“I love lecturing and connecting with an audience. It has been my mission to make design a public subject.” - Karim Rashid
Visionary and prolific, Karim Rashid is one of the most unique voices in design today. Eschewing style in favour of designing in the modus of our time, Karim's work encompasses more than 4000 designs in production, 400 awards to his name, and clients in 47 countries. His clients include 3M, Alessi, Artemide, BoConcept, Citibank, Hugo Boss, Issey Miyake, Kenzo, Method, NH, Radisson Hotels, Umbra, Veuve Clicquot, and Vondom. Numerous awards and accolades including the American Prize for Design Lifetime Achievement award, Red Dot award, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design award, and Pentaward attest to Karim’s contribution to the world of design.
iPremium DD: Mr. Rashid, you've designed more than 350 furniture items. What inspires you? How do you understand what the client needs?
K.R.: I feel like inspiration and innovation come out of limitations. If we had many resources, there would be no experimentation. Sometimes my most creative work has come out of a small budget for interiors or limitations with tooling. I have also learned that many designers do a great deal of work, but we end up not seeing most of it and it remains in concept form only because the key to putting work on the market is to make sure it is a collaboration. If you work closely with a client and understand their needs, you can be much more productive. Design is collaboration and when I listen to my clients, their needs, then the outcome will likely be produced. And for me, I am not interested in just concepts. I need it to manifest my ideas. You know, the solutions to our problems are in front of our eyes, you just have to see them.
K.R.: I feel like inspiration and innovation come out of limitations. If we had many resources, there would be no experimentation. Sometimes my most creative work has come out of a small budget for interiors or limitations with tooling. I have also learned that many designers do a great deal of work, but we end up not seeing most of it and it remains in concept form only because the key to putting work on the market is to make sure it is a collaboration. If you work closely with a client and understand their needs, you can be much more productive. Design is collaboration and when I listen to my clients, their needs, then the outcome will likely be produced. And for me, I am not interested in just concepts. I need it to manifest my ideas. You know, the solutions to our problems are in front of our eyes, you just have to see them.
iPremium DD: You have so many awards! Are there any that were especially desirable? Are there any heights you haven’t conquered yet?
K.R.: I used to feel that an accolade, award, or having a piece in a museum was the ultimate accolade, but, in fact, the greatest reward is witnessing people using my designs! When I show up to an event or lecture and someone wears my jewellery, shoes, others carrying my book, a chess set, a cd, others with my pens, eyeglasses, a table-top object - it brings tears to my eyes. I am so honoured and feel so fortunate that I can make people happy, touch their emotions, help their everyday experiences!
K.R.: I used to feel that an accolade, award, or having a piece in a museum was the ultimate accolade, but, in fact, the greatest reward is witnessing people using my designs! When I show up to an event or lecture and someone wears my jewellery, shoes, others carrying my book, a chess set, a cd, others with my pens, eyeglasses, a table-top object - it brings tears to my eyes. I am so honoured and feel so fortunate that I can make people happy, touch their emotions, help their everyday experiences!
iPremium DD: Where do you find the strength and energy for public speaking? What fills you up?
K.R.: I love lecturing and connecting with an audience. It has been my mission to make design a public subject. I preach about how design shapes the future. I believe that design is extremely consequential to our daily lives and can positively change the behaviours of humans. Products and furniture must deal with our emotional ground thereby increasing the popular imagination and experience. Good design can shift and change human behaviour and create new social conditions. Human beings touch an average of 600 objects a day, and the potential for those objects to benefit the everyday human experience is immense. I derive tremendous happiness from product design because each object has the potential to connect with the consumer and to bring them pleasure on an everyday basis. Beautifying the world, creating well-designed, provocative, stimulating products and environments is the impetus for everything I embark on.
iPremium DD: Considering your industry, how often do you change things in your home?
K.R.: I created a very hard Cartesian white 'blank' gallery like space. It seems like I am forever changing space. I was brought up with my father changing and moving around the furniture, paintings, etc. every month and I find I have the same habit. Generally, the furniture changes every month with new prototypes, old ones, production pieces, like a revolving on-going dynamic gallery. I travel so often and am used to staying in a new hotel suite every other week so I like an efficient space that keeps changing with my needs.
