Ali Fujino
From Discourse 15

A FASCINATION WITH FLIGHT: GETTING TO KNOW THE MANY FACETS OF MARK REED

Everyone’s personal history can either be crafted by the individual or someone else. I like the idea of having it crafted by someone else, as it creates a larger circle of interest, liberal interpretation, and “the thing that makes one a legend.” In this Discourse, I thought it would be fun to do an article that continues the 20th anniversary theme. I looked around in the kite industry, and who did I find?

Mark Reed and Prism Design, Inc. Like the Drachen Foundation, Mark and Prism are celebrating 20 years.

Mark Reed grew up in Connecticut, the son of painter Robert J. Reed, Jr., a professor of art at Yale, and a mother, equally creative, working and teaching as a graphic designer. Perhaps it was this creative influence that moved him toward his double degree at Yale, architecture and music. Like many of the individuals of his generation, his degree did not necessarily determine what he would do for a living. The constant fascination throughout his schooling was a fascination of wind. This led him to sailing, flying, and kites while at Yale.

Graduation came and Mark left to sail. His best friend, Scooby Puchtler, returned to the West Coast. After his year at sea, Mark followed Scooby to Seattle. Realizing that a livelihood (job) was necessary, he and Scooby (a talented designer, private pilot, woodworker, and musician who has since started his own company, Liftworx, www.liftworx.com), now-wife Christine, and friend David LaTaglia dove right in and started a company.

It was the beginning of Prism Design, four enthusiastic beginning entrepreneurs maxing out credit cards to establish their business presence with enough money to rent a house (for living and working) and buy a commercial sewing machine and a fax. Staying true to the tone of their lifelong passions, “flight as the ultimate escape,” they began to make kites. Serendipity brought them into Ken Conrad’s shop, Great Winds Kites. After seeing their kites, Ken said, “You should really make more of these kites and sell them.”

This was the age of stunt kites, and the growing interest in these types of kites outgrew cottage industry home production. Scooby and Mark jumped in with their designs, and it was their production savvy that drove the possibility of producing enough kites to make a good living.

This encounter with Ken led to the KTA, Kite Trade Association (still in its infancy), and it was the success of their designs that taught them two things: figure out production, and don’t worry about the politics and culture of the kite clubs. Go out and make a good product and support your prospective clients. A business was born.

The success of Prism Design was not overnight. (Hence the reason they are celebrating 20 successful years.) Good design, good production, and the passion to give the public the best their money could buy were the ingredients for wonderful flyable kites and a long future.

To know Mark is a treat, as after an hour I realized he’s an avid reader and “doer” in his own personal life. He doesn’t sit on the edge of a couch after work. Competitive sailing, rock climbing, and photography are personal passions.

A self produced 2013 calendar celebrating 20 years of Prism illustrates this well. The photos in the calendar were all shot by Mark himself. Take Flight: Alaska from Above is a calendar promoting the love of his company and his personal passion for wind (wind, kites, and planes). I was struck by the professional photos of the iconic Alaskan wilderness.

What is this about? Again, it’s Mark. His fascination with flight and Alaska led him to build his own plane to allow him to go to Alaska when time permits. With good weather, Mark, his wife Chris (also a pilot), their three-year-old daughter, and 300 pounds of gear (which includes kites) fly north to spend up to a month in the Alaskan wilderness.

PRISM KITES: BRINGING MODERN TECHNOLOGY TO AN ANCIENT ART

Their product line is one of the best in the world. They have found a niche designing kites with performable quality and affordability. This is a classy product. $25.00 buys you a performance kite that is rugged, a guaranteed flier, and is supported for the life of the kite. (You can go on to their website and find EVERY part to replace EVERY kite they have made over the last twenty years. Now that’s client support.)

The kites are not only well designed and made industrially, but their designs are state of the art and pleasing. You are getting ART, as well as a recreational item. Da Vinci sketched flying machines, gliders, and kites 400 years ago. But innovative design and modern materials create the strong and incredibly lightweight structures that allow Prism kites to fly in the sky and still be affordable to the public. Mark and his team combine scientific understanding of aerodynamics and engineering with an artist’s sense of design, color, and proportion to produce kites that look as good as they fly.

One of my favorites is the E0-6 (13.5 in. x 30 in. x 18.5 in.), a most innovative 3D kite from the mind of Phil McConnachie, internationally acclaimed Australian designer. The EO-6 is a “box kite” that soars like a traditional single-liner, but with a tug on the line, the EO-6 becomes a playful “tumbler,” able to perform a range of tricks. NO assembly required. Just find the wind, pop it open, and watch it soar and tumble as it climbs into the sky.

Mark is happy and humbled by the way things have turned out at Prism: “We gave the consumer something worthy and exciting, skill-based activities, and they gave us a loyal base by returning to us for more.”

While the kiting industry groans about how it’s shrinking, Mark and Prism can show you how this isn’t true. Their sales increase each year and their concern is not being able to produce enough for the demand.

So if it has taken you 20 years to discover Prism kites, don’t wait another 20. Do it now.

Check out the working world of Prism Design at www.prismkites.com. ◆