Luis Mendo - Illustrator in Tokyo

Luis Mendo

I'm an illustrator in Tokyo, Japan

Available for contracts

I speak English, Spanish, and Dutch

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My activity

About me

Luis Mendo started his professional career in Spain, in 1994. Soon he moved to The Netherlands and as of late, to Japan. In these years he designed dozens of magazine titles, newspapers, posters, identities, books and publications on and offline.

In june 2005 opened his own studio in Amsterdam, named GOOD Inc. and was chosen one of the 10 best Art Directors in The Netherlands. From 2009 Luis started to draw on a regular basis, rediscovering the joy of the craft, and developing a career as illustrator and artist (or as he likes to call himself, a drawer) next to his design work.

In 2013 Luis closed GOOD Inc. and moved to Japan. Since then he operates under his own name making art, illustrations, art direction and design consultancy. He regularly gives lectures, advice and workshops on design, magazine-making and creativity issues.

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My Creations

  1. チャイムGinza magazine covers

    28 March 2016
    チャイムGinza magazine covers

    During this year, I am making every cover of チャイムGinza, the customers magazine of Wako department store which is in Ginza, of course. This is issue 3.

  2. About sleep

    12 June 2018
    About sleep

    For an international renowned musician, I made this commission with Sleep as the subject. Unfortunately they went for a different version at the end, but I still like ...

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  3. Wako window at Ginza Crossing

    26 August 2017
    Wako window at Ginza Crossing

    Wako, the prestigious dept store in Ginza is celebrating their 70th anniversary. They asked me to draw 70 people – Ginza people: tourists, workers, shopping families.....

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  4. The Urbanist for New York magazine

    28 March 2016
    The Urbanist for New York magazine

    For the New York magazine relaunched Urbanist section I made a series of drawings talking about cities where US citizens live outside America. It was a fun and quick job.

  5. My Ideal Street

    26 January 2017
    My Ideal Street

    A Dutch design studio making a magazine for a Real Estate agent asked me what my ideal street would look like. I included bookshop, a 24hr deli, cinema, a nice cafe an...

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  6. T-shirts for Yokohama Baystars

    7 July 2016
    T-shirts for Yokohama Baystars

    This is the design I made for Yokohama Baystars. They asked several illustrators to come up with designs and although at the end they choose to take off the typography...

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  7. My latest spot illustrations for New York Magazine's Urbanist section, about quiet spaces in busy cities. This one is Tokyo.

    2 June 2016
    My latest spot illustrations for New York Magazine's Urbanist section, about quiet spaces in busy cities. This one is Tokyo.

    New York Magazine has this nice Urbanist travel section about life outside the US. You can see the whole series at my website www.luismendo.com

  8. Living room

    30 June 2015
    Living room

    Sketch made digitally with Manga Studio Pro on a Cintiq tablet.

  9. OpenStack Tokyo Summit

    16 December 2015
    OpenStack Tokyo Summit

    Handmade (ink and watercolour) drawings I made for an IT convention in Tokyo. Funny the job came from NYC but the summit was taking place in a venue 4 minutes from my house. They were used throughout the venue (Happō-en), printed materials and (fairly small) on the site http://openstacktokyo2015.flugentehosts.com
    See... continue reading (0, 1 image)

  10. 1st class cooking goods booklet

    9 September 2015
    1st class cooking goods booklet

    For Elle à Table Japan http://www.elle.co.jp/atable I made this cover illustration and other 3 interior pages (soon on my site) with 1st class cooking products
    They were great fun to draw and got very hungry doing it. I actually was thinking of drawing more cooking related stuff so was happy... continue reading (0, 1 image)

  11. Girl with dog

    30 June 2015
    Girl with dog

    Sketchbook page, as many I do while waiting for food or having a coffee.

  12. Dog & food

    7 September 2015
    Dog & food

    Rope is a big clothes brand and for their Picnic catalogue series they use their mascot dog in different situations. This one was "FOOD" so I drew a hungry dog visiting the Museum of Science. The client didn't really like it so here it is.

  13. Montreal for Volkskrant Magazine

    30 June 2015
    Montreal for Volkskrant Magazine

    I make illustrations of a different city every week for one of the biggest newspapers in The Netherlands. Every city sports a skyline and 6 small drawings to illustrate the article.

  14. NHK Setonaikai

    1 July 2015
    NHK Setonaikai

    For a TV series that aired on the Japanese station NHK, I made all the graphics that would populate the show's website and promotion. This is the logo, which had in fact a dozen of variants: changing as the landscape in the region of Setonaikai, which was what the show... continue reading (0, 1 image)

  15. Emmusubi Counselor Office wallpaper

    1 July 2015
    Emmusubi Counselor Office wallpaper

    After making all the illustrations for dating app Koimmusubi and dating site Emmusubi, the client asked me to make to draw a wallpaper for the offices where they receive people seeking for counselling about dating and getting a partner.

  16. Paramaribo for Volkskrant Magazine

    28 March 2016
    Paramaribo for Volkskrant Magazine

    Part on my ongoing weekly City Travel drawings for the Dutch Volkskrant magazine.

  17. Nude 1/4

    1 July 2015
    Nude 1/4

    This is a personal series of 4 nudes. Japan has a long history of erotic photography and I found this Tumblr of Japanese erotic photography collector. Mainly images from the 60s and 70s, these photos differ greatly from their western counterparts. I made the series from some photos that I... continue reading (0, 1 image)

  18. The Tokyoiter cover

    26 April 2016
    The Tokyoiter cover

    My latest cover for The Tokyoiter.
    The Tokyoiter is made by artists celebrating Tokyo as The New Yorker covers celebrate NYC. Tokyo is a wonderful city full of stories and daily inspiration. We want to celebrate the passion for this city and its inhabitants’ story.
    See more at www.thetokyoiter.com

  19. The archiving of Hi.co

    17 May 2016
    The archiving of Hi.co

    Hi.co is a website that collects moments. It will close soon and print all the collected moments on a stamp sized nickel plate. This drawing talks about that plate, about memory and about aging. Also, elephants are fun to draw.

  20. Bike helmet illustrations for Consumer Reports (USA)

    10 July 2016
    Bike helmet illustrations for Consumer Reports (USA)

    I made these for an article about bike helmets in Consumer Reports, a magazine in the US. It was fun and learned a lot about bike helmets, you can ask me any time.

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  21. Bloggers portraits for Fujingaho

    26 January 2017
    Bloggers portraits for Fujingaho

    Fujingaho is the oldest women's magazine of Japan and still run strong, also online. They asked me to draw portraits of their editors and bloggers. Here are a couple.

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  22. Japanese culture for Lexus

    12 June 2018
    Japanese culture for Lexus

    The prestigious daily paper NRC Handelsblad (The Netherlands) asked me to draw 4 topics to explain Japanese culture to the Dutch readers. Omotenashi, kaizen, origami a...

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  23. Nikkei Asian Review work-life balance

    12 June 2018
    Nikkei Asian Review work-life balance

    The good folks at the Nikkei Asian Review asked me to illustrate an article about work-life balance in Japan and the changes that it's undergoing right now on the corp...

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