About Karim Rashid

Karim Rashid is a lead­ing fig­ure in the fields of prod­uct and inte­rior design, fash­ion, fur­ni­ture, light­ing and art. Born in Cairo, half Egypt­ian, half Eng­lish, and raised in Canada, Karim now prac­tices in New York. He is best known for bring­ing his demo­c­ra­tic design sen­si­bil­ity to the masses. Design­ing for an impres­sive array of clients from Umbra to Prada, Miyake to Method, Karim is rad­i­cally chang­ing the aes­thet­ics of prod­uct design and the very nature of the con­sumer culture.

To date he has had some 2000 objects put into pro­duc­tion and has suc­cess­fully entered the realm of archi­tec­ture and inte­ri­ors as evi­denced by the design of the Mori­moto restau­rant in Philadel­phia and Semi­ramis hotel in Athens which just won a Sleep05 Euro­pean Hotel Design Award. Karim was awarded a Hon­orary Doc­tor­ate of Fine Arts from Cor­co­ran Col­lege of Art & Design in D.C. Other awards include the 2004 A.D. Dun­ton Alumni Award of Dis­tinc­tion from his alma mater, 2002 ID Mag­a­zine Annual Design Review Best of Cat­e­gory, and 2003 best Retail Store in the USA. His work is in the per­ma­nent col­lec­tions of 14 Muse­ums world­wide includ­ing MoMA and SFMoMA and he exhibits art in var­i­ous gal­leries. Karim was an asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Indus­trial Design for 10 years and is now a fre­quent guest lec­turer at uni­ver­si­ties and con­fer­ences globally.

Image gallery after the break— Image gallery »

Karim has pub­lished two mono­graphs titled ‘I Want to Change the World’(Rizzoli, 2001) and ‘Evo­lu­tion’ (Uni­verse, 2004) as well as a new port­fo­lio book pub­lished by Chron­i­cle books (2004), and ‘Digipop’ a dig­i­tal explo­ration of com­puter graph­ics (Taschen 2005). He edited the Inter­na­tional Design Year­book 18 for Cal­mann and King 2003 and released two CD’s avail­able on bou­tique label, Neverstop.

Awards

• 2005 — House Beau­ti­ful Giants of Design Award
• 2005 — Friends of the Upper East Side His­toric District’s Clean Sweep Award: Madi­son Avenue News­pa­per Boxes
• 2005 — I.D. Magazine’s Annual Design Review Fur­ni­ture cat­e­gory: Hon­or­able Men­tion, Kurl Shelf, Zeritalia
• 2004 — I.D. Magazine’s Annual Design Review Best of Cat­e­gory: Copco Barware
• 2003 — Chicago Athenaeum Museum Good Design Award: Kurve Chair, Nienkamper
• 2003 — Esquire Magazine’s Best New Restau­rant Design, Nooch
• 2003 — Nation Asso­ci­a­tion of Store Fix­ture Manufacturers
  • Grand Prize: Retail Store of the Year: Nambe Flag­ship, Den­ver, CO
  • Grand Prize: Store Fix­tures of the Year: Nambe Flag­ship, Den­ver, CO
• 2003 — I.D. Mag­a­zine Annual Design Review
  • Design Dis­tinc­tion Pack­ag­ing: Issey In Your Pocket, Issey Miyake
  • Design Dis­tinc­tion: Method Home Dish Soap
• 2002 — I.D. Mag­a­zine Annual Design Review
  • Design Dis­tinc­tion Pack­ag­ing: Sum­mer Fra­grance, Issey Miyake
  • Best of Cat­e­gory: 5S Metasense Perfume
• 2002 — Inter­na­tional Inte­rior Design Asso­ci­a­tion Star Award: Mori­moto Restaurant
• 2002 — Indus­trial Design Excel­lence Award
  • Gold Win­ner: Chess Set, Bozart Toys
  • Sil­ver Win­ner: Kap­sule Kids Chair, Bozart Toys
• 2001 — Indus­trial Design­ers Soci­ety of Amer­ica [Gold Win­ner — Fur­ni­ture]: Kovacs Soft Light­ing Col­lec­tion, George Kovacs
• 2001 — Best of Canada Design Com­pe­ti­tion Prod­uct Design Win­ner: Q-Chaise, Umbra
• 2001 — I.D. Mag­a­zine Annual Design Review
  • Design Dis­tinc­tion Fur­ni­ture: Q-Chaise, Umbra
  • Design Dis­tinc­tion Pack­ag­ing: L’Eau D’Issey Pour Homme, Issey Miyake
  • Design Dis­tin­tion Con­cepts: Pleasurescape
• 2001 — Chicago Athenaeum Museum Good Design Award: ‘New Move’ Boom Bowl, Chicago Athenaeum Museum
• 2001 — Design Jour­nal Award for Design Excel­lence [Plat­inum Award]: Wave­length , Nienkamper
• 2001 — National Post Design Exchange Awards
  • Gold Award: Leonardo Glass Col­lec­tion, Leonardo
  • Sil­ver Award: Umbra table Col­lec­tion, Umbra
  • Merit Award: Q-Chaise, Umbra
  • Merit Award: Wave­length, Nienkamper
• 2001 — Chicago Athenaeum Museum Good Design Award: Wicker Sofa, Japan Indus­trial Design Pro­mo­tion Organization
• 2001 — Inte­rior Design Show: Cana­dian Design Hero of the Year
• 2000 — Chicago Athenaeum Museum Good Design Award: ”˜New Move’ Deco Decanter, Chicago Athenaeum Museum
• 2000 — Chicago Athenaeum Museum Good Design Award: Wave­length, Nienkamper
• 2000 — Design Jour­nal Award for Design Excel­lence — Plat­inum Award: Wave­length, Nienkamper
• 2000 — Chicago Athenaeum Museum Good Design Award: Kovacs Soft Light­ing Col­lec­tion, George Kovacs
• 1999 — Damler Chrysler Design Award
• 1999 — George Nel­son Award
• 1999 — Home Décor Award Best Prod­uct, Dec­o­ra­tive Acces­sories: Oh Chair, Umbra
• 1999 — Chicago Athenaeum Museum Good Design Award: Oh Chair, Umbra

