Adrian Knott is an Aus­tralian illus­tra­tor and is the cre­ator of the Rake Cloth­ing line. His unique and vin­tage inspired designs are a com­bi­na­tion of lines and col­or­ful char­ac­ters that end up on shirts, walls, and boards. Adrian took some time to speak with us about his life and his art.

What was life like grow­ing up?
We moved to Noosa Heads, Queens­land when I was around nine. It was a great place to grow up as a grom—lots of surf­ing before and after school. Then we moved back to Mel­bourne, where I became stranded in the city one and a half hours from the beach—which made it hard to get reg­u­lar surfs. We were lucky enough to have a beach house, so we would head down the coast on the week­end. Skate­board­ing was my only out­let in the city.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
Prob­a­bly my dad as he was a keen surfer when I was young. He had this strange dou­ble arm pad­dle when he would catch waves; it seemed to work well for him. He was a tal­ented illus­tra­tor. He had some amaz­ing draw­ings I would rifle through and get stoked how good they were. Later, as a teenager, I wor­shipped all the Pow­ell Per­alta crew and dudes like Matt Archibald and Chris­t­ian Fletcher. Heavy metal and airs!!

When did you get your first surf­board?
Six years old. It was a fin­less foam board. At 11, I got my first fiber­glass board. I got so excited, I for­got to put the legrope on and then watched it tag every rock on the point.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I don’t think my brain can think that far back, but I am sure I was super stoked … as I am today every time I surf.

Where did you inter­est in art come from?
My dad’s draw­ings and from skate­board graph­ics of the 80’s and 90’s. I also spent hours look­ing at Rick Griffin’s art. I was amazed at the detail in his draw­ings; that dude was a freak! My dad was in the rag trade and he actu­ally got the license to sell the Grif­fin t-shirts in Aus­tralia. So there were plenty of amaz­ing t-shirts lying around the house. I think I still have them in the shed.

What is your process when cre­at­ing your art?
I worked at Rip Curl for seven years and there was no room for cre­at­ing. The dead­lines were super tight. I had to pump designs out like a sausage machine. These days I like to spend more time on concepts.

Some­times I have a mind explo­sion of ideas, but most of the time I spend days try­ing to come up with ideas over a long process. I am really fussy when I am pro­duc­ing art for my own label. I use Pho­to­shop to come up with a rough lay­out of what I need and then fill in the holes. I do a lot of draw­ing as well as using the com­puter to fine-tune designs.

I use many medi­ums in my work. Screen print­ing, wood col­lage, ink and acrylic on wood, com­puter art, scans—it’s just one big mish mash. I think I have had to learn lots of medi­ums as being a free­lance artist you can’t just serve up the same style for 20 t-shirts. You have to learn to make each one as indi­vid­ual as possible.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out? And why?
Out of all the places I have been, I still love to travel in Aus­tralia. We have so many great beaches to explore. If there are no waves or snow, I don’t want to go there. I am hang­ing to hit Japan; that is my next trip for sure.

What is it that makes you a nice per­son? What code do you live by?
Well, I hope I am a nice per­son!! I try my best to respect oth­ers all the time. If peo­ple are nice to me, I will give them the same in return.

Who/what inspires you?
I have met some real amaz­ing, tal­ented peo­ple over the last five years who have become great friends. Most of them are artists and surfers. They inspire me to pro­duce bet­ter work. I get to see their projects firsthand.

Books are a great inspi­ra­tion to me also. I have a mas­sive col­lec­tion of vin­tage kids’ books, old mags and con­tem­po­rary books which make research­ing and “thought-starting” a lot easier.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
Well, I guess just to enjoy life every day and make the most of what you have.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
No regrets.

What are you most proud of?
I am still work­ing on that!! Even­tu­ally, I want to ded­i­cate my time to help­ing with con­ser­va­tion of ani­mals and pre­vent­ing cru­elty. It really gets my goat some of the things that go on in this world. That’s why I respect peo­ple like Paul Wat­son, peo­ple who are will­ing to get off their asses to try and change things.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
My life pretty much revolves around surf­ing. I could not imag­ine life with out it. I am lucky enough that my girl­friend is a super keen surfer also, so we both wake up and get super amped to get waves. This works real well for me.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Great food, punchy head high bar­rels, fam­ily, my girl­friend, art and animals.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
I guess I spend more time look­ing at the surf indus­try than actual surfers. For me, it would be RK, Jeff McCal­lum, Tyler War­ren, Joel Tudor and Tom Wegener. I think there is def­i­nitely a big change in the surf indus­try at the moment. It will be real inter­est­ing to see where it goes next.

What is cur­rently your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
I am absolutely obsessed with the Mini Sim­mons boards!! I am blown away with the design. My mates just laugh at my boards, Dudes on the beach freak and ask, “What the fuck is that?” I am so into rid­ing super short boards at the moment. I have two boards that I made: a 4’11″ and a 5’2″. That is all I ride unless it’s tiny. Then I bust out the 9’9″ log. I have been shap­ing my own boards over the last year and glass­ing them also. It is the best feel­ing to make your own board.

As far as surf spots go, it would have to be any grind­ing beach break with a bar­rel section.

What’s your favorite meal?
Thai food is so good. No meat though—I am a tofu eat­ing hippy.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
I have an iPod, but I don’t use it at the moment. I just turn on the radio as it con­nects me with the world. Oth­er­wise I feel like I am liv­ing in a bubble.

What causes/projects/organizations do you sup­port?
All orga­ni­za­tions that are into con­ser­va­tion of ani­mals and the environment.

What are you most grate­ful for?
Fam­ily, friends and health.

What’s next for Adrian Knott?
I have a lot on the go at the moment. I am cur­rently work­ing on a col­lab­o­ra­tion range of foam sleds with two local Torquay dudes (Jor­dan Nobel and Sean Net­tle­ton) to come up with a solid range of boards. I am also work­ing on the new range for Rake for sum­mer, so pretty much putting all my effort into cre­at­ing our new line of trunks and tees. I just received a tee from Sea­mouse, who is in the art series this range. Looks sick! Hope­fully I will do a cou­ple of exhi­bi­tions this year. Also maybe hit Cal­i­for­nia to visit some of the accounts and friends I have made recently.

Learn more about Adrian Knott by vis­it­ing the Rake Cloth­ing web­site here.