Thought becomes form

3D printing is a method we use often at my studio. Using CAD programs and our in-house 3D printer, a prototype is available instantly. Thought becomes form.

To realize and shape an object in 3D space allows me to experience and interact with a product and revise as needed. It is indicative of the rapid prototyping across the design industry. An object is created in the moment, and its evolutionary process is guided seamlessly.

Objects now are inspired by digital space and its vernacular. Many new forms have never been possible to make before the development of CAD programs and new modes of manufacturing. A few of my design projects come to mind, each representing the transitional phase of design we inhabit.

Woopy armchairs made for B-LINE by Karim Rashid.

The Woopy armchair, made for B-LINE, is one solid, sensual piece of roto-molded plastic. The Solium lamp, made for Artemide, is similarly a flowing, curvaceous single shape. Today, digital technology can add emotion and meaning to the flat dull world that modernism shaped.

Let's not forget that the world we live in now was completely designed in 2D. I grew up in that world using a T-square, triangles and other obsolete design tools. Hence our built environments are a result of designing in 2D. Our world is mostly Cartesian, with grids controlling our lives.

Credit cards are rectangular to fit into the 1.6 million ATM machines in the world. When I designed credit cards for Citi bank I desperately tried to change the form of the card but I was restricted by this condition. When I design refrigerators for LG electronics, TVs for Samsung, kitchens for Rastelli and Aran, I must stick to a gird to meet the present formats created by the 2D world.

Most architecture is 2D consisting of 2D components like flat windows, window frames, doors, baseboards, drywall, cladding panels, etc. these materials grew out of the economy of means and capabilities of the machine age, being cheaper to produce something was with straight cuts and two-dimensional surfaces.

Never before seen

I believe in searching for new vernaculars that communicate our Techno-organic digital world. The new digital era has little to do with the past, hence our physical world needs to free itself of the past and become as autonomous as a microchip, as infinite as binary notation, as communicative as data, as colorful as our digital screens, and as customizable as our smart devices.

In order for companies to succeed in the future, they must utilize technology seamlessly, from construction, production, and process to human interaction, all while shaping new identities, new traditions, new experiences and embracing and taking ownership of their own brand culture.

'Bioneers' and techno-organic 'Globjects': Karim Rashid's post-analog world

After 100,000 years of analog living we have crossed the Rubicon to a new era. The digital age is upon us and it's changing everything.

On a broad scale, digital technologies dictate how we interact. The digital age modifies our behaviors and habits. It brings us together in endless social permutations. It eradicates borders. It empowers individuality and creativity. However, the influence of the digital revolution can also be felt in places you would not expect.

From floors to furniture design, wallpaper and packaging, from interiors and architecture to fashion, the digital age is impacting design like never before. My agenda is to visually create these changes, to recognize the existence, and to make the physical world as beautiful and savvy as the digital.

Our knowledge of human existence is built on eons of analog life. We learn everything about our vox populi through our physical artifacts. Now -- for less than 40 years -- we live in the digital age, an immaterial time far less steeped in the material. I consider us 'Bioneers' of the digital age and we have just barely scratched the surface of what is possible.

The analog age is a thing of the past, disconnected from our present time. The analog age was material, permanent, static, overly-specialized, rigid, wasteful, and based on scarcity. It was driven by craft and the Industrial Revolution.

Conversely, digital is lightweight, dematerialized, kinetic, temporary, casual, extensive, transparent, relaxed and four dimensional. How can it not be when we have holographic tech, real-time visual telecommunications, advanced CAD software, and effortless 3D printing?

So what will happen to our material world as we transition from analog to digital? How will it catch up to our data-driven era?

Presently the physical world is being seduced by the lucrative, highly experiential infinite possibilities of the digital age. This is the realm where what we dream and imagine becomes tangible and interactive, giving more heightened experiences to our physical world. This is the shaping of our future.

Dubai's hottest fashion bloggers share their style secrets

How do you look effortlessly cool in up to 100F heat?

These six style bloggers manage to do just that every day in Dubai as they juggle writing, photography and running around the city looking fabulous.

