Karim Rashid | ScandinavianDesign.com

Karim Rashid is one of the most prolific industrial designers of his generation, known for fluid, colourful forms that he calls sensual minimalism. Based in New York, he has worked with a long line of Nordic manufacturers, from Offecct and David Design in the early 2000s to Skandiform and Materia more recently.

Background

Rashid was born in Cairo in 1960 and grew up in Canada. He studied industrial design at Carleton University in Ottawa, graduating in 1982, and continued his studies in Naples with Ettore Sottsass and Gaetano Pesce among his teachers. He opened his studio in Manhattan in 1993. His breakthrough came with the Garbo wastebasket for Umbra, which sold in the millions, and today he has thousands of products in production, from furniture and lighting to electronics and packaging, as well as interiors for hotels and restaurants.

Design approach

Rashid rejects the hard angles of classic modernism in favour of soft, organic shapes, often in bright colours and modern materials such as plastics. His organic-looking designs are usually made from inorganic materials, which once earned him the nickname “the poet of plastic”.

Designs for Nordic brands

Offecct presented his work from 2001 onwards, including the Orgy sofa and stool and the Flo panels for the Soundwave acoustic range. For David Design he created Morf, a set of reversible ceramics. Finnish Martela launched his Koop chair in 2010, and Zero produced the Space-Time lamp. In 2017 he designed for three Kinnarps Group brands at once: the Phaze easy chair for Skandiform, the Kaloo bar stool for Materia and the Manhattan chair for NC Nordic Care.

Recognition

Rashid has received hundreds of awards, among them Red Dot and IDSA awards, and his work is held in museum collections internationally. Phaze won a German Design Award in 2018.

By Editorial Team, ScandinavianDesign.com