Internationally acclaimed designer, Karim Rashid will be the star attraction at the inaugural ‘Seven Star Conference’ at The Hotel Show, the leading supplies exhibition for the Middle East's burgeoning hospitality and leisure sectors which takes place at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre (DIEC) on 4-6 June 2006.
New York-based Rashid, who is a leading figure in the fields of product and interior design, fashion, furniture, lighting and art, is best known for bringing his minimalist, high design aesthetics to a mass audience.
Maggie Moore, Exhibition Director, The Hotel Show, said, “At the seminar, Rashid will share his vision for design values in ‘the beautiful shrinking world,’ a concept that truly inspires him, as it affords everybody the chance to be motivated by each and every culture, everywhere and at anytime.”
Karim is no stranger to the realm of architectural and interior design, he was responsible for the design of the Morimoto Restaurant in Philadelphia and was honored with a Sleep05 European Hotel Design Award for his work on the iconic Semiramis Hotel in Athens.
To date Karim has had over two thousand designs put into production and has an enviable list of clients which include Swarovski, Umbra, Prada, Miyake and Method, to name but a few. His work is on permanent display in 14 museums and he exhibits art in various galleries worldwide. Celebrities such as Prince, Kevin Spacey, Missy Elliot, David Lynch and Moby are all proud owners of Karim’s creative work.
“Dubai is an amazing place with so much potential and there are some incredible projects. But most of the design is steeped in very, very old ideas of luxury and luxury has changed, it’s not what it used to be, design must enrich our lives,” claimed Karim.
Apart from speaking at the conference, Karim will also be helping to promote a joint initiative with the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP) which will showcase thirty of his designs, under the brand name ‘Karimanila’.
Awarded an honorary Doctorate from the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington DC, Rashid has been recognised for radically changing the aesthetics of consumer product design and the very nature of the consumer culture in which we live today. In total he has won more than fifty international awards including, 2002 International Interior Design Star Award, 2002 Industrial Design Excellence Awards and Brooklyn Museum of Art Designer Award 1998.
He has also recently published ‘Digipop’ a book which showcases Rashid’s colorful, geometrical patterns both as simple designs and as applied to three-dimensional objects such as clothing, figures, and abstract shapes.
Brand ‘Karim Rashid’ now generates US$140 million annually in the USA alone!
Other topics on the agenda at the ‘Seven Star Conference’ include customer service and loyalty, restaurant concepts, market trends and security. A high quality speaker faculty has also been assembled from regional and international industry experts.
