I’ve referred to Karim Rashid before with less than total respect.  What can you think about a product designer who only wears pink and white, inspired his own action figure, and hangs a neon “Karim” sign in his shop’s window?  Now I need to backtrack.  I just saw the designer give a tour of his New York City home on a cable design show and found him immensely likable.

And immensely inventive.  Apparently he’s designed more than 3,700 products, with new batches percolating all the time.  His home looks like a stage set for “The Simpsons."  It’s lined with padded pink vinyl and furnished smartly (and exclusively) with his own products.  Gathered like this in a controlled environment, each object glows.  Rashid’s products are all of a piece.  They render everyday things in rich, pastel colors and happy, biomorphic shapes.  To call Rashid an industrial designer seems like a misnomer, because there’s no trace of industry – either of hard work or of fabrication – in his work.  It looks to a future when objects have been entirely overtaken by designs.