We might as well. Did you see the review of his work in ID magazine. He got absolutely trashed.
Most of us have been saying these things for years. It’s funny that more people are starting to get a clue.
I read a recent interview where he said (and I quote):
“I hate nature.”
Finally somebody takes a stand against nature! Its about time we stood up to that mother!
hey can someone post Karim’s letter to ID magazine in defense of his desing that was pusblished recently. I can’t find ID magazine anywhere near my time zone. thanks.
Guess you can you post a scan in here. I’m not very up to date with how this works. But I like keeping the typing muscles toned so here it is:
"Thanks to Tony Whitfield for the really nice critical spread on my copco products (Jan/Feb 2004, p. 101). I am a real believer that you can tear anything apart and that ciricism in this field has been negligent, so it is great to see a vivacious response. But rather than get obsessively myopic about function, Tony should have found out why everybody seems to love the line and why so many have described it as pleasurable. What does pleasue in objects mean? That beauty and function are seamless.
Sadly, design criticism is still steeped in banal arguments about pragmatics. What happened to the theoretical discourse about our product landscape-about how objects fit into our milieu, our context, our new social and aesthetic world? What about the need for high design at accessible price points, which was one of the agendas of this collection? (I love copco for taking a typically European risk to engage design fully-there are so few American companies willing to incorporate poetics in everyday objects.) Is ID some engineering newsletter, or a forum for intellectual exchange?
Problem solving is the easy part. The 21st century is about a new energy of material and immaterial, of formlessness and form, of transparency and color. Objects smell, taste, breathe, touch, and participate in our experiences. This is the world I want to participate in-be it physical or dialectical. Ideally, it could be both.
Karim Rashid
New York, NY"
Basically he’s saying “Who cares if it works or not, doesn’t it look cool?”
The guy is an absolute moron, he designs like a teenager.
You know Karim, it is possible ot design an object that functions well and is beautiful. You’re just not talented enough.
Well, he’s right. Who cares if (object) works if (object) looks like shit?
Unbelievable. That’s one of the dubest things I’ve heard in a long time.
How interesting…
Ever since I turned my direction into ID, I had heard many bad thngs about Stark and Karim Rashid.
Personally I didn’t study so much about Karim, but I saw his bios, books and works.
The question is -What is ID?
Is it Art as Design, and What is design? Is it Design as Beauty and functionality, or does/can it be included designer’s expression? If so how much is allowed? Is too much expression high design or low design? What is high and what is low? Karim are you High? How high? You think he is low? How low and why? Or does it become Fine Art, or you think Art is boundary less?
What if Karim named his design studio something else-less egoism and carefree in his fame? Karim Rashid . I like his designs personally. Not all of them but many of them. I wish I have fame and money as Karim. I like his objects simply because it is beautiful to look at but at the sametime I can afford many of them, and I don’t think I want them in my small apartment.
Am I shallow? And you are not? What is Shallowness in material world?
Why do we need designed materials? Simply because of comfort and affortability?
The answer will be my long-term study while in school, and I believe I will learn many things from two sides.
Beauty vs Functionality?
Same or different? Can be 50% 50%? If it becomes 50%-50% will I earn points in IDSA?
Design is Gorgon. It has many heads on big giant head. maybe its good because it has many heads so it can look into different directions. But what is that giant head? Is it our ego? economy? spaces we are living in or is it our Time?
You better spit fire after you know what fire does. It might burn yourself as well as Karim.
vanwinkle, you’re absolutely right. It’s retarded. But I think it’s true. How else can you explain half the cruddy garbage people buy?
I am defending Rashid because he has a very important point. Your product may solve its problem better than all the products that came before it, it may be built like a tank, however, if it is ugly ugly ugly and makes no emotional connection with the end user, no one will choose it when given a choice. Conversely, a lot of stuff that doesn’t work very well, but looks really cool, sells like crazy. This is just a fact of the market. Meaning, it doesn’t matter how good your idea is, how strong your solution, if the presentation sucks.
hey karim, marc newson called he wants his furniture back
Hellfisher, I’m not disagreeing with that part of the argument. Of course appearance matters a huge amount when buying a product. But it’s almost as if Karim is arguing that you have choose between function and form. A great design is something which adresses both of these things.
Choosing to design an object without really caring about it’s function is lazy and dishonest. The idea that this asswipe is the most visible voice of industrial deisgn in America really disturbs me. Every time I pick up a design magazine I see his face with some stupid sound bite quote that these journalists seem to love, yet we never hear from a real talent like Jonathan Ives.
Can’t demolish the arrogant MOFCKR, he’s just too media-savvy and you people just can’t stand it. Skin sells, sex sells and KR is just putting this to good use, i.e selling his skin-deep “design” to the stupid, vapid, flaky design media looking for profitable flash and plastic glitz.
What do you think makes design magazines sell? Intelligent, responsible products that really solve practical needs? HELLLOOO? ANYBODY THERE?
If 95% of the general population is gullible enough to go on the Atkins “diet” decades after the book was published, how do you expect them to be more discerning when selecting the objects in their lives?
KR and his ilk have done more damage to design than all corporate greed combined, it will take many more decades to undo and pull professional product design from the shithole KR and other design cartoonists have dragged it into for their personal purpose.
Slowly, buyers themselves are coming to realize they’ve been duped by cheap product decoration and will stop supporting the excessive lifestyles of these self-made design gurus filled with hot air. Problem is, there may not be too many real design jobs left to be filled after that…