Design Your Self: Rethinking the Way You Live, Love, Work, and Play [Paperback]

Karim Rashid (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 11, 2006

Celebrated industrial designer Karim Rashid explains how to optimize all areas of life, aesthetic and spiritual, in this colorful, beautifully designed book.

Design wonderkind Karim Rashid, whose projects range from the Trump Towers apartments to Lacoste sportswear to the ubiquitous Umbra garbage can, prescribes an organizational and style overhaul in Design Your Life. In short, sharp chapters, he tackles topics as diverse as the wardrobe, office space, love life, and diet, answering perplexing questions like how to properly pack a suitcase, use colors to accent a room, and carve out free time in a busy schedule. Whether the reader is looking to redesign his physical space or spiritual life, Design Your Life offers comprehensive guidance that is straightforward and easy to follow.

Rashid's philosophies center on quality over quantity, space over clutter, clarity over complexity, and a marriage of form and function in every design. With each page in vibrant color and packed with his charming artwork and sketches, Design Your Life is an ideal gift book–and the very embodiment of Rashid's functional style.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Designer and writer Rashid (I Want to Change the World; Evolution) weighs in on everything from redecorating and socializing to fitness, work and sex, all of which, he says, should be performed with flair and passion. Two themes dominate his philosophy on living: "less is more" and "do it with color." In decorating an apartment, then, Karim urges readers to use bright colors to "imbue the space with a plethora of positive energy," "put all your chargers in one place-with one surge protector" and follow his "no bookshelves" rule. His rules for work are similar-ditch the business card and "just tell people your email address." Women are encouraged to "wear white all year long," while short men should "wear flat-front pants, with a slight flare." When it comes to the bedroom, Rashid encourages readers to do it anywhere and everywhere else, and, by all means, use toys. (Conveniently, Rashid designs a line of upmarket erotic appliances.) The book's design is bright and brisk, making for an exciting read, though the range of subjects he addresses can make the book feel too scattered; the seven pages Rashid dedicates to death, though conveniently placed before his chapter on work, are superfluous. ("Why can't someone order a casket from Gucci or Prada?") Readers who are ready for the next generation of self help books will enjoy this volume.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Karim Rashid is an industrial designer whose clients include Prada, Nambe, Issey Miyake, Mikasa, Shiseido, Giorgio Armani, and Yahoo, among many others. With a career that began at age nineteen, Rashid is now the creator of more than two thousand designs, many of them award-winning. His commercial success has been mirrored by critical acclaim; his works are in the permanent collections of fourteen museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts. His designs are available at the Karim Rashid Shop at 137 West 19th Street in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Design (April 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060839023
• ISBN-13: 978-0060839024
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #664,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karim Rashid is one of the most prolific designers of his generation. Over 3000 designs in production, over 300 awards and working in over 35 countries attest to Karim's legend of design. His award winning designs include democratic objects such as the ubiquitous Garbo waste can and Oh Chair for Umbra, interiors such as the Morimoto restaurant, Philadelphia and Semiramis hotel, Athens and exhibitions for Deutsche Bank and Audi. Karim has collaborated with clients to create democratic design for Method and Dirt Devil, furniture for Artemide and Magis, brand identity for Citibank and Hyundai, high tech products for LaCie and Samsung, and luxury goods for Veuve Clicquot and Swarovski, to name a few. 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.

He holds honorary doctorates from the Ontario college of Art & Design and Corcoran College of Art & Design. Karim is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences globally disseminating the importance of design in everyday life. Karim's has been featured in magazine and books including Time, Financial Times, NY Times, Esquire, GQ and countless more. In 2009 Rizzoli released Karim's latest monograph KarimSpace, featuring 36 of Karim's interior architecture designs. Other books include Karim's guide to living, 'Design Your Self' (Harper Collins, 2006), 'Digipop', a digital exploration of computer graphics (Taschen, 2005), compact portfolio published by Chronicle Books (2004), as well as two monographs titled 'Evolution' (Universe, 2004) and 'I Want to Change the World' (Rizzoli, 2001). In his spare time Karim's pluralism flirts with DJing, art and fashion and is determined to creatively touch every aspect of our physical landscape.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It Grows on You August 21, 2006

By Eric Bieschke

Format:Paperback

I bought this book because it was popularly reviewed in some hipsterish magazine. The book is immediately appealing, with engrossing typography and stunning colors.

The content is very much a philosophical diatribe on the part of the author. Some of his philosophy I liked and immediately embraced, but much of it my intuition told me wasn't quite right on a personal level. Things like: abolish all black from your wardrobe, furnish your house with no sharp edges, use gawdy bright colors to fill your living spaces with, and make sure every piece of furniture has at least one purpose.

But I keep thinking about this book. It won't leave my mind alone. I've started realizing that my mood and life experience *is* actually more enjoyable when I surround myself with white and gawdily bright colors.

This comes as somewhat of a shock. I'm a somewhat conservative software engineer who likes to keep all his ducks in a row.

But the look of surprise/concern/envy/comedy on my coworkers faces when I showed up to work in flourescent green sneakers was worth the price of this book alone.

If you can change something about your life to make it more enjoyable, then go with it. If you can remove something from your life to make it more enjoyable, do that.

33 of 39 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars interesting, but a few comments June 21, 2006

By Scribble

Format:Paperback

I just finished this book and like its overall theme and concept. However, Rashid ignores a huge part of many adults' lives: having and raising children. They are briefly mentioned in a relationships section, and later at the end with a life timeline, but the reality of the day-to-day work of raising children is completely missing.

Rashid also seems to presume that people have enough discretionary income to upgrade their electronics regularly (he suggests readers purchase new computers, new music-listening devices, new appliances, etc., as soon as they become more efficient). He also disdains books, suggesting that people not display them openly because it reduces clutter to simply read things online. If this is the case, why would anyone actually buy one of Rashid's books?

35 of 42 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I am perfectly okay being the only person that hates this book. February 14, 2007

By cbaut

Format:Paperback

Why does everyone seem to like this book? Are we all so much in a daze, going with the flow, keeping up with the neighbors, that we have never stopped to think that we might be doing something for reasons other than that we really want or need to do them? If you are at all a spiritual person, or a designer with a more developed aesthetic, this might not be the book you're looking for. I came to it expecting insight about the relationship between work and play in a creative person's life, but had to stop reading after 50 pages (which is rare, my habit is to finish a book no matter what) because he was preaching at me. Why the insistence on bright colors, for the design of the book and a recommended way of life? It is arbitrary. It happens to be what inspires him, he happens to love his life, but that doesn't mean I would benefit in any way by removing all of the edges from my house and wearing bright colors. I have never come across a design related book that made me so angry. Design is not spirituality. Creative work can be a very spiritual thing but I felt he was instructing others in what he considers good taste. How ridiculous! Advice for what to do at each age! a layout like a children's book! Maybe he should rethink his indulgent highlighter book design; traditional book layouts are far more efficient and legible.

For those that need examples of bringing creativity into one's everyday life, a better start would be a biography of an artist whose work is related in some way to a personal vision or ideal. Many artists, scientists, and thinkers have led extraordinary lives we can learn from, and would easily expose rashid's life as merely stylized.

For those that need to think more about life choices and habits, perhaps a spiritual guide would be in order, not an arrogant, preachy designer.