The three Swedish furniture brands Materia, NC and Skandiform initiated a collaboration with the American designer Karim Rashid in 2016. The cooperation has now resulted in three unique furniture items that successfully mix Karim Rashid’s colourful design with the brands’ core values.

“Part of our strategy is to work with international designers to broaden our design and reach out to a global market. Since we’ve had great success in North America in recent years, it seemed logical to cooperate with a US-based designer,” says Thomas Johannesson, CEO of Materia, NC and Skandiform.

”We usually don’t work with the same designer for our three brands, but after meeting Karim in New York we decided to make an exception. He always aims for the unexpected, which is in line with our ambition to be innovative and creative.”

Karim Rashid, who lives and works in New York, finds the collaboration very interesting:

“Scandinavian countries respect design and it is a seamless part of their culture. When I work with various cultures I try to embrace the regional culture as well as the brand identity,” he says. “I respect every company I collaborate with and work hard to understand what they do and what they need. With Materia, NC and Skandiform I saw them producing designs that are minimal yet sensual, technological yet human, innovative yet experiential. That is also my philosophy for the physical world. Working with the strengths of each client we created three original designs that are true to my vision and their brands.”

The three new products are the bar stool Kaloo by Materia, the chair Manhattan by NC and the easy chair Phaze by Skandiform.

NC

NC designs and manufactures furniture that combine playful and modern design with attention to function and aesthetics as well as the environment and mankind. The products are primarily designed for healthcare environments as well as cafés, restaurants and public meeting areas.

Materia

Materia is one of Scandinavia’s most acclaimed brands in design furniture for public areas. The brand is known for innovative design that makes the user’s everyday life easier.

Skandiform

Skandiform is one of Scandinavia’s leading suppliers of furniture for businesses and inspiring public areas. Minimalistic, safe and modern products are created based on the Scandinavian Sense concept. Furniture that provide character and harmony to spaces where people meet.

about Karim Rachid

Karim Rashid is one of the most prolific and colourful designers of his generation. Over 3,000 designs in production, over 300 awards and working in over 40 countries attest to Karim’s legend of design. His renowned work includes products designed for some of the world’s most prominent brands, such as Christofle, Veuve Clicquot, Alessi, Umbra, Bobble, 3M, Samsung, Asus, Kenzo and Hugo Boss. Karim exhibits art in galleries worldwide and is a winner of the Red Dot Award, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, I. D. Magazine Annual Design Review and IDSA Industrial Design Excellence Award.

images

For high resolution images please contact Malin Hansson, Marketing Manager at NC Nordic Care.