Exhi­bi­tions

• Oct 05 — SAFE: DESIGN TAKES ON RISK, MoMA, New York, NY
• Sep 05 — OSKO, Tat­intsian Gallery, Russia
• Jul 05 — EXTREME ABSTRACTION, Albright Knox, Buf­falo, NY
• Jun 05 — TOUCH ME, V& A Museum, England
• May 05 — MACRO DESIGN ACTION FUN, San­dra Ger­ring Gallery, New York, NY
• Apr 05 — SUPER DESIGN ACTION FUN, Spazio Tashi Delek, Milan, Italy
• Apr 04 — GET OFF, Museum of Sex, New York, NY
• May 03 — MULTI-NATIONAL DESIGNERS IN NY, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
• May 03 — IMAGOLOGOS, Elga Wim­mer Gallery, New York, NY
• May 03 — KREEM, Deitch Projects, New York, NY
• Apr 03 — TURBOSCAPE, Capellini, Super­stu­dio, Milan Italy
• Jan 03 — IDEAL HOUSE, Cologne Fair, Cologne, Germany
• Oct 02 — LATENT UTOPIAS, WOOM, Gratz, Austria
• Oct 02 — PLEASURESCAPE, Pron Gallery, Paris, France
• Oct 02 — WHAT IS DESIGN TODAY?, The Design Cen­ter, Philadel­phia Uni­ver­sity, Philadel­phia, PA
• Oct 02 — INTERIOR BIENNALE, PLEASURESCAPE Kortr­jik, Belgium
• Sep 02 — San­dra Ger­ing Art Gallery, New York, NY
• Aug 02 — HABITAT: CANADIAN DESIGN NOW, Win­nipeg Art Gallery, Win­nipeg, Man­i­toba Canada
• May 02 — SITTING PRETTY, Bel­say Hall , Northum­ber­land, England
• May 02 — SKIN: SURFACE, SUBSTANCE & DESIGN, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, NY
• Apr 02 — GRID TO BLOB Roberto Gius­tini Gallery,Milan ITALY
• Apr 02 — INTERNATIONAL GLASS VESSELS Ken­tucky Art and Craft Gallery Louisville, Kentucky
• Feb 02 — MOOD RIVER Wexner Cen­ter for the Arts, Colom­bus, Ohio
• Feb 02 — US DESIGN Den­ver Art Museum, Den­ver, Colorado
• Jan 02 — MATERIAL MATTERS Red Gallery, Savan­nah, Georgia
• Dec 01 — STRATASCAPE, Insti­tute of Con­tem­po­rary Art, Philadel­phia, PA
• Nov 01 — I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD, Mod­ern­book Gallery 1060, Los Ange­les, CA
• Nov 01 — DESIGNERS AT WORK: A VISUAL JOURNAL, Pratt Uni­ver­sity, Brook­lyn, NY
• Oct 01 — ORGANOMICS, John­son County Com­mu­nity Col­lege, Over­land Park, KSMay 03
• Sep 01 — VITAL FORMS, Brook­lyn Museum of Art, Brook­lyn, NY
• May 01 — ORGY SOFA, Inter­na­tional Con­tem­po­rary Fur­ni­ture Fair, New York, NY
• Apr 01 — MOMO 100 PINK, Deitch Projects, New York, NY
• Feb 01 — FUNITURISM, Totem Gallery, New York, NY
• Feb 01 — WORKSPHERES, MoMA, New York, NY
• Feb 01 — 010101, SFMoMA, San­Fran­cisco , CA

