Karim Rashid was born in 1960 in Cairo. When he was young he moved to Canada, where in 1982 he graduated in Industrial Design at Carleton University in Ottawa. He continued his design studies in Italy, with Ettore Sottsass in Naples and Milan to study Industrial Design at the Rodolfo Bonetto. Back in Toronto, Canada collaborates with KAN Industrial Designers and simultaneously founded the Babel Inc. and North Studio (1985-91).
In 1983 he opened his own business in New York that has among its clients CityBank (USA), Edra (I), Estée Lauder (USA), Fasem (I), Flos (I), George Kovacs (USA), Giorgio Armani (I), Guzzini (I), IMAX (CDN), Issey Miyake (JP), Leonardo (D), Magis (I), Maybelline (USA), Nienkamper (CDN), Pure Design (USA), Sony (USA ) Tommy Hilfiger (USA), Totem (USA), Villeroy & Boch (D), Yahoo, Yves Saint Laurent (USA), Zanotta (I), Zeritalia (I), ZERODISEGNO (I).
Present as a juror in numerous international events, he has received many awards. Among the latest awards will remember the 2001 Canadian Design Hero, the Design Effectiveness Gold Award 2001 and 1999, the Daimler Chrysler Award 1999, 1999 George Nelson Award, the Silver IDEA Award 1999, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Collab Award 1999, Brooklyn Museum of Art Designer 1998.
Karim Rashid was for ten years Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Arts in Philadelphia, he has taught at the Pratt Institute in New York, Rhode Island School of Design and the Ontario College of Art has a deep his work as a journalist on a periodic design. In 2001 he released I Want To Change The World, published by Rizzoli Universe.
Its design objects are exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Israel Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Chicago Athenaeum, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Montreal, the Toronto Design Exchange and the British Design Museum in London, the Emily Carr Museum in Vancouver, Tokyo Gas, the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, the Groningen Museum in Holland.