modular graphics are customized with up-to-the-minute game highlights. Illustrations included a "zodiac" of sixteen reimagined team logos.

Art direction/Graphic design: Jacob Weinstein, Wieden + Kennedy.

Perennial

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

A brief interview about this piece with The New Yorker.

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Bloody Campaign

Mother Jones Magazine: How Trump’s 2024 Campaign Became a Bloody Cage Fight.

Art Director: Michael Johnson

Shifting Gears

Cover to the Oct 26, 2020 issue of The New Yorker Magazine. As subway ridership dwindled during the Covid-19 pandemic, the city’s bike lanes saw increasing traffic.

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

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Poison Ivy

Variant cover for Poison Ivy #22

Safe Travels

"Safe Travels," summer-themed cover of  The New Yorker.

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

This piece was awarded a gold medal by the Society of Illustrators in the book and editorial category.

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The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises book cover design for Penguin Graphic Deluxe Editions, a series of classic novels wrapped in comics art by contemporary cartoonists and graphic novelists.

Art Direction: Paul Buckley

Tech Support

"Tech Support," cover to the money-themed issue of The New Yorker.

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

• American Illustration 37 winner

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Fuzzy Fury!

Fuzzy Fury! New evidence that T. Rex was feathered. Cover illustration and title design for the New York Times kid's section.

Art Direction: Debra Bishop

Apoteker Tepe

Package illustrations for fragrances by Apoteker Tepe.

Art Direction: Holladay Penick Saltz

Day Trippers

Cover, disc, and fold out insert for the Criterion collection’s edition of Greg Mottola’s 1996 classic film, “Day Trippers.”

Art direction: Eric Skillman

Closing set

Cover to the New Yorker's special entertainment issue.

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

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The Masters, Augusta National

Every year, Golf Digest magazine sends an illustrator to the Masters Golf Tournament for a fresh perspective. I was lucky enough to be chosen in 2017, and I spent seven days in Augusta observing a sporting event I knew next to nothing about. The resulting series of comic strips and illustrated observations comprises a 6-page feature in the April 2018 issue. Art director: Ken Delago

How to Hide $400 Million

When a wealthy businessman set out to divorce his wife, their fortune vanished. The quest to find it would reveal the depths of an offshore financial system bigger than the U.S. economy. The New York Times Magazine.

Art Direction: Jason Sfetko

Shostakovich

Wraparound book jacket illustration for Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson.

Art Direction: Matt Roeser

The Snake Handlers

“How wild reptiles wind up in pet stores around the world.” Cover,  text design, and animation for The New York Times’ science section. Art director: Catherine Gilmore-Barnes

• Winner of the “Award of Excellence “ in the category of features design from the Society for News Design Annual Creative Competition.

Commencement

Graduation-themed New Yorker cover. A detailed aesthetic analysis of this piece appeared in the Washington Post. Winner of American Society of Magazine Editors Best Cover Contest 2017 in the "Brainiest" category.

Art Direction: Françoise Mouly

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Data Breach

Feature Illustrations for a series of articles on spies, hacking, and security in Wired UK.

Art direction: Andrew Diprose

How America Lost It's Mind

Illustrations to accompany the Atlantic’s cover story, “How America Lost Its Mind” by Kurt Anderson. “The nation’s current post-truth moment is the ultimate expression of mind-sets that have made America exceptional throughout its history.” Art director: Paul Spella

Jordan Peele

A portrait of Jordan Peele on the set of Get Out for Sarah Lawrence Magazine.

Dear Friend

Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li (Penguin Books UK).

Art direction: Richard Bravery

Lorde

Lorde Portrait for the New Yorker.

Art Direction: Deanna Donegan

• American Illustration 37 winner

Bookends Portraits

New York Times Book review "bookends" columnists.

Art direction: Nicholas Blechman

Harry's

Map of New York's Grand Central Terminal printed as wrapping paper and as the central spread of a print edition of Harry's Five O'clock magazine. Available at Harry's temporary "Newsstand" kiosk in Grand Central Terminal.

Art direction: Garrett Morin

Photography: Harry's

The Big Hack

"The Big Hack" For New York Magazine.

Art director: Christopher Cristiano

Lettering & logos

Hand-drawn lettering for a variety of personal and community projects.

Vanity Fair

“The Sultan of Bling– He lived the life of a Saudi prince, and investors all over the world fell for it. But the truth turned out to be even more incredible than the lie.”

Art director: Tonya Douraghy

New York Times Book Review

Some New York Times Book Review covers.

Art direction: Nicholas Blechman, Joele Cuyler

Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton illustrations for Columbia University Magazine.

Art direction: Jeffrey Saks

Puma Duality

The two sides of footballer Antoine Griezmann for PUMA and Eight by Eight magazine.

Art direction: Robert Priest

Holding Pattern

Cover and feature illustrations for an article about college students and their helicopter parents for Georgia State University Magazine.

Art direction: Eric Capossela

New York Winter

“Deflated” and “On Line,” two unpublished commissions from the New Yorker.

Gucci Mane, Reborn

"Gucci Mane, Reborn" for the new Yorker. 

Art Direction: Chris Curry

Squirrel power!

Power outages caused by squirrels in the New York Times.

Art direction: Aviva Michaelov

Dating's Not That Hard

Reimagining three famously complicated romances from the cinema for German GQ.

Art Direction: Jana Meier-Roberts

NBA Super Fan

GQ magazine.

Art Direction: Martin Salazar

Guggenheim

Calder inspired portrait of the Guggenheim museum in New york for the Guggenheim.org.

Upstairs, Downstairs

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A Mother's Work

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Genuine Style

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Bodega Cat

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Miami Design District

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Metal Hurlant

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Wall Street Journal

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Double-parked

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Shut Up This Is Serious

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Superman

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Delayed

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Lord of the Flies

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Nike

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Perennial

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Bloody Campaign

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Shifting Gears

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Poison Ivy

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Safe Travels

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The Sun Also Rises

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Tech Support

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Fuzzy Fury!

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Apoteker Tepe

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Day Trippers

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Closing set

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The Masters, Augusta National

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How to Hide $400 Million

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Divorce

Shostakovich

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The Snake Handlers

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Commencement

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Data Breach

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How America Lost It's Mind

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Jordan Peele

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 jordan peele illustration

Dear Friend

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Lorde

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Bookends Portraits

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Harry's

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The Big Hack

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Lettering & logos

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Vanity Fair

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New York Times Book Review

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Hamilton

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Puma Duality

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Holding Pattern

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New York Winter

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Gucci Mane, Reborn

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Squirrel power!

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Dating's Not That Hard

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NBA Super Fan

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Guggenheim

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Copyright R Kikuo Johnson 2024