New York Trip Left Designer in Pink

When Karim Rashid was in London recently to give a lecture and receive a European award for hotel design, he found himself in Piccadilly Circus.

The half-English, half-Egyptian interior and product designer realised he was close to the basement apartment where he grew up and first started to draw.

Rashid's father was an artist and was looking for a job designing sets for television.

In the interim he worked as a security guard to support his family and would return home early in the morning to have breakfast with Rashid and take him sketching.

When his father got a job as a set designer in Canada, Rashid's family had to move to Toronto.

On board the QE2, Rashid sketched luggage and won a drawing competition.

He also started sketching his English mother's shoes, watches and other belongings, something he had seen his father do.

At the age of seven he started using a sewing machine after watching his father design and make dresses for his mother.

Although Rashid liked to draw, he did not know what to study at university - architecture, fashion or fine arts.

He chose design and became a Bachelor of Industrial Design in 1982 at Carleton University in Ottawa. Then he pursued graduate design studies in Naples.

Rashid paid his way through university by working as a DJ in clubs in the evening.