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Karim Rashid to Mayor Miller: Where Are You?

Posted by Tim / November 10, 2007

9 Comments

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A huge crowd showed up last night for Karim Rashid's free lecture at OCAD. I was among the late-arriving 200 or so who were relegated to the overflow room to watch it on TV. Overall, Rashid was funny, engaging and inspiring but things really got interesting when the subject of Toronto design came up.

It turns out a short while ago Rashid was in Cologne for a similar lecture and the mayor of that city showed up, gave a speech and announced Cologne would be creating a new position for a Minister of Design. Flash forward to last night. Where's the mayor? Where's the city of Toronto's commitment to design?

It's hard to fault Rashid for being a little bitter. Here we have one of the most sought after and accomplished industrial designers in the world, and in his own back yard he's basically ignored by those who hold the power and the purse strings.

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Paul / November 10, 2007 at 02:41 pm
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If Karim Rashid becomes a symbol/key player in how Toronto design develops, I truly fear for the future of our city. Ya, Toronto needs to take a far more ambitious look at what design can do to serve the city's future... but let's aim a little higher (and FAR more sustainable) than the creator of Umbra's "Garbo" garbage can...
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nate archer / November 10, 2007 at 03:11 pm
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i have to agree with paul, there may be a reason why the mayor wasn't attending a lecture by someone who has made no positive contribution to the world of design. yes he is famous but for all the wrong reasons. paul hit it on the head "let's aim a little higher"
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Greg J. Smith / November 10, 2007 at 04:51 pm
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<blockquote>but let's aim a little higher (and FAR more sustainable) than the creator of Umbra's "Garbo" garbage can...</blockquote>
<p>Like the superbuild initiative? Toronto's design identity problems extend far beyond sustainable/not sustainable.</p>
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Steven. / November 10, 2007 at 06:59 pm
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If you think that's bad, at least you didn't go to the schmoozefest (or was it snoozefest?) at Umbra after Rashid's lecture.
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Joe Clark / November 10, 2007 at 07:54 pm
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If anything, we need to rescue the concept of and the very word ?design? from popinjay New Yorkers like Rashid.

A much more credible model is that of Manchester, which had appointed Peter Saville as creative director for the city.
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Markus / November 11, 2007 at 10:46 am
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Aww boo hoo. Rashid got snippy because local government wasn't there to shake his hand and smile at his jokes.

I wouldn't have wasted my time on his "FREE" lecture either.
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Habibi habubu / November 11, 2007 at 12:46 pm
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Hmmm, well Wikipedia says he has had "some 2000 objects" put into production and "his work is in the permanent collections of fourteen museums worldwide".
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beth maher / November 11, 2007 at 02:53 pm
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Toronto's a big city. It's also the media hub for an entire country. It's not exactly like the Mayor can go schmooze with every celebrity that deigns to come here (even those that are somewhat local). To suggest otherwise is silly, and blatantly narcisistic.

Mayor Miller's got other, much more pressing concerns, like making sure the city doesn't go bankrupt.

Also, OCAD's celebrity ass-kissing is definitely on my list of the top ten reasons I got the hell out of that school.

Good schools don't need to suck up to celbutards.
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rek / November 12, 2007 at 12:52 am
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I was also stuck in the overflow gallery, watching on the hissing monitor, stuck standing behind some students who refused to sit while taking their notes (not 10 feet from the TV). While I agree with and can appreciate much of Rashid's attitude and approach to design, he's definitely not designing with sustainability in mind, or affordability for many, and many of his 'objects' can quite easily be placed in the design-for-design's-sake category he criticized early into his lecture. He was quite defensive when it came to criticism of plastic and polymer use in design, but then marvelled at how things are being designed with a de facto lifespan measured in months or a few years -- so where are your cardboard and bamboo blobjects, Karim? Hypocrisy indeed.

Toronto does need someone at the helm with strong current and populist ideas for the design of the city, though.
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