Delightful editorial illustration for Japanese magazines by Ryo Takemasa

We in the studio are the first to admit that if you slap a foreign script onto something it instantly becomes approximately 200% more exciting from a design point of view. In the case of Ryo Takemasa, however, the text is kind of just the cherry on the cake. Editorial illustration for newspaper and magazine covers is his bread and butter – so much so that his portfolio site looks something like the wall of a Japanese newsagents – but with his soft style and witty observations about urban life it’s little wonder he’s stacking up commissions. Based in Tokyo, Ryo works across books, magazines and advertising, producing imagery which looks born for covers but here’s a selection of proof, if any was needed, that his work speaks for itself too.