In a hectic, fast-paced world, vintage-inspired artist and illustrator Nick Kuchar channels surf, sun and simpler times

The origin story:

It’s no coincidence that Nick Kuchar’s art is reminiscent of old-school typography and signage from advertising’s heyday. Before he was translating scenic Hawai‘i locales to paper in his signature retro style, he was studying industrial design at Auburn University and cultivating an infatuation for all things mid-century modern.

After college, Kuchar did a stint designing trade show exhibits before ending up in Hawai‘i on an “extended honeymoon” with his wife. (Spoiler: they never left.) Accustomed to scrounging for waves in his native Florida, he was living the dream surfing during the day and waiting tables at night, sketching surf spots and beach scenes around the island and turning them into art prints to hang on the walls of his home.

With encouragement from his wife, Kuchar started selling the prints online. One thing led to another, and now he has enough online orders to employ a dedicated shop manager and wholesales to nearly 50 retailers and counting in Hawai‘i, the mainland, Japan and Europe.

The business:

In addition to his evolving line of art prints and merch, Kuchar’s body of work includes a growing portfolio of commissions for a slew of hotels, malls and corporate clients both locally and beyond. This last year, he completed a large-scale illustration for the newly remodeled Queen Kapi‘olani Hotel, created custom artwork for the 2018 Molokai-2-Oahu Paddleboard World Championships and unveiled a mural installation at Jamba Juice Hawaii’s refurbished Kapahulu location. He’s done collabs with local brands like Roberta Oaks and Local Motion and designed promotional artwork for big names like OluKai and Patagonia, with more in the pipeline for 2019.

Kuchar spent the fall of 2018 in the accelerator program at Mana Up, where he was selected from among more than 70 applicants to receive coaching on scaling his business for the global market. “There’s so many resources available to us now,” he says. “You just have to be resourceful and know it’s going to be hard but that it’s going to be worth it.”

The inspiration:

“Originally I was inspired by travel prints, the old Pan Am-type stuff,” Kuchar says, an affinity he ran with when depicting scenes from his family’s active, outdoor lifestyle. “If I ever get creative block, sometimes it’s best to take a break from it and go back to the roots of why we’re actually in Hawai‘i. The culture, the community, the weather—the closer you get to those things, the easier it is to find inspiration.”

The aesthetic:

With its simplicity, vintage-inspired aesthetic and warm, muted color palette, Kuchar’s work paints a rosy portrait of a simpler time, a throwback to Hawai‘i in the golden age. “It’s meant to be fun and whimsical,” Kuchar says. “I drive an old Volkswagen van, a vehicle that makes people smile when you drive by and puts them in a good mood. I like my art to give people that same feeling.”

The creative process:

“It usually starts with a sketch or onsite photos if I’m going and scouting a location, which is always a place of personal significance,” Kuchar says. “After that, I’ll bring it into the studio, turn it into a digital sketch and start blocking in color.”

Though everything is ultimately output digitally, lately he’s been pulling from his fine art background and rendering certain details by hand. Partly to create a “textured, layered effect” and partly in a conscious effort to push himself out of his comfort zone, something he’s looking to do when he produces a number of original acrylic works for Greenroom Gallery this spring.

“It’s kind of like surfing—if you ride a bunch of different boards, it makes you a better surfer,” Kuchar says. “It’s the same with art.”

The “why”:

“Everybody has a different story for these locations, whether it’s a place they grew up or a place they visited for only 24 hours,” Kuchar says. “So when people ask, I always tell them to pick your print based on which location speaks to you emotionally, and the color palette that fits with your house.”

It’s been 13 years now that Kuchar and his wife have called Hawai‘i home. With some of the world’s best surf at his fingertips and a home studio in his backyard, balancing the demands of both a growing business and a growing family—his picture-perfect twin toddlers feature prominently on the @nickkuchar IG—is a challenge he welcomes with open arms. “We can’t imagine ourselves anywhere else,” he says.