Karim Rashid Decorative Objects

21st century Karim Rashid Knight vase Murano glass various colors. Color stands out in the Knight vase designed by Karim Rashid, displaying its playful un...

This geometric sculpture evoking the elongated shape of a TOTEM, was designed by Karim Rashid in 2006 as part of a limited edition of 199 pieces. Each of the four pieces put vertical...

21st century Karim Rashid centerpiece container Murano glass various colors. Designed by Karim Rashid, Kountess is a stately, sculptural jar with a lid. Just like its twin model, Kou...

"Chorus" a modern-style candelabra, designed in 2004 by award winning industrial designer Karim Rashid in collaboration with Umbra. A wonderful and innovative shape: the candelabr...

This striking sculpture represents a colorful TOTEM in white clay with each of its five elements featuring a different geometric shape and solid, vivid ...

This centerpiece is a striking example of modern aesthetic and traditional craftsmanship. It was designed in 2013 by Karim Rashid and crafted of mouth-blown Murano glass. It is part ...

Kastle large bowl, Murano glass, by Karim Rashid, 21st century. Karim Rashid has conceived for Purho a mini collection of bowls and vases characte...

21st century Karim Rashid centerpiece container Murano glass various colors. Designed by Karim Rashid, Kountess is a stately, sculptural jar with a lid. Just like its twin model, Ko...

Kastle small bowl, Murano glass, by Karim Rashid, 21st century. Karim Rashid has conceived for Purho a mini collection of bowls and vases characte...

Part of the Queen and King collections, this vase was designed in 2013 by Karim Rashid and is distinctive for its sinuous silhouette that is opulent and modern. The piece is crafted ...

21st century Karim Rashid Kount vase Murano glass various colors. Kount is composed of discrete elements, a bowl and a vase, that can combine to form a stunning centrepiece. Used si...

Delicate and charming, this bottle with lid will infuse sophistication and a romantic ambiance into any home. This versatile piece was designed by Karim Rashid in 2016 and is part of...

Karim Rashid for Leonardo Germany Limited Edition New Move Silver Glass Vase, ca 1999. Measures 8” high, base 3-1/2” wide, and mouth 2-1/4” wide. There is a small scratch of silver finish/coating on glass (we've posted an image of the interior and exterior at the area of the scratch). There is also a faint area of small blemishes at the base See images for more detail. If there’s one thing karim rashid hates, it’s trophies. The 40-year-old designer has more than 40 of them, from big international ones like the 1999 George Nelson Award (given for breakthrough furniture design), to quaint little Canadian ones like Designer of the Year 2001. “It came with a little pin,” says Rashid, “and a … a … very nice …” He tries to describe the shape of the award with his hands but gives up. “It’s time that whole trophy thing changes. It’s kitsch. They’re functionless things.” Rashid was asked to design one for the DaimlerChrysler Design Awards (he’s a past recipient). “I was going to make it electro-luminescent. When the lights go out, it has a sensor so it turns on,” he says. But the trophy-as-night-light, a reminder of one’s worth in the darkest hours, didn’t impress Chrysler’s people. He never heard back. They may well be gnawing their knuckles over that decision right now because Rashid’s conquest of the realm of product design is all but complete. A lush and suitably worshipful retrospective of his work, Karim Rashid: I Want to Change the World (Thames & Hudson; 249 pages), hits Australasian bookstores this month. There was a crowd around anything with his stamp on it-including stools, chess sets and storage units-at the recent International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City. More than 2 million North Americans are throwing their rubbish into a receptacle he designed, while 750,000 or so park their rears on one of his cheapo plastic chairs. It’s not just in North America. He has been dubbed Der Poet des Plastiks by a retailer in Germany and the prolifico progettista Americano by Interni magazine in Italy. Trophies he may despise, but accolades Rashid can handle. The problem with being the Most Famous Industrial Designer in All the Americas is that you’re still less famous than someone who got kicked off Survivor the first week. Most people cannot name the designer of one nonclothing item in their homes. Rashid, who was born in Egypt, raised in Canada and is living in New York City, is more than happy to bring an end to this anonymity. Not just because he wants to be famous, although there seems to be that, but because he believes design should be a bigger part of the social discourse. “I have been almost alone in this country, trying to make design become a public subject,” he says. His chief method of persuasion is to make the banal better so that people notice design more. He likes creating expensive furniture and perfume bottles just fine, but what really gets his juices going is the everyday: manhole covers, a cremation urn, disposable cigarette lighters, garbage bins, salt and pepper shakers, plastic pens. “I want American Standard to come to me to do the toilets for Home Depot,” he says. In many ways Rashid is more like an itinerant industrial evangelist than a designer. He traveled 200 days last year. He claims to have been to every major mall in America, where he signs his products in high-end design stores and trolls about observing humans interacting with the objects around them. He has taught at design schools for more than a decade, and his work has been in 11 art shows in the past eight months. But mostly he has proselytized the corporate barbarians. And like any good missionary, he has learned to speak the language of his converts. One of the first things he does when he gets new clients is tour their factories to understand their manufacturing capacity. He also visits the retail outlets to see how the product might be displayed. And he really knows how to sell, especially himself. “I work with a guy in L.A.,” says Rashid, declining to name him. “He made a lot of really bad furniture. His business was hand-to-mouth. I proposed seven or eight projects. The pieces I’ve done for him have already become iconic.” The subtitle of his monograph, I Want to Change the World, is not ironic, just characteristically immodest. “Most industrial-design studios try to interpret a client’s needs and come up with a style,” says Paul Rowan, co-founder of housewares manufacturer Umbra. “Karim has his own personal vision.” It helps that Rashid’s vision incorporates things that Rowan needs, like a design that will stack and ship easily and that creates little waste in the making. Rashid’s father was a set designer for Canadian TV who rearranged the family furniture every Sunday. So perhaps it was ordained that Karim would grow up to become one of the pioneers in non-cheesy plastic, making objects that have energy and personality but aren’t wacky. He, like many of his generation, has championed the could-only-be-designed-with-computers blob. But his is not just a blob for its own sake. His Oh Chair...

