CONTACT:
IN SHORT:
Mike “aemka” Knobel (d.o.b. march 2nd 1984) is a graphic designer/illustrator living and working near Zürich, Switzerland. His work covers a wide range of media such as print, web, painting, animation, graffiti, tattoo, video, streetwear and outerwear design.
WORK:
The main illustrating style used by aemka is best described as a symphony of flowing lines, shapes and patterns where everything has its exact place and an intense rate of detail. This manner derives from his early love for black markers in all shapes and sizes, and how the black ink hit the white paper every time he drew the first line.
HIS STORY:
Aemka was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina and returned to his ancestral home Switzerland three years after. He visited preschool, kindergarden and the first class of elementary already making himself a name as a weird, creative kid. For example, when the whole class had to draw a self-portrait to introduce themselves, lil’ Mike painted a bird with his backpack on, with the excuse “I don’t draw humans”. Since he started drawing before anyone taught him to hold the pen correctly he had his very unique way of writing and drawing, always using his middle finger supporting the pen like a pair of compasses, and clinging the back of the pen with his pinky. Worried teachers tried everything throughout years to correct his writing, which worked to a certain point but to this day he still writes certain letters from bottom to top. A major event in aemka’s life was definitely when he got his hands on his first graphic software, MS Paint, CorelDraw and later on Photoshop, which became one of his best friends until this day. From age seven to ten mike spent some more formative years in Raleigh, where he sucked in the classic American cartoons and started creating his own characters and tales, which he drew down and handed out photocopies to classmates. Making action figures out of plaster was also one of aemka’s top activities at that time. Back in Switzerland at the age of ten Mike started snowboarding and logically getting interested in snowboard outerwear, designs and drawing sequences of tricks. The following years he also got his first graphic jobs from friends, school and family. Later on he also discovered the aerosol spraycan and the art of graffiti, and because he was a small format, detail-oriented illustrator this became a whole new challenge for him. At the age of fourteen after many self produced shirt prints young knobel decided to create his very own unique snowboarding jacket. After several sketches he went and bought a couple of meters of different colored nylon and some lining fabric and sewed his first signature jacket. That following summer he met up with the founder of eleven clothing franz who became interested in mikes designs. Mike started drafting numerous jackets, pants and logos. Two years later he designed his first jacket and sweater for eleven outerwear. When searching for an apprenticeship as a graphic designer he had already produced quite a few products and was learning by doing. After his year of mandatory art school at the F+F Zürich aemka started his career as a graphic designer apprentice for Konstruktive Kommunikation ( KOKO, www.koko.ch ), a small but very demanded agency in zürich. At KOKO he learned a lot about the business and worked for clients such as 3M, Flawa, Roche, M-Plast, Metzgerei Angst, Mövenpick, HEV Schweiz, Interaxia, Museum H.R.Giger, Swisslack, LLB, UBS and many more. Aemka’s time was packed with schoolwork, his private work, a busy job and snowboarding. Although being close to a burnout a few times he somehow liked it that way, and being in the mountains on weekends enjoying fresh air was the perfect medicine. As he had to start going to school on Saturdays for BMS (class for higher school certificate) because the apprenticeship for graphic designer got shortened down to three years, he quit BMS after two years thinking he never wanted to visit the academy of arts anyway. Mike was a working horse. After successfully finishing the apprenticeship he started working for Eleven swiss technical outerwear. The next three years he committed himself to designing jackets, pants, fabrics, logos, types, streetwear, catalogues, posters, websites and so on… since 2007 aemka is an independent company functioning as an artist/designer for various clients and occasions.
AEMKA THE SNOWBOARDER:
name: mike “ämka” knobel age: twenty somethin’ riding since: about 15 years sponsors: eleven swiss technical outerwear, bataleon snowboards, celsius boots, anon opics, clast neckwear, freestyle watches, doodah snow/skateshop, hoch-ybrig (& nbc-crew) current set-up: decent line jacket & pant in mint/blue / bataleon “funkink” 157 board / flux bindings / celsius boots / anon “figment” goggles in white / maxed out stance, goofy of course, 20° front, minus 15° back home resort: hoch ybrig tell us something about your favourite shred buddies: i don’t really have “favourite” shred buddies, i love to ride with anyone that enjoys snowboarding. mostly i ride with people like nik “fizzle” huber, david “dangerous” bertschinger, raphi rocha and all the rest of my nbc peeps… its fun to meet new people through riding and having crazy sessions. what are your plans for the upcoming season: not to much injuries and learning many new tricks…got a huge “to-do” list off-snow activities: graphic design, dj/producing a bit, painting, skating, clubbin’, sleeping, eating etc. video parts: Eleven „Der Film”, Eleven „11:02“, BKH „B-Movie“, NBC „Family Movie“, NBC „Grounded“, NBC “Daycare”, NBC “Foodic”, NBC “Luxmala”, NBC “Kanalanga”, NBC “Oozala”, Playboard “Video Magazine”, Bellevue Films “Hang em High”, MMP “That’s all” ( Bonus section )
AEMKA AND MUSIC
Aemka bought his first Technics Turntable at the Age of sixteen and has spent thousands on buying the latest Vinyl ever since, starting off with b-boy breaks and rap music he then heavily started spinning reggae 7inches to later on widening his musical spectre again mixing all kinds of genres and styles together. Today, thanks to the digital revolution, aemka can proudly present a variety of exclusive remixes and self-produced jams in the mix. He has played in many clubs throughout the years such as: Rote Fabrik (ZH), Kanzlei (ZH), Millers Studio (ZH), Besame Mucho (ZH), New Gothic (ZH), Bogen 13 (ZH), Dynamo (ZH), ISPO München (DE), Freestyle.ch (ZH), Zürichsee ( Schiff, ZH), Stoeri Areal (ZH), Galvanik (ZG), Nautilus (LU), Provitreff (ZH), Kulti Wetzikon (ZH), Schützehuus Au (ZH), Grabenhalle (SG), Flem Massiv Flims (GR), Ziegelei (SZ), Dorfkeller (SZ), davos, winterthur and hoch-ybrig, just to name a few… Right now, aemka is focusing on producing and writing his own music, which shall emerge in the years to come.