I discovered Kevin Butler’s art in a Herschel Supply Co. magazine in a surf shop in Laguna Beach, CA. The Journal Issue 2, was intoxicatingly stacked from cover to cover with images of surf, land, sea, play, beauty and art. Kevin’s RAD Cars with RAD Surfboards drawings were featured as Herschel’s new beach line. I’ve been dragging around this journal for two years. I caught up with Kevin here on Work Life Play and got the download on how his art has so much soul.
About Kevin Butler & his obsession with Rad Cars & Surfboards:
Kevin Butler grew up around classic cars. His dad made a hobby of restoring old beaters into showpieces. He’d buy some old POS on a Tuesday for a grand, strip it, paint it, the whole family would fall in love with it, then he’d sell it for some ridiculous amount to some guy to “had to have it”. At any given time at the Butler house there’d be something rad under a tarp, something rad being painted in the garage and something rad to drive on the weekend. His parents drove him home from the hospital in a 56 Chevy 2-door Hardtop, So… guess that explains the car part.
As far as the surf part goes… Kevin was fortunate enough to grow up a few blocks from the beach in Santa Cruz. He cleaned up shaping rooms and sanded boards at Pearson Arrow when he was 13. Then in high school him and a few friends of his started shaping their own boards. Being close to the creation of boards, helped him to develop a real respect for the craft. That’s the long answer. The short answer is Cars and Surfboards are Kevin’s two favorite things on earth, so he put them together. Kevin Butler attended the Academy of Art in San Francisco to study illustration… but graduated with a degree in copywriting for advertising. It’s a long story. Today, Kevin is a Freelance Creative Director working on brands like Facebook , Apple, and AirBNB. He spends his free time surfing… and drawing cars with surfboards on them. Click here, for a link to Kevin’s site.
Click to Listen Art with a Soul with Kevin Butler
Podcast highlights:
- The endless search for How to Be More Creative
- Near 400 drawings later, Kevin’s “happy accident” RAD Cars
- Why selling out and cashing a check isn’t for Kevin