MEET PROLIFIC SOCAL SURF ARTIST, BOB HARLOW
Graphic artist Bob Harlow has been fascinated by art since childhood, growing up in Long Beach, California. At around age 10, “Harlow” (as he is known by friends and clients) began his art career submitting his surf cartoons to Surfer Magazine. Although he admits that none of them made it to print, you can image how cool it must have been to receive a “thank you” letter from the editor of Surfer!
Harlow started designing t-shirts in the late ‘80s while working as a manager for Hobie Surf Shops. Shortly thereafter, major surf apparel companies began to approach him for his work, including such notable brands as Quicksilver, Billabong, OP and Town & Country.
We’ll let Harlow tell the rest of his story:
“In 1989, I started my own t-shirt company, Harlow Design. I sold mostly to resorts, surf shops and retail stores in Hawaii, California Texas, Florida and the Caribbean, and tocustomers in Guam, Japan and Australia. I’ve also loved working with the awesome volunteers at the San Clemente Ocean Festivalfor the past 29 years. I just finished designs for theirupcoming 2020 event, the details of which you can find at https://www.oceanfestival.org/.
While I still sell to a few resorts, restaurants and surf shops, most of my work these days is designing logos and graphics for silkscreen and embroidery clients. From design concept to delivering the finished goods, I do it all. I work with restaurants, surfcompanies, radio stations, event coordinators, yacht builders and of course my pals at the SHACC.
Recently, I started producing art create figures of ships, surfers, fishermen, mermaids, etc. This little hobby has really started to take off; with very little marketing, I now have a dozen or so “collectors” who always ask me to let them know when Ihave finished a new piece. Find me on Instagram @harlowdesign.using driftwood and old, rusty metal bits to
I am really stoked to be working with Ted at Last Wave Originals and with the SHACC to bring some of my designs to his awesome website!”
