Karim Rashid is a leader in lighting and interior design, fashion, furniture, and art. Having earned more than 50 awards for his vision and continual innovation, Rashid is widely known for bringing his democratic design sensibility to products for the masses, from furniture to fragrance bottles and fine crystal to plastic trash cans.
Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1960, Rashid, who is Egyptian and English, was raised mostly in Canada. After receiving his Bachelor of Industrial Design in 1982 from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, he pursued graduate design studies in Naples, Italy, with Ettore Sottsass and others. He worked in Milan for one year at the Rodolfo Bonetto Studio. Since 1993, Rashid has had his own practice in New York City.
Designing for clients such as Alessi, Georg Jensen, Umbra, Prada, Miyake, and Method, Rashid has radically altered the aesthetics of product design and the very nature of the consumer culture. Some 2000 of his object have been produced, and his success extends into the area of architecture and interiors, as seen in the design of the Morimoto restaurant in Philadelphia and the Semiramis Hotel in Athens, which won a SLEEP.05 European Hotel Design Award. Rashid was awarded the 2006 Honorary Doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design, the 2005 Honorary Doctorate from Corcoran College, 2005 Pratt Legends Award, 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.