Lec­tures

• Dec 05 — KOLEKSIYON CAMPUS, Istan­bul, Turkey
• Dec 05 — LUXURY KITCHEN AND BATH COLLECTION, Miami, Fl
• Nov 05 — STEEL IN FORM, BETWEEN LUXURY AND DURABILITY, Dus­sel­dorf, Germany
• Nov 05 — SLEEPER EUROPEAN HOTEL DESIGN CONFERENCE, Lon­don, England
• Oct 05 — SHENZHEN CHINA BRANDS AND DESIGNERS, China
• Oct 05 — BOMBAY SAPPHIRE DESIGN DISCOVERY AWARDS, Mel­bourne, Australia
• Oct 05 — BOMBAY SAPPHIRE DESIGN DISCOVERY AWARDS, Syd­ney, Australia
• Sep 05 — PIFS MANILA PHILIPPINES, Manila, Philippines
• Sep 05 — CALGARY CANADA HOME & INTERIOR DESIGN SHOW, Cal­gary, Canada
• Sep 05 — EDMONTON CANADA HOME & INTERIOR DESIGN SHOW, Edmon­ton, Canada
• Jun 05 — ARCHITEKTURGESPRACHE LUZERN KULTUR & KONGRESSZENTRUM, Luzurn, Switzerland
• Jun 05 — V CONAD, Sao Paulo, Brazil
• May 05 — MAGIS ROAD SHOW, Raleigh, NC
• May 05 — COPENHAGEN INTERNATIONAL FURNITURE FAIR, Copen­hagen, Denmark
• May 05 — CORCORAN COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT, Wash­ing­ton, D.C.
• May 05 — MAGIS ROAD SHOW, Rich­mond VA
• Nov 04 — ALBRIGHT KNOX MUSEUM, Buf­falo, NY
• Oct 04 — VANCOUVER HOME & INTERIOR DESIGN SHOW, BC Place Sta­dium, Van­cou­ver, Canada
• Oct 04 — CORCORAN GALLERY, Wash­ing­ton, DC.
• Sep 04 — MONTREAL HOME & TRENDS SHOW, Mon­tréal, Canada
• Sep 04 — ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS (RIBA), Lon­don ‚United Kingdom
• Apr 04 — KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, Akron, OH
• Mar 04 — UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA, Cham­paign, IL
• Feb 04 — DESIGN INDABA, Cape Town, South Africa
• Feb 03 — HOSPITALITY DESIGN CONFERENCE BY HOSPITALITY DESIGN MAGAZINE, Sonoma, CA
• Nov 02 — FUTURE DESIGN DAYS, Boras , Sweden
• Oct 02 — INTERNATIONAL INTERIOR DESIGN ASSOCIATION, Mex­ico City, Mexico
• Oct 02 — CLEVELAND CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, Cleve­land, OH
• Mar 02 — UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, Austin, TX
• Feb 02 — MOOD RIVER, Wexner Cen­ter for the Arts, Min­neapo­lis, MN
• Jan 02 — SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, Savan­nah, GA

