Design Your Self: Rethinking the Way You Live, Love, Work, and Play by Karim Rashid (Boek)

*****
Celebrated industrial designer Karim Rashid explains how to optimize all areas of life, aesthetic and spiritual, in this colorful, beautifully designed book.

Design wonderkind Karim Rashid, whose projects range from the Trump Towers apartments to Lacoste sportswear to the ubiquitous Umbra garbage can, prescribes an organizational and style overhaul in Design Your Life. In short, sharp chapters, he tackles topics as diverse as the wardrobe, office space, love life, and diet, answering perplexing questions like how to properly pack a suitcase, use colors to accent a room, and carve out free time in a busy schedule. Whether the reader is looking to redesign his physical space or spiritual life, Design Your Life offers comprehensive guidance that is straightforward and easy to follow.

Rashid's philosophies center on quality over quantity, space over clutter, clarity over complexity, and a marriage of form and function in every design. With each page in vibrant color and packed with his charming artwork and sketches, Design Your Life is an ideal gift book–and the very embodiment of Rashid's functional style.

From Publishers Weekly
Designer and writer Rashid (I Want to Change the World; Evolution) weighs in on everything from redecorating and socializing to fitness, work and sex, all of which, he says, should be performed with flair and passion. Two themes dominate his philosophy on living: "less is more" and "do it with color." In decorating an apartment, then, Karim urges readers to use bright colors to "imbue the space with a plethora of positive energy," "put all your chargers in one place-with one surge protector" and follow his "no bookshelves" rule. His rules for work are similar-ditch the business card and "just tell people your email address." Women are encouraged to "wear white all year long," while short men should "wear flat-front pants, with a slight flare." When it comes to the bedroom, Rashid encourages readers to do it anywhere and everywhere else, and, by all means, use toys. (Conveniently, Rashid designs a line of upmarket erotic appliances.) The book's design is bright and brisk, making for an exciting read, though the range of subjects he addresses can make the book feel too scattered; the seven pages Rashid dedicates to death, though conveniently placed before his chapter on work, are superfluous. ("Why can't someone order a casket from Gucci or Prada?") Readers who are ready for the next generation of self help books will enjoy this volume.
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About the Author
Karim Rashid is an industrial designer whose clients include Prada, Nambe, Issey Miyake, Mikasa, Shiseido, Giorgio Armani, and Yahoo, among many others. With a career that began at age nineteen, Rashid is now the creator of more than two thousand designs, many of them award-winning. His commercial success has been mirrored by critical acclaim; his works are in the permanent collections of fourteen museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts. His designs are available at the Karim Rashid Shop at 137 West 19th Street in New York City.

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