Before Nicholas Bijan Pourfard turned his attention to furniture, he spent years shaping another kind of functional object. The Southern California-based designer and luthier crafted more than 400 bespoke guitars under his label Prisma Guitars, developing an intimate understanding of material, construction, and the relationship between an object and the person who interacts with it.
His move into furniture expanded that practice beyond the instrument. Freed from the specific demands of luthiery, Pourfard began exploring furniture as a space for personal expression, creating functional works of art shaped by his own visual language. Material, movement, and form become interconnected rather than treated as separate considerations, allowing each object to operate both practically and sculpturally.
That history of making remains visible throughout his work. Traditional craftsmanship meets a distinctly contemporary sensibility, with close attention paid to materiality, proportion, and the physical presence of an object within a space. Function is never abandoned, but neither is it allowed to dictate the entire form.
Whether building a guitar or a piece of furniture, Pourfard’s practice is ultimately rooted in transformation: understanding the possibilities within a material and pushing it somewhere unexpected. His furniture carries forward the precision of his earlier craft while opening the door to something broader—objects designed not simply to occupy a space, but to give it character.
Photo credit Justin Chung @justinchung