Yesterday I attended the furniture launch of ‘The Ottawa Collection’ by designer Karim Rashid at BoConcept www.boconcept.ca. BoConcept is Denmark’s leading global retail furniture chain and design brand with 250 stores located in 54 countries around the world. Catering to the urban-minded shopper, BoConcept offers very functional modern designs. Karim Rashid, considered one of the most prolific designers of his generation, has to date over 3000 objects in production and works featured in 200 permanent collections in over 35 countries. With the recent collaboration, Karim Rashid has designed a complete dining collection from cups and lamps, to dining tables and chairs for BoConcept. Karim shared with us yesterday that this collection is the “fingerprint of him”; about going back to his roots when he graduated 30 years ago from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada where he received his Bachelor Degree in Industrial Design. At the start of his relationship with BoConcept, Karim visited Denmark many times and found that there was a similar feeling, a similar climate to that of Ottawa. So in paying homage to his 30 years in design and drawing inspiration from the landscape of Ottawa and Denmark the Ottawa Collection was born. Many of the pieces in the collection are inspired by nature. The Ottawa Chair is leaf-shaped with a forest of legs. The collection is also about being very practical and extremely functional. The Ottawa table is extendable and can be easily expanded by one person to seat up to 14 people. I thought this engineering feat was brilliant. Taking his inspiration one step further, Karim explained that the Fingerprint Rug is literally his own fingerprint! Karim answered many of our questions; the process of designing the collection, the time it takes to get an idea into production, his journey with the collection. It was a great event and along with a ‘swag bag’ what I took away that really resonated with me was Karim’s words, “design is about being honest”.
Karim Rashid and The Ottawa Collection
Karim Rashid and Modmissy
MODMISSY 
Hi BoConcept Chicago here! We loved you’re blog about the Ottawa Collection and we’d like to hear more of you’re thoughts on our other designs and we’d be happy to link you’re blog from our facebook, G+ and twitter which have over thousands of links and will really help your traffic!
Thanks. I loved your store. I am a huge fan of mid-century design classics and your store has the best present day representation. It will now be my go-to furniture store for clients and myself.