Design Your Self: Rethinking the Way You Live, Love, Work, and Play

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.

Library Journal

Innovative industrial designer Rashid (Karim Rashid: Evolution) has designed buildings and interiors as well as a variety of packaging and consumer goods for companies like Prada and Umbra. His blob-shaped, pastel-colored, futuristic utilitarian designs-intended to be pleasurable, multifunctional, and recyclable-have been featured in permanent museum collections. In this foray into the self-help genre, Rashid explores his sometimes conflicting (e.g., addition by subtraction), sometimes commonsense (e.g., getting rid of the unnecessary) principles for living, covering such wide topics as workplace design, inspiration, fitness, travel, beauty, and death. Some of these principles may be hard to implement if you do not share Rashid's individualistic philosophy of participating fully in the present, embracing technology, and moving on when an item or idea has lost its impact. Graphics and layout (including his own "karimalogos," which tab-index the four primary sections-"Live," "Love," "Work," and "Play") reinforce his principles but may be distracting for many readers. This book will appeal to artists and those interested in contemporary design. Recommended for large public libraries.-Lucille M. Boone, San Jose P.L., CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.