K.R.: I love lecturing and connecting with an audience. It has been my mission to make design a public subject. I preach about how design shapes the future. I believe that design is extremely consequential to our daily lives and can positively change the behaviours of humans. Products and furniture must deal with our emotional ground thereby increasing the popular imagination and experience. Good design can shift and change human behaviour and create new social conditions. Human beings touch an average of 600 objects a day, and the potential for those objects to benefit the everyday human experience is immense. I derive tremendous happiness from product design because each object has the potential to connect with the consumer and to bring them pleasure on an everyday basis. Beautifying the world, creating well-designed, provocative, stimulating products and environments is the impetus for everything I embark on.
iPremium DD: Considering your industry, how often do you change things in your home?
K.R.: I created a very hard Cartesian white 'blank' gallery like space. It seems like I am forever changing space. I was brought up with my father changing and moving around the furniture, paintings, etc. every month and I find I have the same habit. Generally, the furniture changes every month with new prototypes, old ones, production pieces, like a revolving on-going dynamic gallery. I travel so often and am used to staying in a new hotel suite every other week so I like an efficient space that keeps changing with my needs.
iPremium DD: Among all the objects you have created, are there any particular favourites? Is there an object you would like to create, a partner you would like to work with?
K.R.: I must mention Method Hand soap (2003). They continue to sell millions and proved to me that Americans want design but at an affordable price. Also, the Voxel family for Vondom. I love the unique structurally angular shape made possible by injection moulding production. It is the next evolution of my decades-long experiments with faceted forms. The beauty of design is that it is extremely strong, yet lightweight, stacks and manoeuvres easily, and is sold at a very democratic price.
But more recently I am extremely proud of my first collaboration with MIDJ for the Kosmos collection. I always say that I look at the world like I am from another planet. I would like to have my country house on the moon. So, for MIJI I created Kosmos, a floating rock of softness and serenity. Objects that are minimal yet comfortable. Growing up in the 60s and 70s everyone was so optimistic about the future, with great experimentation for form and technology. That vision continues to inspire me today to add progressive objects that embrace the human touch to the physical world. The modular form of Kosmos creates a sensorial, relaxed environment for everyone.
K.R.: I must mention Method Hand soap (2003). They continue to sell millions and proved to me that Americans want design but at an affordable price. Also, the Voxel family for Vondom. I love the unique structurally angular shape made possible by injection moulding production. It is the next evolution of my decades-long experiments with faceted forms. The beauty of design is that it is extremely strong, yet lightweight, stacks and manoeuvres easily, and is sold at a very democratic price.
But more recently I am extremely proud of my first collaboration with MIDJ for the Kosmos collection. I always say that I look at the world like I am from another planet. I would like to have my country house on the moon. So, for MIJI I created Kosmos, a floating rock of softness and serenity. Objects that are minimal yet comfortable. Growing up in the 60s and 70s everyone was so optimistic about the future, with great experimentation for form and technology. That vision continues to inspire me today to add progressive objects that embrace the human touch to the physical world. The modular form of Kosmos creates a sensorial, relaxed environment for everyone.
I am also so happy with my latest restaurant, Raionul de Peste Floreasca, in Bucharest. I wanted to create more than just a restaurant but make it a destination for dining and design. It was a unique concept for me. The idea was to create a fluid, more functioning space that has a relationship with seafood. The feeling I wanted to provoke is like one has entered the sea and since the fish is so fresh it is as if you are in the sea eating the fish directly. One can’t have a fresher food experience than that.
Also I just built my dream house - a futuristic yet economical house in the country with panoramic views. I want a home with no sharp corners and no obstructive columns. Living through the pandemic made me realise how important it is - to connect with the exterior.
