All MENDO-made books
Made and published by us
We don't just sell books... we make them too, which you can see in the showcase of our 33 MENDO-made books. Here’s the story of how our MENDO publishing house came to be.
At MENDO, we’ve always been designers. The idea to start a bookstore was conceived when founders Roy and Joost still ran a design communication agency, and was led by their affinity for images, for beautiful books and the love for paper.
In seventeen years time, the Berenstraat flagship store has become a household name. And it was in that store that customers, who were asking for particular books, planted the seeds for what would lead MENDO to become an international publishing house that creates and curates books. As our general manager Roy Rietstap says: ‘We’d like to share our insatiable hunger for visual inspiration and aesthetics’.
Like the origin story of the store, our publishing house started with our home town. Amsterdam was born from our interminable love for the always developing city of Amsterdam, and it wouldn’t be the only publication about our the Dutch capital that we would make. ‘It’s great to showcase the city’s beauty – it’s an endless inspiration to us,’ Roy says.
It’s the inspiring spirit that can be conveyed through all of our Amsterdam books. Books like Amsterdam, The Amsterdam Canals and the uniquely designed Pontsteiger focus on inspiring (parts of) the city, other MENDO-made books focus on the city’s ever-developing creative sector. The Workshop, for instance, offers a unique glimpse in the creative spaces of Dutch artists, and the recently published MOAM collects Amsterdams creativity by featuring contemporary Dutch creatives.
‘ We’d like to share our insatiable hunger for visual inspiration and aesthetics. ’
‘ We’d like to share our insatiable hunger for visual inspiration and aesthetics. ’
Another Amsterdam-focused book, Starring Amsterdam, boasts photos of visiting, groovy celebrities in the 1960s and 70s. The publication contains search suggestions to find out more about the portrayed artists online, connecting the online with the offline world of print. Roy: ‘we’d like show people from generations that grew up with only books, what the new generation of online photographers is creating’. That connection is also essential for books from the ‘Streets Of’ Collection and Depart, which let that new class of photographers leap from online photography to the offline world of print, providing them a tangible chapter in their legacy.
‘We’d like to offer social media photographers an offline platform,’ Roy says, ‘to show others that photography is changing without losing quality’. In that sense, #SENDNUDES also responded to the zeitgeist, featuring online photographers who captured female ‘nudes’ in a new and unconventional manner. ‘Just as unconventional is Ferry van der Nat’s Mr, that can be seen as a contribution to gay emancipation. We wanted to make an alluring book that boasts male nudity, which is interesting for both men and women’.
Van der Nat is just one of the many photographers we teamed up with to create lasting monographs. The first international success came with High Tide, created with the surf photographer Chris Burkard, but also Oscar Abolafia’s Icons by Oscar, Klaas Jan van der Weij’s Sportret, Adam Katz Sinding’s This is Not a F*cking Street Style Book and the MENDO-initiated Carli Hermès monograph are good examples of extraordinary overview books.
In the gradual process of setting up the full-on publishing company MENDO came to be, some of the MENDO men worked more and more from our Herengracht office. Here, our love for paper, ink and color will also in the future be the incentive to create even more books. In July, for instance, the first monograph publication of talented photographer Pie Aerts will be published, which will collect the worldly photos he has shot on his journey looking for real stories about real people. One month earlier, another travel book will see the light, which is the sequel to This Is Not A F*cking Street Style Book by Adam Katz Sinding who documents the zeitgeist of places all over the globe.
You can browse all MENDO-created books here.
All MENDO-made books in figures
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Picturing the Streets of Amsterdam
Meet the photographers of 'Streets of Amsterdam’
‘Streets of Amsterdam’ editor Joost Bastmeijer introduces four of the book’s contributing photographers.
“I love it when people tell me I can’t do something”
Interview with MOAM's Martijn Nekoui
As the biggest platform in the Netherlands for talent in fashion and beyond, MOAM has exceeded many expectations and limitations. Now that we’re making a book with them, it’s time…
A brief history about (the streets of) Amsterdam
How our home base came to be
The streets of Amsterdam are full of history, that even hardcore Amsterdammers might not know about. Let us tell you a small tale about the past of our beloved home…
London: a street photographer’s idea of paradise
A sneak preview on our next book in the Streets Of... series
We're currently finalizing Streets of London, the second publication in our Streets of... series. Editor Mikel van den Boogaard learned that London can be considered as a street photographer's idea…
How we translated the world of Casper Reinders into a book
Made by MENDO
This book is unlike any other. And although there are more publishers saying that, we promise you, there’s absolutely nothing like this. Casper Reinders greatest interiors are collected in our…
Some favorite contributions
For our newest book MOAM and MENDO asked 100 Dutch creatives to show and tell us what fashion in Amsterdam is.
Picturing the Streets of New York
Meet the photographers of 'Streets Of New York'
‘Streets of New York’, editor Joost Bastmeijer introduces five of the book’s contributing photographers.
Introducing “Miss Avocado”: Colette Dike
Interview
We had a moment to talk with Colette, the mastermind behind most of the recipes you’ll find in The Avocado Show book.
Work in progress: the Pontsteiger book
A first glimpse at a new book project with local significance
An eye-catching new building rises along the banks of the IJ-river. MENDO is very proud to design and publish a book about it.
Interview
To celebrate our upcoming book with The Avocado Show, MENDO had a lunch date with its founder Ron Simpson to “peel” the success of the Avocado Show.
Can we cook from a Michelin Star book?
Unraveling the myth with Aan de Poel
Unraveling a myth with Aan de Poel: can amateur cooks like ourselves make a Michelin Star recipe? We prepared a Fäviken recipe and an Aan de Poel signature dish.
The vivid, theatrical stories of Alex Prager
Photographer's profile
The hyperreal, luminous and compelling work of photographer Alex Prager never seizes to amaze us. According to some guys at MENDO, she even made one of the best book of…
Photographer Pie Aerts on capturing beauty
Interview
After introducing Pie Aerts, it’s time for a chat about his first book ‘Tales From The Roads Less Traveled’, which is designed by MENDO (expected July 2019), the visual stories…
Interview
As a fashion photographer, Adam Katz Sinding travels more than 300 days a year. In a conversation with MENDO’s Mikel, he explains why he travels, and what keeps him going.
MENDO x Osiris bookstand
If you love your books, a MENDO x Osiris bookstand is the icing on the cake. The perfect way to display and enjoy your books.
Get ready for the denim book of the year
‘A Decade of DENHAM’ is available now
Jeanmaker DENHAM celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a mouthwatering coffee table book, a MENDO-DENHAM collaboration, to commemorate its decade-long journey in jean making.
Foam Magazine
In our series Shelf Sessions we climb the shelves of MENDO’s friends. In this episode: Elisa Medde, Managing Editor at Foam Magazine.
We’ve got 1947 Ferrari’s for sale
Two new limited Ferrari books soon available at MENDO
With Taschen’s new €5000 Collector’s Edition and €25.000 Art Edition Ferrari Book, your chance of obtaining the ultimate Italian sports car is closer than ever. (Kind of.) A must-have for…
We’re already thinking about Christmas, and maybe you should too
Every season is gift season
You know that books are undeniably the best gifts. While many people are dipping their butts in a cool swimming pool, we’re busy planning our gift service for the winter…