KARIM RASHID GOES SCANDI COOL
Our design houses Materia, NC and Skandiform - all part of the Kinnarps Group – have initiated a collaboration with the American Karim Rashid, one of the world’s most prolific designers with some 300 awards and work in 40 countries.
The cooperation has resulted in three unique furniture items that successfully mix Karim Rashid's colourful design with the brands’ core values.
Karim Rashid, who lives and works in New York, finds the collaboration very interesting. “Scandinavian countries respect design and it is a seamless part of their culture. When I work with various cultures I try to embrace the regional culture as well as the brand identity,” he says. “I respect every company I collaborate with and work hard to understand what they do and what they need. With Materia, NC and Skandiform I saw them producing designs that are minimal yet sensual, technological yet human, innovative yet experiential. That is also my philosophy for the physical world. Working with the strengths of each client we created three original designs that are true to my vision and their brands.”
"Part of our strategy is to work with international designers to broaden our design and reach out to a global market. Since we’ve had great success in North America in recent years, it seemed logical to cooperate with a US-based designer. We usually don’t work with the same designer for our three brands, but after meeting Karim in New York we decided to make an exception. He always aims for the unexpected, which is in line with our ambition to be innovative and creative.”
The three new products are the bar stool Kaloo by Materia, the chair Manhattan by NC and the easy chair Phaze by Skandiform. They will be shown for the first time in the UK at 100% Design in London, as part of ‘Clerkenwell Presents’ – a showcase of products from the east London design community. The products will then be on show at our showroom on Turnmill Street, EC1.
