Interviews

Industrial design iconoclast Karim Rashid adds a collection of fans into his impressive portfolio following his latest collaboration with NSB Fan Malaysia

Key insights from Karim Rashid and Pietro Galimberti

Do you remember your very first design project?

I don’t think I became a designer. I have always been a designer. I realised my life’s mission at the age of five in London, when I went sketching churches with my father. He taught me to see. Yes, at that age, he taught me about perspective; that I could design anything and touch all aspects of our physical landscape. I remember drawing a cathedral facade and deciding I did not like the shape of the gothic windows. So I redesigned them and drew them in ovals.

When it comes to the design process, do you play by any rules?

Every project is different and so is the design process. It is my diversity that affords me the ability to crosspollinate ideas, materials, behaviours, aesthetics and languages from one typology to another. I have about 40 projects going at a time and each project perpetually inspires the next. I fill sketchbooks with concepts before my team creates 3D renderings of my ideas, as well as research materials and production processes. For me, it is imperative to start with a concept then develop a form around it.

By the way, we are excited to learn about your collaboration with NSB Fan Malaysia! Could you tell us more about the collection – its concept, purpose and inspiration.

I love the NSB collection because of the beauty of the zoomorphic language and the extreme simplicity that is evident in the structure, the form, the movement, and the language. I obviously tried to impart the motion of the spinning fans into the form of the designs. While I believe that it is important to not over-embellish in order to keep a certain truth to a product or a space, I also believe that objects and spaces need to touch our sensual side and emotions. They need to elevate a certain experience, and they need to be human. The beautiful thing about fans is that they’re very functional objects, at the same time, need to be very sculptural because they have a large presence in a room. Fan designing has been ignored for far too long, but new technology has inspired me to create forms as sensual, as human, as evocative, and as sculptural as possible – in new shapes that were before impossible.

What is the biggest lesson your career has taught you?

I have had too many failures and learned that design is a collaboration between one brand and mine. One must listen and work within that culture or nothing will go to market or get built. I realised also that we live in a complex world. There can never be a utopian singular vision. Human elements are important too, such as emotions, ease of use, technological advances, product methods, humour, meaning and a positive, energetic and proud spirit in the product. Many products have very short shelf lives because they lack all of these.