Dubbed the "most famous industrial designer in all the Americas" by Time Magazine, designer Karim Rashid has created more than 4,000 products throughout his career, winning over 300 of the most prestigious awards in the field of interior design and architecture. I wanted to showcase his design philosophy, in addition to his brilliance in being able to create such a vast quantity of works. I created a design system consisting of an informational poster, booklet, and video introducing someone to Karim Rashid.
By illustrating these colorful, rounded forms, I sought to capture his distinct style without explicitly showing his designs. Each shape is a representation of a work that he has produced. Rashid’s works are soft, comforting, and blobular, and I wanted to invoke these qualities in my poster. At the center is a quote by Rashid, which is disrupted by a snaking text briefly describing his biography.
Whereas the poster is a brief glimpse into the style that Rashid is known for, the booklet is a deeper dive into his works, his processes, and his ideas and ideals that drive him to create. Rashid's work is vast, yet they are distinctly identifiable, characterized by soft edges, bright colors, and rounded forms. Rashid himself is a confident and bold man, with a clear idea of what he wants to do with his life. I wanted to convey this sense of confidence through the bright colors, the countless depictions of his work, and the bold and recognizable typeface (Futura). The center spread expands outwards into a six page display of Rashid's face engulfing many of his works. It is 20 pages long, with 7 spreads.
The animation is centered around a narration of his design philosophies, highlighting his inspiration that draws from the human body, which is naturally soft and organic. The animation style is fluid, with shapes morphing into bodies and bodies dissolving into liquid, using the loud colors Rashid is known for. This was my favorite part of this project, as I felt like I had greater control over the the content, and all of the visuals were created by myself.
