Live@ICFF, Editors’ Picks: Karim at Council

This morning, two of our editors separately filed admiring reports on a pair of new Karim Rashid pieces at the Council booth:

Could you pick this humble desk out of a police line-up? The furniture world version of the blind taste taste? If someone asked me to guess the designer of basiK, Karim Rashid–he of the swoop, the blob, the bubbles, the…wardrobe–would not make even a semi-short list of ten. And that’s a credit to his rigor as an industrial designer, and to his client, Council, the San Francisco-based company that continues to impress me with its taste, curatorial eye, and attention to detail. For basiK, which was just completed two weeks ago, Rashid rests the elegantly proportioned plywood desk atop a thin and playful steel frame. The two forms complement each other in an almost effortless way. At $1,200, this has DWR written all over it. Here’s hoping. –Martin C. Pedersen

You’d never guess that the Careem chair, by Karim Rashid, was once produced by Cappellini. Council has given the design fresh life with the less technical production processes and a new material palette. The upholstered tops still separate from the bases for stacking. The version with wood legs is especially surprising. “It looks like it could be Scandinavian,” says Derek Chen, Council’s founder. A recycled PET shell is in the works. –Kristi Cameron

Derek Chen with the stackable Careem chair