Karim Rashid was born in Cairo, Egypt, and raised in England and Canada. He received a bachelor of industrial design in 1982 from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
Karim Rashid is a leading figure in the fields of product, interior, fashion, furniture, lighting design, and art. 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 Alessi to Dirt Devil, Umbra to Prada, Miyake to Method, Karim is radically changing the aesthetics of product design and the very nature of the consumer culture. He has had some 2500 objects put into production to date. His designs of the Morimoto restaurant in Philadelphia and the award-winning Semiramis Hotel in Athens have successfully expanded Karim’s scope to include the realm of architecture and interior design. Karim was honored with the title of 2007 Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards Product Design Finalist, the 2006 Honorary Doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design, the 2005 Honorary Doctorate from Corcoran College.
Karim Rashid received a bachelor of Industrial Design in Canada and postgraduate studies in Italy in 1984. In 1993, he opened his own studio in New York City doing projects ranging from products, interiors, fashion, furniture, lighting, and art for clients such as Prada, Umbra, Nambe, Magis, Edra, Herman Miller, Sony, Idee, Giorgio Armani and Leonardo. He has won many awards and his work is in the permanent collections of 14 Museums. He exhibits art at Sandra Gering Gallery and Deitch Projects in New York. His new monograph is “I Want to Change the World.”