Boutique Designers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Boutique Designers - Essay Example "Charles Eames was the first architect to be totally at home with technology. He used technology with an artist's flair", particularly, he with wife Ray Eames 'developed a new method to bend plywood into complex curves over three geometric lanes" (Dezine Holdings Ltd). From 1900-1909, the name Charless Rennie Mackintosh, Josef Hoffman and Frank Lloyd Wright have surfaced with the introduction of Ingram Chair, Hill House Chair and Willow Chair (Dezine Holdings Ltd). In the middle of the century, notable designers like "Eameses, Gio Ponti, Harry Bertoia, Arne Jaconsen and Eero Saarinen led the way in the modernist organic style" as the public went for "warmer and softer furnitures, organic forms, warmer products like timber and upholstered chairs" (Dezine Holdings Ltd). In the 70's to 80's, industrialization has brought forth changes in designers' thoughts. Particularly, "the industrial style or Hi Tech movement developed" and there were great advances in "office furniture and equipment" (Dezine Holdings Ltd). At the closing of the century, the designers pursued "meaning and purpose for their furniture designs" with the exploration of some strange and unusual forms such as the W.W Stool by Phillip Starck (Dezine Holdings Ltd). Karim Rashid is one of the sought-after and bankable interior designers of the modern generation. A half English and half Egyptian, Karim Rashid "was born into an art family" with his father an abstract painter, his brother Hany Rashid "a computer-based organic architecture" and his sister a musician (http://www.rashidglobal.net). It was his father that them art and design (http://www.rashidglobal.net). Rashid, therefore has a strong art influence. "Karim Rashid pursued graduate design studies in Naples, Italy, with ettore sottsass and others, then moved to Milan for one year at the Rodolfo Bonetto studio" (Designboom). He went solo in 1993 and opened his design practice in New York. It is in New York where he designs products for companies such as namb, issey miyake, pure design, fasem, guzzini, tommy hilfiger, sony, zanotta, citibank, and others" (Designboom). Rashid's works were highly praised by Design Awards Bodies. In 2007, he won the title for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards Product Design Finalist, "in 2006 with an Honorary Doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design, in 2005 with an Honorary Doctorate from Corcoran College, the Sleep05 European Hotel Design Award, and the 2005 Pratt Legends Award. Karim has also won the prestigious I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review, Red Dot Design Award, and Chicago Athaneum Good Design Award numerous times throughout his career" (http://www.rashidglobal.net). Because of his modern and innovative designs, he holds an associate professorial position and is a "frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences" on industrial design (http://www.rashidglobal.net). Concepts and Works Rashid boasts of "over 3000 designs in production, over 300 awards and working in over 35 countries" (Karim Rashid Inc.) "Like an omnipresent vibrant spirit, he creates and utilizes a global feeling. He is an example of synchronicity in permanent movement. In him, work and person meld, inseparably subjective, manically productive and sensitive" (Karim Rashid I