Usually, illustration is a career that starts at a young age, sometimes following specialisation courses or art schools. It is precisely for this reason that Luis Mendo‘s story seems atypical and makes us smile.
Luis came to the world of illustration relatively recently, about eight years ago, after working for almost twenty years in the field of editorial design.
After years as an Art Director in Barcelona and Amsterdam, working with magazines and journals, he decided to change his life in 2013 by taking a sabbatical year in Tokyo. However, Luis Mendo never went back to Amsterdam and rebuilt his life in Japan where, due to language issues, he was unable to resume his editorial work and devoted himself entirely to illustration.
He soon became quite successful and even found an illustration agency to represent him. Today, years after that moment, Luis Mendo is represented by the Handsome Frank agency and has international collaborations with The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, New York Magazine, Monocle, Apple and Uniqlo.
Read also: The Home Stayer, the project by Luis Mendo
What characterises his work is what he calls a “digital analogue” style. Using the iPad Pro and Procreate, the illustrator is able to evoke the pencil stroke on the white paper, the watercolour patches and small imperfections that make it all the more real.
The world around him, the streets of Tokyo and the cities he visits, the scenes he notices while walking and what happens to him become the subjects of his illustrations, which have a childlike, simple and delicate quality.
We have selected just a few of his works, but follow him on Instagram so you don’t miss the next ones.
