Karim Rashid

Perhaps because he broke his toe on one, Karim Rashid derides coffee tables as useless chunks of history. The radical industrial designer, who has developed a few thousand products for Toyota, Target and other corporate giants, says we need to toss them out, along with old-fashioned notions that our lives are better with such things as traditional walls and storage space. "Comfort is not a style but a performance issue," he says.

Almost anyone can claim to be an expert on almost anything these days. Karim Rashid, 46, an industrial designer of great talent and fame, has apparently taken it to the max. He's gone from designing iconic furniture and other familiar household stuff to designing lives.

Almost anyone can claim to be an expert on almost anything these days. Karim Rashid, 46, an industrial designer of great talent and fame, has apparently taken it to the max. He's gone from designing iconic furniture and other familiar household stuff to designing lives.

Perhaps because he broke his toe on one, Karim Rashid derides coffee tables as useless chunks of history. The radical industrial designer, who has developed a few thousand products for Toyota, Target and other corporate giants, says we need to toss them out, along with old-fashioned notions that our lives are better with such things as traditional walls and storage space. "Comfort is not a style but a performance issue," he says.

This slim, square and exceedingly hip hardcover volume is the 10th entry in Chronicle's "Compact Design Portfolio" series, which is clearly taking a run at the market established by Taschen's wildly successful Icons Series of paperbacks.

NEW YORK--In an age of instant messaging and virtual reality, many fashion designers are still living in the past. Between Marc Jacobs' 1950s coats, Diane von Furstenberg's Sandra Dee dance skirts and Zac Posen's 1940s pinup dresses, few shows here this week did anything to break fashion's nostalgic spell.

What's happening the next few weeks: * "Designing the Future: 3 Directions for the New Millennium," a show featuring the work of Jonathan Ive, vice president of industrial design for Apple Computers; Maya Lin, the architect who designed the Vietnam War Memorial; and Karim Rashid, a furniture and fashion designer, runs Nov. 17-March 26. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesday evenings until 8:45. $8; $5 students and seniors.

Every humble object in this book has won design awards, some are in the collections of major museums -- and most will bring a smile when you look at them because they're so darn cute. From Michael Graves' iconic teapot with a little bird that whistles ($135) to Karim Rashid's plastic, torso-shaped wastebasket called the Garbo ($12), every item here is the product of a great design mind.

When the L.A. design firm Commune shared photos of its new pop-up in Japan -- a traveling shop and cafe featuring collaborations with Heath Ceramics and"Beginners" director and artist Mike Mills, among others -- what initially caught our eye weren't Mills' limited-edition prints, which are great, but rather a series of fingerprint graphics lining one wall. It turns out the prints in question belong to the thumb of Bauhaus artist Herbert Bayer. Commune uses the thumbprint as a maker's mark, its signature "for anything we do that is handcrafted," Roman Alonso, a partner in the firm, said via email in response to our inquiry.

Gear up to get organized as the Container Store -- the original hold-everything emporium -- opens its first L.A. store this weekend at Fair Oaks Avenue and Union Street in Old Town Pasadena.

This slim, square and exceedingly hip hardcover volume is the 10th entry in Chronicle's "Compact Design Portfolio" series, which is clearly taking a run at the market established by Taschen's wildly successful Icons Series of paperbacks.

NEW YORK--In an age of instant messaging and virtual reality, many fashion designers are still living in the past. Between Marc Jacobs' 1950s coats, Diane von Furstenberg's Sandra Dee dance skirts and Zac Posen's 1940s pinup dresses, few shows here this week did anything to break fashion's nostalgic spell.

Put away the quarters and funnels and break out the crystal. Big spenders sip and swish rather than gulp and chug. And their bar accouterments are as swanky as their spirits. New on the shelves: $2,000 For its 130th anniversary, Veuve Clicquot is kicking its champagne up a notch. Only 3,600 bottles of this limited edition Yellowboam bubbly have been created. These labels are made of exotic leathers -- ostrich and alligator.

Most game manufacturers play by a simple rule: Make it cheap and cheerful. And for a few generations, that worked just fine. Then came video games, and let's be honest. When was the last time you even thought about the Scrabble set or checkerboard stowed away in the closet? Now, however, classic board games such as backgammon and dominoes are making a stylish comeback, not just as playthings but as art objects worthy of a permanent place on the table.