THE GOOD TRIP: Nick Pourfard
Photos by Ryan Allan, film by Han-Su Kim. Additional filming by Grant Schubert.
We’re hitting the road with our friends at goodbrands—purveyors of damn good weed—this summer to feature some of our favorite creative people around California and throw a few epic parties. Come hang, be in good company, and see what these cities are all about. First stop: San Diego with Nick Pourfard.
Music and skateboarding have always gone hand in hand. Nick Pourfard makes the ultimate connection by creating guitars out of recycled skateboards. Nick combined his passions as an industrial design student teaching himself woodworking, illustration, and 3D design, ultimately turning that project into a business, Prisma Guitars. We spent a few days with him in his San Diego workshop to document the process and hear more about his overall design philosophy. Watch the video above and hang with Nick this Thursday, July 11 in San Diego. Details and RSVP link wayyyy below.
“I started making guitars out of skateboards because they’re free, first of all. And second of all, I skated. So naturally, I had them and it felt like something that would mean something to me, regardless of how it sounded at the end of it all.”
“Convincing people that I knew what I was doing was probably the hardest thing, ya know, I’m a kid, and guitars have to play good, they have to sound good, they need to be ergonomic to your body. When people started seeing them in hands, that’s when everything changed.”
“I have a lot of ideas. I need to fulfill those ideas and draw and build with other materials—not just stay with skateboards. I should just show my worth as a designer, my worth as a maker. But who gives a shit about what they think anyway. I don’t want to die without knowing what else I can do.”
“Stay true to the materials. Keep it as raw as possible. Keep it as simple as possible while speaking loudly in your forms, shapes, and colours. That takes design further than just doing everything. ”
“I’m going to do the best that I can in everything that I’m doing. I want to never lose the values that I have now. I think right now I’m having fun, and that comes from skating. I don’t want that to never be what I’m about.”
