Whoops Karim Rashid does it again!

New York is undeniably the cultural epicenter of the US. It is no wonder then, that the rest of the country, and the world for that matter look to us for design inspiration. Bring in Karim Rashid, Cairo born, Canadian raised and only in New York for a little over a decade or so to show us how it's done... When will he ever slow down? For someone who travels over 200 days a year, counts Prada, Sony and Issey Miyake among his many clients it is a wonder he has time for much more than his chosen vocation of Industrial Design. Well take this month alone, Mr. "I Want to Change the World" has single handedly literally changed the face of the Chelsea neighborhood where his studio resides... having just returned from visiting his recently completed hotel project in Athens (Greece not Georgia) to drop by for the opening of his new shop - Karim - at 137 West 19th Street in Chelsea, the jet-setter intoned that Americans just don't have enough access to good design. As a designer with over 500 products currently in production it made sense to put them all together in one big giant orgy of Karim productalia... from pens to chairs, clocks to games, you will find it all here...the sales staff is even dressed in Karim designed uniforms...and if that is not enough - after your shopping spree go around the corner for some great food at Nooch - a Karim designed restaurant at 17th Street and Eighth Ave. If you still haven't had your fill of Mr. Rashids visual vocabulary, check out an exhibition of Karim's One-Off Prototypes 1988 - 1998, at the Sandra Gering Gallery, 534 West 22nd Street, where you can see how it all started. The exhibition opens October 30, 2004 and runs until December 4th.