Having realised that dream, l would love to design for Tesla or any car company as long as I can design an electric car. I would also like to work with companies such as Lacoste, Adidas, Nike, Bose, Bang & Olufsen, Ferrero, Zara, Conair, Bionaire, Kartell, Herman Miller, Braun, IKEA, Vitra, Fiat, Vespa, Levi’s, Uniqlo, or other fashion brands and too many others to list... I think they all make intelligent products and my language and philosophy could really help shape their brand-future. And I would like to design a biodegradable bucket for Rubbermaid for my ‘ BUCKET' list ….haha.
iPremium DD: What are your personal colour preferences?
K.R.: I love colour and I am not afraid of it – I use it in a painterly way as a way of driving emotion though our physical object’s our spaces, to expression motivate, to inspire, and question, to challenge, and touch or evanescent public memory. My favourite colour is White. White is spiritual, reserved, sophisticated , and pure. I use it to send a positive energy into the world. White makes me feel optimistic, angelic, and open-minded. Colour, particularly white, is not just ‘is’ and is not intangible- it is very real, very strong, and has a real physical presence. I always say Use colour to express yourself. Don’t be afraid of that bright orange chair. Paint your wall lime green. Coloured glass looks great in bathrooms. Be brave when it comes to carpets, countertops, and tables. Colour is beautiful and it’s all about self-expression. Be yourself.
Having realised that dream, l would love to design for Tesla or any car company as long as I can design an electric car. I would also like to work with companies such as Lacoste, Adidas, Nike, Bose, Bang & Olufsen, Ferrero, Zara, Conair, Bionaire, Kartell, Herman Miller, Braun, IKEA, Vitra, Fiat, Vespa, Levi’s, Uniqlo, or other fashion brands and too many others to list... I think they all make intelligent products and my language and philosophy could really help shape their brand-future. And I would like to design a biodegradable bucket for Rubbermaid for my ‘ BUCKET' list ….haha.
iPremium DD: What are your personal colour preferences?
K.R.: I love colour and I am not afraid of it – I use it in a painterly way as a way of driving emotion though our physical object’s our spaces, to expression motivate, to inspire, and question, to challenge, and touch or evanescent public memory. My favourite colour is White. White is spiritual, reserved, sophisticated , and pure. I use it to send a positive energy into the world. White makes me feel optimistic, angelic, and open-minded. Colour, particularly white, is not just ‘is’ and is not intangible- it is very real, very strong, and has a real physical presence. I always say Use colour to express yourself. Don’t be afraid of that bright orange chair. Paint your wall lime green. Coloured glass looks great in bathrooms. Be brave when it comes to carpets, countertops, and tables. Colour is beautiful and it’s all about self-expression. Be yourself.
iPremium DD: If we are talking about architecture, what styles and trends are the closest to you? Can you name your favourite architects (from different times)? What do you start from when creating an architectural building/construction?
K.R.: Yes, absolutely! When I was younger, I was obsessed with designers such as Raymond Lowey, Dieter Rams, Luigi Colani, Charles Eames, Achille Castiglioni, Etttore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, but also loved architects such as Le Corbusier, Bauhaus, Oscar Niemeyer, Russian Deconstructivism, and fashion designers such as Pierre Cardin and Andre Courreges, and so many others. I knew that I had the talent, focus, and the perseverance to become one day successful as they were. Then I ended up studying with Ettore Sottsass and Gaetano Pesce and working in Milano with Rodolfo Bonetto. I also saw hundreds of lectures from Buckminster Fuller to George Nelson, Mario Bellini to Richard Sapper.
K.R.: Yes, absolutely! When I was younger, I was obsessed with designers such as Raymond Lowey, Dieter Rams, Luigi Colani, Charles Eames, Achille Castiglioni, Etttore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, but also loved architects such as Le Corbusier, Bauhaus, Oscar Niemeyer, Russian Deconstructivism, and fashion designers such as Pierre Cardin and Andre Courreges, and so many others. I knew that I had the talent, focus, and the perseverance to become one day successful as they were. Then I ended up studying with Ettore Sottsass and Gaetano Pesce and working in Milano with Rodolfo Bonetto. I also saw hundreds of lectures from Buckminster Fuller to George Nelson, Mario Bellini to Richard Sapper.