Build Magazine 32 Interior Design & Decorating Karim Rashid is one of the most prolific designers of his generation. With over 3000 designs in production to his name, numerous awards to the tune of over 300, and with his footprint left in projects across more than 40 countries, Karim’s legend of design is laid bare in his legendary portfolio. oday poetic design is based on a plethora of complex criteria: human experience, social behaviours, global, economic and political issues, physical and mental interaction, form, vision, and a rigorous understanding and desire for contemporary culture. Manufacturing is based on another collective group of criteria: capital investment, market share, production ease, dissemination, growth, distribution, maintenance, service, performance, quality, ecological issues and sustainability. The combination of these factors shape our objects, inform our forms, our physical space, visual culture and our contemporary human experience. These quantitative constructs shape business, identity, brand and value. This is the business of beauty. Every business should be completely concerned with beauty - it is after all a collective human need. Karim, meanwhile, believes that people everywhere could be living in an entirely different world - one that is full of real contemporary inspiring objects, spaces, places, worlds, spirits and experiences. To put it in his own words, “design has been the cultural shaper of our world from the start. We have designed systems, cities, and commodities. We have addressed the world’s problems. Now design is not about solving problems, but about a rigorous beautification of our built environments. Design is about the betterment of our lives poetically, aesthetically, experientially, sensorially, and emotionally.” Karim continues, “my real desire is to see people live in the modus of our time, to participate in the contemporary world, and to release themselves from nostalgia, antiquated traditions, old rituals, kitsch and the meaningless. We should be conscious and attune with this world in this moment. If human nature is so determined to live in the past, that means that to change the world is to change human nature. “For the longest time,” Karim observes, “design only existed for the elite, and for a small insular culture. I have worked hard for the last 20 years trying to make design a public subject.” Opening Design to the Public T Karim’s work is featured in 20 permanent collections and he exhibits art in galleries world wide. Karim is a perennial winner of the Red Dot award, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design award, I. D. Magazine Annual Design Review, IDSA Industrial Design Excellence award. On top of his work as a designer, Karim is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences, where he has played a significant role in the global dissemination of knowledge, imparting the importance of design in everyday life. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the OCAD, Toronto and Corcoran College of Art & Design, Washington. Karim has also been featured extensively in magazines and books including Time, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, Wallpaper, and countless more – such is his familiarity with the arts and its importance to our everyday lives. Indeed, in his spare time Karim’s pluralism flirts with art, fashion, and music, and he is determined to creatively touch every aspect of our physical and virtual landscape. This pluralist philosophy further extends to comprise Karim’s entire approach to business. From the comfort of his studio on West 54th Street, just outside of the Midtown borough known as Hell’s Kitchen, he imbues his team with the idea that great change can be enacted often through the simplest ways. “We believe that we live in a very special time for humanity,” he explains, “where technology, through the digital revolution, has afforded us new tools to design better space in ways never before conceived. Our multidisciplinary studio reflects this digital renaissance in its day to day functioning where industrial designers, graphic designers, architects and interior designers collaborate to design space together.” As such, all of Karim’s departments work together for a holistic final product be it a hotel, pen, sofa or logo. Diversity is a great catalyst when it comes to generating and cross-pollinating ideas, materials, behaviours, aesthetics and language from one typology to the next. “Diversity in mindsets also shapes our global point of view thanks to an international staff that speaks 12 languages. Best Interior & Exterior Designer, USA Best Hospitality Project: Temptation Resort & Spa “As an industrial design firm that has grown into interior design over the past 15 years, we have evolved into a full- service design firm, helping our clients to achieve their goals on a broad range of project typologies and global locations. Our studio has an international team of talented designers and we are supported by a varied portfolio of global consultants for any type of project. We design at every scale, from the private residence to the towering mixed use building. We are equipped to support our clients with integrated service through the lifecycle of a project. In every project undertaken, Karim strives to find the solution that merges his vision with that of his clients. There is a great transfusion at play, intertwining deep passion with well-founded expertise so as to bring to life objects that are beautiful, functional, manufacturable, progressive, and economically viable. “We work with major corporations as well as start-ups to create and develop game changing concepts in virtually every category of consumer goods.” Karim concludes, “from concept initiation, through design development, detailing, prototyping, and guidance in manufacturing, our team of industrial designers has extensive background in creating designs that elevate the experiences of everyday life.” Company: Karim Rashid Name: Karim Rashid Email:
[email protected] Web Address: www.karimrashid.com Address: 428 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019, USA Telephone: 001 212.929.8657