Karim Rashid: I Want to Change the World [Paperback]

Karim Rashid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2001

Karim Rashid is the bestknown and most prolific young designer practicing in America today. On the brink of household-name celebrity, he has fast become a superstar among design aficionados by revolutionizing the visual standards of minimalist design with his fresh, colorful, sinuous, and sensual objects. His work is in the collections of museums worldwide, including The Musemu of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts. This book is the first comprehensive survey of Rashid's designs, his products and the philosophy behind them. Edited and designed in close collaboration with Rashid and including a stellar list of contributors from the design community contributors this book is sure to be the reference source for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Karim Rashid opened his own design practice in 1993. His extraordinary commercial success has been mirrored by critical acclaim. He's received more than 26 awards, most recently the prestigious Daimler-Chrysler award for design excellence.

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Universe (August 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789305313
• ISBN-13: 978-0789305312
• Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 10.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #404,633 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars interesting stuff, September 19, 2001

By 

"designer69" (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Karim Rashid: I Want to Change the World (Paperback)

It has been interesting talking to my friends in the design industry about this book, they all seem have an opinion about it. Some love it, some hate it - what I enjoy is their strong reactions to the work.
So much "design" these days is the work of lost designers, mindlessly chasing their versions of "the iMac" or the "OXO Good grip" or the "Audi T.T." . Rashid is one of those few designers that manage to transcend the constant bleating by "clients" to provide designs that "stimulate consumer demand" and "lower production costs".
Visionary, experimental design is what Rashid's work is all about. To me, his work is about the re-interpretation of the consumer ethic in line with the emerging cultural and psychological effects of globalization. It IS still about the perpetuation of the system of consumption, but his objects are somehow transformed phenomenologically and semiotically, their referent being the culture of "now".
Critics like to disparage Rashid's work for being derivative and flashy - what IS interesting is his commitment to designing objects that everyone can afford
The book is crammed full of pictures detailing numerous projects over the last 10 or so years. Much of this work is extraordinary, especially the inclusion of some of the designer's original sketches, which give interesting glimpses in to the process of creation. The essays by Rashid and an diverse collection of associates makes for further insight into how highly regarded this artist/ designer is in the creative industries. Buy this book if you are interested in the state of contemporary consumer culture. Don't buy this book if you are a designer working in a cubical of a giant multinational consumer products company, you'll only feel depressed and unappreciated and trapped in a beige nightmare....

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars nurbsturbation, May 29, 2002

By 

T. D. Arnall - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Karim Rashid: I Want to Change the World (Paperback)

hmmm,
most of the work in this book is non-sensical proposals for big name companies, like Rashid wants to be a high flying designer, but can't quite design the mass-appeal product. Designing a blobject MD player for Sony without buttons is all well and good in 3D studio Max, but what happens when it comes to usability testing and manufacture...

I don't like his work, it looks like a university product design portfolio, the text is unreadable at odd angles, and he treats the reader with patronising pseudo-sociological [person].

15 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars too bad, too sad, September 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Karim Rashid: I Want to Change the World (Paperback)

I want to change the world sounds noble enough but with the fluff in between these covers, this "world changer" has some time, if ever, to go until he can lay any claim to this. Karims fellow designers should be outraged by his presentation of their industry as being so fickle, tranparent and thin. A real shame given the power that products have in our lives and to our cultures. Do not buy this book.