Artists of Tomo No.1: Yoshiko Tezuka
Art has always been a big deal to us
Honestly, this project started because art is something we care about deeply. We wanted that to show up somewhere tangible — not just in the tea, but in the things you hold, the things that sit in your pantry.
So we started Artists of Tomo. The idea is simple: we invite an artist or designer to create original work that lives on our packaging. No structured briefs that kill the creativity, no safe choices. Just real collaboration with people whose work we genuinely love. Yoshiko is our first, and we couldn't be happier about it.
Meet Yoshiko Tezuka
Yoshiko is a graphic designer and creative director based in Tokyo. She doesn't box herself in. Her work spans branding, logo design, printed materials, websites, merch, and event direction. She follows the concept wherever it needs to go and finds the right form for it. That flexibility is exactly what drew us to her.
Before going independent, she worked as an art director at an artist agency, directing international advertising campaigns with artists based mostly in London.
The thing she's most proud of? The studio she's been running with a close friend from university, Slogan Studio, which just hit its fifth anniversary. It's a design studio, an office, and a risograph print workshop all in one. Slogan was also the birthplace of our Saemidori labels. She calls it a hideaway. "A space filled with curiosity, mistakes, and joy." That last part really stuck with us.
Why it looks the way it does
Risograph printing isn't for people who need everything to be perfect. The process has its own character — slight misregistrations, ink variations, a handmade quality that you just can't fake. Yoshiko leaned into all of that.
She started by getting to know Tomo — the vision, the daily illustrations, the tea's origins in Wazuka, Kyoto. What she kept coming back to was the idea of human texture. Hand-drawn lines, paper, imperfections, the feel of something hand-picked. She didn't want the labels to feel corporate or overproduced. "The texture of people, materials, and process became the inspiration behind the labels." We think she nailed it.
Tea & Yoshiko
Yoshiko drinks tea every day. Not as a big formal thing, more like a natural pause after a meal, or a cold glass after coming in from a hot Tokyo summer. She gets it. That ease and simplicity is something we hope comes through in the work she made for us.
Where she's headed
Ask Yoshiko about her mission and she'll tell you she's still figuring it out — and she's made peace with that. There was a time she felt pressure to "be someone," but she's moved on from that. She holds onto a quote by Bruno Munari: that a designer's role is to help eliminate cultural ignorance across all social classes. For her, staying rooted in her own culture and keeping her curiosity alive is enough of a north star.
About the Designer: Yoshiko Tezuka · Tokyo, Japan · @yoshi____tokyo
https://yoshikotezuka.com/
