Karim Rashid is a leading figure in the fields of product, interior design, fashion, furniture, lighting and art. Born in Cairo, half Egyptian, half English, and raised in Canada, Karim now practices in New York. He is best known for bringing his democratic design sensibility to the masses. Designing for an impressive array of clients from Alessi to Georg Jensen, Umbra to Prada, Miyake to Method, Karim is radically changing the aesthetics of product design and the very nature of the consumer culture. To date he has had some 2000 objects put into production and has successfully entered the realm of architecture and interiors as evidenced by the design of the Morimoto restaurant in Philadelphia and Semiramis hotel in Athens which won a Sleep05 European Hotel Design Award. Karim was awarded the 2006 Honorary Doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design. Other awards include the 2005 Honorary Doctoratefrom Corcoran College, 2005 Pratt Legends Award, 2004 A.D. Dunton Alumni Award of Distinction from his alma mater, 2002 ID Magazine Annual Design Review Best of Category, and 2003 best Retail Store in the USA. His work is in the permanent collections of 14 Museums worldwide including MoMA and SFMoMA and he exhibits art in various galleries, such as Sandra Gering and Deitch Projects. Karim was an associate Professor of Industrial Design for 10 years and is now a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences globally. Karim has just published his guide to living "Design Your Self' from Regan Books, 'Digipop' a digital exploration of computer graphics (Taschen 2005), a portfolio book published by Chronicle books (2004), as well two monographs titled 'Evolution' (Universe, 2004) and 'I Want to Change the World'(Rizzoli, 2001). He edited the International Design Yearbook 18 for Calmann and King 2003 and released two CD's on boutique label, Neversto. His own exclusive shop was opened in New York in 2005.