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Karim Rashid: Designer, DJ, Hotelier, Self Proclaimed World Changer

October 7, 2004 at 7:42 AM | 0 Comments

We just received some info on a new hotel in Athens Greece called Semiramis.  Unfortunately, we can't get to the hotel website right now.  Maybe it is our connection, but it appears that "visionary designer" Karim Rashid may need a lesson in web design.  

Despite the fact that we are going to wait on the hotel info, we wanted to whet you appetite for the self proclaimed "world changer" and now hotel designer, Karim Rashid.

These quotes should do the trick:

On the fact that titling a book "I want to change the world" is just a touch vain: "Now if I was Eminem and I said, 'I want to change the world', then nobody would have a problem, but, in actual fact, the artist's agenda is to change the world. A lot of the products I've designed have sold in millions, meaning that people like my work. So I don't really need to be judged by the design community."

On his now current, and upcoming hotel projects:

If I tell you that then someone is going to design and put out a hotel before me, so I won't go into all the details. But a very obvious thing is that the space around you is not just about cool furniture, or about the right colour or the right carpet. The whole physical experience will be at ease. So, for example, there will be automated things in the bathroom; lights that are controlled via voice recognition; no sharp corners anywhere."

Wouldn't it have been quicker for Karim to say "If I tell you, I'll have to kill you."  This guy is an absolute prize.  Still not sold?  Here are some fun facts about hotel designer Karim:

·   Since the millennium (the fake one in 2000 not the real one in 2001) Karim has only worn white.

·   Apparently, Karim is a DJ extraordinaire and can be hired out as such on occasion. Rashid is working on new hotels in England for MyHotel, a boutique hotel chain across the pond.

Related Stories:
·   I want to change the world [Guardian]