I've decided that a nutty three year old girl lives within Karim Rashid's colorful candy shell. Her name is Karina, and she likes to assert her tyrannical childishness by forcing him to indulge in attention seeking acts of blobby decorating, while using all the colors of the crayola rainbow. I can imagine it must be a PR nightmare trying to keep both halves of a schizophrenic designer together during photoshoots... does Karina pull at Karim's glasses and demand apple juice and Dora the Explorer?
Dear Karim, the pink Converse shoes Karina picked out for you are rather natty, but I'm concerned about those Alexander Girard tattoos... Oh wait, those are "your" designs. I think you have only yourself to blame for that judgment call. On the other hand, I'm kind of liking what she did with your extra special Fisher Price weekend house.
She's a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world.
Kid friendly leather, soft rounded edges, and a magic marked up carpet, all suggest Karina's tiny helping hands. But what's up with the big red question? A plea for recognition, perhaps? A subliminal stamp on the room?
Toys and tvs in the bathroom -- a kid definitely designed this place. Plus, it's looking a lot like Yo Gabba Gabba up in this hizzy. You be the judge:
Can you even tell which one is the cartoon, and which is the house? I didn't think so.
Still, there are a few signs of adult life in this home. I'm sure this followed a major Karim/Karina showdown, wherein Karina whined for 678459 hours straight, and Karim plugged his ears and belted out some Moby tunes, which would undoubtedly destroy any child's will to power.
And then Little K let Big K have a grown up(ish) office space.
And also this artwork that keeps threatening to reveal some very adult information... or maybe that's just me.
I'm not sure which K is responsible for the world's most amazing diving board, or these glorious windows, so I guess I'll have to award both a shiny gold star.
I suppose K squared make a pretty good team, all things considered. The both share a love of dress up, and you know they like to get together and talk about Me Me Me. I'm really not sure why Karim doesn't just embrace his inner Karina, and shout it from the rooftops that he loves having a little girl inside him... Well, maybe not in exactly those words.
Dude, you're not fooling anyone.
(all photographs by Richard Powers)