Biography

Karim Rashid was 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 consumer culture. To date he has had some 2000 objects put into production.

Karim immersed himself in the world of architecture and interiors with his design of the Morimoto restaurant in Philadelphia and Semiramis hotel in Athens. The Semiramis was recently awarded a Sleep05 European Hotel Design Award for Best Interior Design Public Areas. Morimoto was cited by Esquire Magazine as the best new restaurant design of 2003. Karim also designed an award winning retail interior for Nambe, a Sante Fe based manufacturer of table top items and two restaurants for the Singapore based noodle shop NOOCH – one in Singapore and one in NYC, Last year saw the opening of Four Food Studio in Long Island.

Karim was awarded an 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.

Karim has published two monographs titled ‘I Want to Change the World’ (Rizzoli, 2001) and 'Evolution' (Universe, 2004) as well as a biography 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 compilations CD's available on boutique label Neverstop. ReganBooks has just released ‘Design Your Self, a practical guide to redesigning your lifestyle, penned by Karim.