VMSD - August 2014 - (Page 76)

CO CHECKING OUT Interview by Lauren Mang Karim Rashid Known for his use of bold color and avant-garde shapes, the famed industrial designer and interior architect (and keynote speaker at IRDC) talks success and accessible design. How did you earn your first dollar? I was a DJ in the late 70s and 80s to pay my way through universities. What would you do if you weren't in design? When I was a child I wanted to be a mathematician, but now I would consider being a musician, a motivational speaker or a stand-up comic. But you did become a designer. Why? It's a beautiful occupation - to design things people have daily relationships with. That's a big challenge, to create something that, although accessible to all, touches people's lives and gives them an elevated experience, pleasure and is original. So what inspires you? Human social behavior, technology and our digital age, and the unfamiliar, like lost local places ... anything that's new to my senses, unusual or odd inspires me. What's the best advice you've received? As an undergraduate studying in Italy, architect and designer Ettore Sottsass taught me not to be too much of an artist in order to be a great designer. What's the best invitation you've ever received? To have lunch with Oscar Niemeyer in 2011, one year before he died at the age of 105. While I was doing business in São Paulo, I contacted his office. They replied and I flew to Rio just for the day to have lunch and visit the Niteroi Museum. And the worst? I was full-time professor at the Rhode Island School of Design for a few years [and] I was going to quit the design profession in 1992 when I was fired. I was told I [should teach] philosophy and theory, not design. That was terrible advice! Lost, I decided to go to New York and start my own design office. Now, I have a global office ... and I've worked the last 20 years with more than 500 companies. Name three retail stores you love to visit for the design. The Prada store in Tokyo by Herzog and de Meuron, specifically the custom convex diamond glass: the views, the distortions, the overwhelming heightened visual experience; Selfridges in Birmingham, England; United Nude in SoHo, which has a great store to match the high design of its shoes. You're speaking at IRDC in September. What should attendees take away from your talk? A glimpse of how our public environments can exude positive energy, heightened experiences. Contemporary design is shifting into a new language based on comfort that's an extension of the new age of "casualism" and of the digital age, where we have greater experiences with less. Retail environments must compete with our ethereal, experiential digital age or they will no longer exist.x 76 AUGUST 2014 | vmsd.com COURTESY OF KARIM RASHID, NEW YORK Lunch in Rio http://www.vmsd.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of VMSD - August 2014

Vmsd - August 2014
Contents
Retail Revolution
The High Sign
Special Report: Digital Retail Design
Miami Modern
From the Editor
Vmsd Editorial Advisory Board
The Goods
Design Detail
Showroom
Ad Index
Checking Out

VMSD - August 2014