Demystifying Karim Rashid

"You be who you are and participate as you want to" - Karim Rashid,11th March 09, IFF Singapore.

Its a rare occasion when a one of the most well-known designers and a 'subject' of your school projects is infront of you giving a talk at a seminar. I call it rare because being able to attend a seminar by Karim Rashid was more than a mere co-incidence. Neither had I any clue of him being the guest speaker when I registered for the IFF09 (registered soon after the mailers and paid up without batting an eyelid or availing any of the special offers) nor when we took up the task of researching his work for one of our studio projects (Form 3 - 2nd year NID).

The one hour seminar demystified a lot of myths - about Karim Rashid the designer and about design process per se. I admit at the time of the studio project, my understanding of his work was restricted to forms, colour and to an extent material exploration. These are the terms a student learns anyway. These got translated into wacky, crazy and unreal projects that were seen under his signature. But my student brain could not see beyond it then.

Below is a brief summary of what I picked up from the talk. At the end of the post it will be hopefully evident (already is for me) that 'Karim Rashid' is a signature because he truly believes in his words (beginning of the post).

Do note that this is going to be a compilation of sorts/pointers from what he said and I gathered and not my inferences. Might seem disconnected at many places but I do not want to dilute the essence of what he said by including my inference.

"Global Village/Global Landscape"
Design has been perceived as a problem solving exercise. But it goes beyond the utilitarian - it extends to 'Performance' and 'Poetics'.

In the 80s it was a commodity. A number of schools were involved in experimentation/product semantics etc. This in a way was to 'Liberate' design and it became more poetic.

Design became 'Elite'. It was now unreachable and inaccessible. (with changing markets) Companies that wanted to do radical or original work were small players. The big players didn't want designers as they thought that would shrink their market.

Meanwhile architectural design became completely theoretical. Real world was different from the theoretical institutional work.

The world of art too became more and more elite. Poetic fantasy and imagination is not the leading force anymore. Today the real world is way ahead of the imaginative world - it has flipped. Remember a time when films and characters of the likes of James Bond were fiction. Today we possess and live most of those products.

For the manufacturers - the consumers are today ready for anything. It was strongly believed that technology would dehumanise us - it hasn't. Technology has democratised creativity.

As a child, each one of us is an artist and as we grow the society expects us to conform to certain notions and that makes us 'less creative'.

An artist is in the pursuit of the original and progress & innovation is about creativity.

Will design suffer in the wake of the economic crisis?
It is the built environment that has to be made better. Contribution of design is extensive.
If you could build one better/successful product, you could eliminate 10 products from your catalogs - Addition by Subtraction
The digital age gave us the intangible. Physical world is obviously not evolving at the same speed.

Make things that mirror the digital age. Can an object have the same passions and emotions as humans. In the technological world - yes. In the physical world - maybe not. Physical world looks tired and feels like the last century. (this was in the context of his choice of using bright colours in his work and launching the range Pinker pinker.com )

The physical world gave us a number of products - the high heel - don't most of us find that uncomfortable or the car - to get in and out of one itself can be inconvenient.

It is hence important to see the human being at the centre of the stage.

Take advantage of the dormant artistic gene and we could make a comfortable world.

We are in a new casual age - which is self expressive. We are all individuals - you are who you are and you can participate the way you want to. The way forward is to think that's what we are here for!

A point of argument - if we make the material world better - the rest of the world would become redundant. Will it? You will still need a bed to sleep in, plates to eat in and so on.

Eg: A stemmed glass served to the guests on board a flight has the risk of shaking during turbulence - what if the glass was made in the shape of a cone. (That is thoughtful innovation and not just a different form for a glass).

This talk was also summarised by Ms Kelly Chang in few words - " Create your design, your own thinking - that is what will make your design special. Feel free to express yourself - that is what made him a signature"

We have to put our signature put there. That in short is what I took back with me (and ofcourse a number of photographs of the design guru himself - dressed in pink from top to bottom!)