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118| 119Karim RashidEttore SottsassVictor Vasarely1917 October Revolutionin Russia1933 FranklinD. Rooseveltsworn in aspresident ofthe US1954 Premiere of Hitchcock’s film1976 First G7 summitRear Window1961 Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space1949 Founding of the North AtlanticTreaty Organization2001 Pop Idols launches the TVcasting-show format1987 Black Monday (October 19) seesstock market crash worldwide1996 First cloned mammal (Dolly the sheep)Karim Rashid1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025The internationally renowned designer Karim Rashid wanted to change the world with his soft, colored shapes,and became a pop star of the design world with his “blobism.”Karim Rashid is one of the most productivedesigners of his generation. He has created over3,000 designs for numerous famous companies suchas Artemide, Cappellini, Magis, LaCie, Samsung,Veuve Cliquot, and Swarowski, and has won morethan 300 international design prizes, such as theGood Design Award (South Africa), the Good DesignAward (Japan), the red dot design award, and theDesign Plus Award. His most popular productsinclude the Garbo Can trash basket and the Oh Chairplastic chair. Rashid’s interior designs for the MorimotoRestaurant in Philadelphia and the SemiramisHotel in Athens also won prizes, as did exhibitionsfor Deutsche Bank and Audi. His works can be foundin the collections of renowned museums such as theMuseum of Modern Art in New York.Karim Rashid is the pop star of the design world.Even the outfits worn by the designer, who was bornin Cairo and grew up in Canada, live up to everycommon cliché that the layman could have of thisprofession: wearing large, horn-rimmed glasses, awhite suit, and sneakers, this industrial designer,who works in New York, designs everything fromtrash cans to fashion accessories, from furniture andelectronic products to trendy interiors for hotels andrestaurants such as the Semiramis Hotel in Athens,the Morimoto Restaurant in Philadelphia, and thePowder Club in New York. He can also be regularlyfound enjoying the nightlife of Manhattan as “DJElectronikreemy.” He is not, however, an inventor ofnew, never-before-seen designs, nor is he a superstarof design like Marc Newson or Philippe Starck.Rashid has simple, popular taste that captures thespirit of the time and appeals to trend-consciousyouth in particular. Just as a music studio remixesold songs with digital technology and samplesdifferent music styles, Rashid plays and composeswith the style elements of modern design and thenconverts them into his own signature style. Theinternationally recognized design star focuses onthe sense of color he has derived from Pop Art, andon the psychedelic patterns of the 1960s and otherreferences from the history of design and modern art– from the Op Art of Vasarely to the memorablepatterns of the graffiti scene.After graduating in industrial design fromCarleton University in Ottawa in 1982, Rashid completedfurther design studies under Ettore Sottsassin Naples and Rodolfo Bonetto in Milan. In 1993, heopened his own design studio in New York and soonmade a name for himself with his designs, whosegaudy colors and round forms became sensualreferences to the pop period of the 1960s and 1970s.Rashid celebrated his international breakthrough in1996 with the plastic trash basket Garbo Can. Sincethen, he has designed over 3,000 objects andreceived over 300 design prizes. The modernistreferences of his design products include the designheroes of the past, whom he likes to specify himself:“Ettore Sottsass, Gaetano Pesce, Rodolfo Bonetto,Ron Arad, Philippe Starck, Luigi Colani, JoeColombo, Charles Eames, and so many others … ”Rashid is not squeamish about dealing with hisfamous predecessors. For example, he used Autocadto morph Charles Eames’s Chaise into jaunty, stackablediscount chairs. The main point is that everythingis round, sweeping, without corners andedges, and as bright as possible, for exampleturquoise and pink, apparently his favorite colors.Rashid describes his own style as “sensual minimalism”or simply as “blobism,” which would be a sadphenomenon were it not for Rashid’s sense ofhumor. And the sales figures for his products, whichare sold by well-known companies, speak for themselves:2.5 million units of his vacuum cleaner havebeen sold, as well as millions of trash baskets andother fashion articles ranging from a perfume bottleto the total concept (corporate identity) for a designexhibition and a subway station in Naples (2011).Karim Rashid also has the gift of being able todesign mass articles for a mass market and sellthem. hd1960 Born on September 18 in Cairo1982 Bachelor degree in industrialdesign at the Carleton Universityof Ottawa1993 Own design studio in New York1996 International breakthrough withthe Garbo Can2001 Monograph I Want to Changethe World2005/06 Honorary Doctorate from theCorcoran College of Art andDesign, Washington, D.C., andthe Ontario College of Art &Design, Toronto2008 Marries the Serbian chemistIvana PuricKarim Rashid lives and works inNew York and Rotterdam.left pageMorph, One-Dress for One, 2000abovePortrait of Karim Rashidnext double pageUniversity of Naples subway station,Naples, 2011