A good idea, a timeless design

n a consumer world of bountiful goods of more or less equal functionality, a well-designed item can stand out.

Karim Rashid recalls that when he knocked on dozens of U.S. corporate doors in the early 1990s, none bought his theories about the power of good design -- or his designs -- until '96. That's when he created a curvy translucent plastic wastebasket called the Garbo, for the firm Umbra.

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