The work of London-based designer and artist MAMIMU (June Mineyama-Smithson) is vibrant and enlivening. Working across a variety of media from digital prints to xR (Extended Reality) motion graphics, MAMIMU creates colourful designs and animations that help fulfil her mission to inject more optimism into the world. Having studied Graphic & Media Design at the London College of Communication, MAMIMU worked as a graphic designer in branding, but found herself craving an outlet to “let out her creative steam.” 

Since beginning her creative practice in 2017, MAMIMU has gone from strength to strength – always retaining her signature saturated colours, a delight in simple details, and careful attention to collective emotions. When asked about her sources of inspiration, MAMIMU recalls the bright colours of 1980s Tokyo that she experienced growingup, as well as her admiration for seventeenth-century Kimono artisans, who found beauty in ordinary details such as fish scales and cherry blossoms, and distilled them into minimalist geometric patterns.

MAMIMU combines simplicity and boldness of style with technological experimentation inherited from her father. He was a computer engineer who never failed to bring home new and exciting objects, such as NASA space food or Indonesian shadow-puppets, for June to explore. 

“My aim to cultivate more optimism,” MAMIMU explains, “is not some lofty idea – it is born out of the desire to delight people and to instil in them the wish to be happy and the belief that we can, collectively, make the world a better place.” MAMIMU encourages optimism using bold colours and shapes, often working in collaboration with other creatives, scientists, and indie businesses. It’s fitting that MAMIMU’s favourite artist is Bridget Riley because of the emotional impact of Riley's precise geometric designs: “every element always feel so carefully considered – so right!”. Clarity and rhythm are also at the forefront of MAMIMU’s practice.

In 2020, MAMIMU exhibited at Cult Vision Window takeover (Barbican Geometrics), and more recently her installation ‘Infinity Doors’ was installed at Coventry Show Windows. MAMIMU hopes to expand her practice on a physical scale by working on large-scale placemaking, and to reach more people with her work. She is already engaged in developing a placemaking project exploring how to cultivate optimism in the city with colours, textures and nature. Exuberant and considered at the same time, MAMIMU is hugely positive and focused on developing her career as an artist: “I’m dreaming big!”