Con­tribut­ing Books

• Antonelli, Paola “Safe: Design Takes on Risk” The Museum of Mod­ern Art 2005
• McDon­agh, Deana “Impact” Uni­ver­sity of Illi­nois at Urbana-Champaign 2005
• McCor­mack, Lee “Design­ers are Wankers” About Face 2005
• Ghion, Chris­t­ian “Col­lec­tion Privees 1999−2005” Tar­kett 2005
• Scott, Grant, Saman­tha Scott-Jeffries ”At Home with the Mak­ers of Style” Thames & Hud­son 2005
• Weav­ing, Andrew “The Home Mod­ern­ized” Jacqui Small 2005
• Bangert, Albrecht, Jeremy Gaines “olani — Back in Japan” Bangert Ver­lag 2005
• Har­vey, Wil­son “1000 Type Treat­ments: From Script to Serif, Let­ter­forms Used to Per­fec­tion” Rock­port Pub­lish­ers, 2005
• Jeong, Ji-seong “Design & Detail Vol. 02 Fur­ni­ture” CA Press, 2005
• Rashid, Karim “Digipop” Taschen, 2005
• Skov Holt, Stephen and Maria “Blob­jects & Beyond: The New Flu­id­ity in Design” Chron­i­cle Books, 2005
• Ser­rel, Ali­son “At Home in the Hud­son Val­ley” Chron­i­cle Books, 2005
• Rashid, Karim “Evo­lu­tion” Uni­verse Pub­lish­ing, 2004
• Bar­tolucci, Marisa “Com­pact Design Port­fo­lio: Karim Rashid” Chron­i­cle Books, 2004
• Dixon, Tom “The Inter­na­tional Design Year­book 2004? Lau­rence King, 2004
• Brad­bury, Dominic “Amer­i­can Designes Houses” Ven­dome Press, 2004
• Con­ran, Ter­rence and Max Fraser “Design­ers on Design” Con­ran Octo­pus, 2004
• Rashid, Karim ” Inter­na­tional Design Year­book 18? Lau­rence King Pub­lish­ing, 2003
• Lef­t­eri, Chris “Glass: Mate­ri­als for Inspi­ra­tion” Roto­vi­sion UK, 2003
• Lup­ton, Ellen “Skin: Sur­face, Sub­stance, and Design” Prince­ton Archi­tec­tural Press, 2002
• Zen­dron, Nancy “Swarovski: Crys­tal Pre­mium” Swarovski AG, 2002
• Lef­t­eri, Chris “Plas­tic: Mate­r­ial for Design and Inspi­ra­tion” Roto­vi­sion Pub­lish­ing, 2002
• Fiell, Char­lotte & Peter “21^st Cen­tury Design” Taschen Pub­lish­ing, 2002
• Weav­ing, Andrew “Under­stand­ing Mod­ern” Quadrille Pub­lish­ing Lim­ited, 2001
• Holt, Lup­ton & Albrecht “Design Cul­ture Now” Prince­ton Archi­tec­tural Press, 2000

Clients

• Acme, USA
• Alain Mikli, France
• Aisin Seiki, Japan
• Area Group, Canada
• Arnolfo di Cam­bio, Italy
• Artemide, ITALY
• Art­box, USA
• Bart, Italy
• BDI, USA
• Benza, USA
• Beaute Pres­tige Inter­na­tional, France
• Bio­mega, Denmark
• Bozart Toys, USA
• Canada Post Cor­po­ra­tion, Canada
• Cap­pellini, Italy
• Car­olina Her­rera, Spain
• CNCP, Canada
• ConEdi­son, USA
• Copco, USA
• Curvet, USA
• Cyber­cou­ture, France
• Danese, Italy
• David Design, Sweden
• David­off, Switzerland
• Deco­rum, Turkey
• Edra, Italy
• Egizia, Italy
• Elika, USA
• Estee Lauder, USA
• EXPO 86, Canada
• Fab­bian, Italy
• Fasem, Italy
• Fau­chon, France
• Felice Rossi, Italy
• Fer­ac­chi Casa, Spain
• Fos­carini, Italy
• Frighetto, Italy
• Gaia + Gino, Turkey
• Galerkin, USA
• Georg Jensen, Denmark
• George Kovacs, USA
• Gior­gio Armani, Italy
• Golay Switzer­land
• Guzzini, Italy
• Hanspree, Tai­wan
• Her­man Miller, USA
• Idée Co. Ltd., Japan
• IHW, USA
• Ioli, Greece
• Issey Miyake, Japan
• L’Art du Temps, USA
• Label, Nether­lands
• Leeds, USA
• Leonardo, Ger­many
• Macallan, Scot­land
• Magis, Italy
• May­belline, USA
• Mar­burg, Germany
• Method Home, USA
• M Glass, Portugal
• Mikasa, USA
• Minka Group, USA
• Mobiel­com, Austria
• Mori­moto Restau­rant, USA
• My Hotel(s), UK
• Nambé, USA
• Nati­son, Italy
• Natuzzi, Italy
• Nemo, Italy
• Nev­er­stop, USA
• Nienkam­per, Canada
• OFFECCT, Swe­den
• Offi, USA
• Prada, Italy
• Pre­scrip­tives, USA
• Pure Design, Canada
• Ralph Lau­ren, USA
• Ritzen­hoff, Germany
• Ron­son, UK
• Salviati, Italy
• Sceye, Swe­den
• Semi­ramis Hotel, Greece
• Ser­ralunga, Italy
• Sony, Japan
• Step, Turkey
• Taschen, Ger­many
• Tep­pich, Germany
• Timex, USA
• Tommy Hil­figer, USA
• Totem, USA
• Toy­ota, Japan
• Umbra, USA
• Unilever, USA
• Wolf Gor­don, USA
• Yves Saint Lau­rent, USA
• Yahoo!, USA
• Zer­i­talia, Italy
• Zerodis­egno, Italy

*From Karim Rashid’s Resume — Pro­vided by Karim Rashid Inc. *Images cour­tesy of Karim Rashid Inc. and Karim Rashid Shop.

Image Gallery