Regal and feminine, this vase was designed by Karim Rashid in 2016 and is part of an extensive collection of items crafted of mouth-blown Murano glass, with a color-block combination...

Designed by Karim Rashid as a poetic ode to glass, this centerpiece is a stunning piece of functional decor that will be an elegant centerpiece both alone and with an overflowing arr...

21st century Karim Rashid Coppa bowl transparent Murano glass various colors. Designed by Karim Rashid, Coppa is a small glass container with round, sinuous, markedly colored shapes...

This striking vase is white clay was designed by Karim Rashid in 2006 and it is part of a limited series of 349 objects. It is comprised of three geometric elements finished in solid...

Kastle large bowl, Murano glass, by Karim Rashid, 21st century. Karim Rashid has conceived for Purho a mini collection of bowls and vases characte...

21st century Karim Rashid king vase Murano glass various colors. King designed by Karim Rashid is a curvaceous vase that combine regality with visual wit. Proposed in combination wi...

21st century Karim Rashid Queen vase Murano glass various Amber base Blue Top Queen designed by Karim Rashid is a curvaceous vase that combine regality with visual wit. Proposed in c...

21st century Karim Rashid Queen vase Murano glass various colors Queen designed by Karim Rashid is a curvaceous vase that combine regality with visual wit. Proposed in combination w...

21st century Karim Rashid king vase Murano glass various colors. King designed by Karim Rashid is a curvaceous vase that combine regality with visual wit. Proposed in combination wi...

Kastle mini bowl, Murano glass, by Karim Rashid, 21st century. Karim Rashid has conceived for Purho a mini collection of bowls and vases characterized by the...

21st century Karim Rashid Queen vase Murano glass various Amber base blue top Queen designed by Karim Rashid is a curvaceous vase that combine regality with visual wit. Proposed in ...

21st century Karim Rashid centerpiece Kount large vase Murano glass various colors. Kount is composed of discrete elements, a bowl and a vase, that can combine to form a stunning ce...

Kastle vase, Murano glass, by Karim Rashid, 21st century. Karim Rashid has conceived for Purho a mini collection of bowls and vases characterized ...

This striking, geometric vase, designed by Karim Rashid, is part of a limited edition of 349 pieces. Its body in white clay consists of three elements, each featuring a different viv...

Striking "Chorus" candelabra in die-cast zinc with a matte chrome plating by Karim Rashid for Umbra, circa 2000s. Described by their designer, K...

Designed by Karim Rashid, this extra-large vase was conceived as part of a series of containers of different shapes and sizes, distinctive for their multi-faceted silhouettes that re...

This wonderful crystal glass vase designed by Karim Rashid for Nambe has deep incised and textural figure 8 lines in this heavy vase. It has dimension and texture. The top is flat cu...

21st century Karim Rashid Queen vase Murano glass various Amber base Blue Top Queen designed by Karim Rashid is a curvaceous vase that combine regality with visual wit. Proposed in c...

Handsome pair of die-cast zinc candelabra entitled chorus designed by Karim Rashid for Umbra. The pair are in fabulous pre-owned condition. They...

21st century Karim Rashid king vase Murano glass various colors. King designed by Karim Rashid is a curvaceous vase that combine regality with visual wit. Proposed in combination wi...

Kastle extra large vase, Murano glass, by Karim Rashid, 21st century. Karim Rashid has conceived for Purho a mini collection of bowls and vases characterized by their faceted, struc...