Kitchen delight: Gorenje designed by Karim Rashid

Our apologies for a very straightforward title, but how better to describe a collection of luxury kitchen appliances when two of our favorite names unite to produce this colorful kitchen collection, which makes your kitchen become a favorite living space in your home (if that's not yet the case).

After very successful cooperation with Ora Ïto couple of years ago (we blogged about this here) , our favorite kitchen appliances provider Gorenje has presented a Brand New Star design collection at this year’s IFA, Berlin, signed by the king of color himself, Karim Rashid.

As Gorenje puts it, Gorenje collection designed by Karim Rashid is a minimal fusion of functionality, technology, interactivity, and purity. The full length handle is both the visual and the interaction focal point of the collection.The vertical LED light stripe allows several colour versions, providing the option to adjust the appearance of the appliance to one’s current mood, or indeed one’s lifestyle.

"I have wanted to design appliances for ages. It was a great exercise in rethinking the banal. Too often we are relegated to tired archetypes. Design is about shaping contemporaneity. Design is critical to our environments, to our daily experiences, our products, our everything,” comments Karim Rashid who has designed products ranging from vacuum cleaners to furniture, children’s toys to luggage, to television, to perfume bottles, to lighting. He also designs spaces – hotels, clubs etc. and – from now on – Gorenje household appliances which, incidentally, he is using himself.

“Over the past years Gorenje has proven to be a company that has a strong interest in contemporary design. I have been following and appreciating their successful collections. When they contacted me to design the new Gorenje collection it took very little discussion to get the project started. I knew the company also because I do a lot of work in Eastern Europe and have an apartment in Belgrade with Gorenje appliances.” Check out how he re-designed traditional Majik restaurant in Belgrade.

Majik restaurant in Belgrade by Karim

Switch Restaurant by Karim

World Lounge by Karim

With additional new collections Gorenje Simplicity and Gorenje Retro (about this one some other time), effectively combining smart technology, excellent design & style, care for the environment, high quality and great value, Gorenje really does inspire. We are shure that Gorenje designed by Karim Rashid will be a success, and we are looking forward to what their future step will be.

Designer Dolls

Have you ever bought something only because it was 'designer' regardless of practicality or cost? Do you faithfully attend the various furniture fairs around the world from Milan to Shanghai? Do you have a favourite designer? Do words like Icon, Blueprint and Wallpaper mean more to you than a random string of nouns? If so, then welcome to The Cult of Design.

Sometimes we love designers more than their designs, a designer involves personality, character and presence, something which could be in some cases more peculiar or stringer than their actual work. Olivia Lee who is graduating this weeks from London's Central Saint Martin pays homage to those who might have influenced her in her school years. Design Dolls, is a limited edition set of 3 figurines of famous designers, right now featuring Zaha Hadid, Jaime Hayon and Karim Rashid.

Olivia certainly used this project as her graduating project, It came to her from the observation that increasingly today, designer personalities are quite literally become synonymous with the objects they design.

She studied the visual characteristics and distinct personalities of the designers as well as their products, and wondered what would happen if she merged these two entities together.

What would happen if the designer became a product? How would that differ from the designer being closely associated with the product? Would the designers appreciate such a project? And what implications would their varied reactions have in relation to the culture of design?

*In her own words:
The project started of as quite an introspective one and was born when I realised that I had a very well-organised collection of brochures and material from design festivals, I had massive collection of photographs of pure furniture and I faithfully attended design lectures as well as I could. I started to wonder if maybe I was a little weird, obsessive and if other people like me existed.

The process involved carefully studying the aesthetics of the designer’s work as well as their public persona. What is interesting is that without having to consult them, I only needed a search engine and the College library to do my research which goes to show how accessible their personalities and work are.


The most challenging aspect of executing these figures was finding the right balance between the figurative caricature of the designers and the references to their objects. But it was also very fun finding the links, for example between Zaha Hadid’s FLOW vases and her love for weary Issey Miyake coats and black dresses.