Virtual Memories Show 677:
Luis Mendo
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“Mundo Mendo is like the world of Mendo. It’s my world, and you need a spaceship to arrive here.”
Welcome to Mundo Mendo! I visited artist and writer Luis Mendo in Karuizawa, Japan for a wide-ranging conversation about art, creativity, community and more. We talk about how he left design and embraced drawing and illustration, why he created the Mundo Mendo platform so fans/members can support his art and stories (and get an annual print edition of his work), the limits of money and the joy of making art, and how artists can escape “working for Mr. Zuckerberg” and stop chasing likes on Instagram. We get into how internal change has to be accompanied by an external change, the challenge of not having a client, his critique of AI “art”, and the tension between world of numbers & metrics and the world of serendipity. We also discuss the creative residency he & his wife ran, Almost Perfect, his love of old movies, how the creative life can be a chain of projects, what brought him to Japan and what keeps him there (even if he feels like a foreigner wherever he is), his newsletter that highlights other illustrators and artists, why I should be a male model in Japan, and a lot more. (Plus, after the conversation I share a story about my Japan business trip and some Kafkaesque flop-sweat moments.) Give it a listen! And go support Mundo Mendo!
“I’m greedy for making something interesting, it’s a healthy greed.”
“Why are we all working for Mr. Zuckerberg instead of working for ourselves?”
“My first art influences were comics, women’s magazines, and bullfighting on the TV.”
“If you choose the right people, they attract the right people.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Luis Mendo is an artist and author based in Japan. He studied graphic design in Spain and The Netherlands. After working as an editorial designer and creative director for 20 years in Amsterdam, Luis moved to Tokyo and changed his career to drawing. His illustrations can be found on books, websites, magazines, advertising and clothing worldwide. His artworks have been shown in art galleries in Spain, France, Japan, South Korea and the USA.
His preferred subjects include sensory-driven stories, city/urban life, interiors, objects, animals and people in context. Also travel, narratives, feelings and human interactions. Luis’s illustration signature is to make mundane things look special and make visible the invisible. He can’t avoid impregnating positivism to everything he draws.
Luis was the Creative Director and co-founder of creative residency Almost Perfect together with his wife Yuka, from 2018 to 2025. In 2024 Luis launched Mundo Mendo, a membership program where he shares art, stories and thoughts that subsequently and annually become printed books. In the newsletter, The Illustrated, Luis shares and promotes his favorite illustration talent.
Follow Luis on Instagram and Bluesky, and support MUNDO MENDO.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Luis’ home in Karuizawa on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Drawing of us by Luis. It’s on my instagram.