With a combined social following of over 300,000, these women know a thing or two about looking good. We asked them for their top street styling tips and what they really think about how people dress in Dubai.

Jaber Al-Ahmad stadium: 'Ghost' ground's relaunch hit by FIFA wrangle

A star-studded match to help mark the rebirth of a soccer "ghost stadium" has been dealt a blow by football politics.

Due to feature the likes of Steven Gerrard, Andrea Pirlo and Carlo Ancelotti in FIFA-banned Kuwait, the exhibition is scheduled to mark the long-awaited reopening of the country's national arena.

But last week FIFA issued a stern letter to its member federations warning them "not to enter into any sporting contact with the Kuwait Football Association (KFA) and/or its teams during the suspension of the association" -- effectively marking the Gulf state as off limits to any active players or officials.

Organizers have now confirmed that Gerrard of the LA Galaxy, New York City FC midfielder Pirlo and referee Pierluigi Collina have been forced to withdraw from the ceremonial match -- dubbed the Kuwait Champions Challenge -- on December 18 at the Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium.

Gerrard and Pirlo would have risked suspension not only for themselves, but also incur disciplinary action to the English and Italian football associations, according to the letter.

The FIFA document -- headed "Suspension of the KFA" -- also bars Kuwaitis who participate in the local league from involvement in the match.

A KFA representative said the association was not involved in the match because of the suspension, and was not aware of who would be playing.

Three-time Champions League winner Carlo Ancelotti had been slated to coach the international side, but has pulled out due to a scheduling conflict, according to the organizers.

Although Ancelotti is currently not managing a club, it is unclear whether the 56-year-old Italian would have risked suspension in his next job had he taken part. He has been replaced by former England manager Fabio Capello.

Refereeing great Collina has also stepped aside, as he's an active member of the UEFA Referees Committee.

Despite those withdrawals, the Football Champions Tour -- the organizers with links to dozens of retired or semiretired pros, managers and referees -- says the match will go ahead as planned, adding that a number of high-profile retirees will serve as replacements -- including former Manchester United forward Dwight Yorke.

The match will deliver the first action to the 60,000-seater stadium in five years -- and just the second football game since its completion in 2007.

Locals have been gearing up for the event, with thousands of tickets distributed for free online.

"I'm looking forward to this as a sports fan, to see all these international world-renowned footballers in Kuwait," said Tarek Aleryan, the longtime host of Kuwait Television's "Spotlight on Sports."

"Hopefully this will bring us into a new year, and a new period of better things for Kuwait."

Given the stadium's checkered history -- along with Kuwait's complicated status in international sports -- the match is unlikely to be a run-of-the-mill exhibition, no matter who is on the pitch.

Banned by the football and Olympic governing bodies, Kuwait is prohibited from staging even international friendlies. Rather than fielding the national team in Friday's game, an online poll will determine who represents the Kuwaitis.

Though Kuwait is an outcast at FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it still holds a level of influence at these major sports bodies given a former senior government official sits on the board of both organizations.

Ex-cabinet minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah serves on FIFA's executive committee as well as the IOC, while heading up the Olympic Council of Asia.

Although his positions within FIFA and the IOC are not impacted, the country's football ban prohibited a scheduled exhibition between Belgium and Italy that had been set to inaugurate the vacant Kuwaiti landmark in October.

"Hopefully these things will be resolved -- the issue with FIFA, the IOC -- so we can move forward and have official games at the stadium," Aleryan said.

Other leading soccer figures slated to take part include former players Luis Figo, Ronaldinho, Robert Pires, Albert Puyol and Jamie Carragher.

BB-8's creators on smashing it on set: 'It was as if someone had been hurt'

It may be the droid that launched a thousand merchandising opportunities, but BB-8 started life humbly: on a napkin.

In 2013, long before shooting the film and even before the cast had been announced, the plucky robot was born.

Out of the mind of director J.J Abrams came a rudimentary sketch, a ball on top of a ball; clearly an astromech akin to the beloved R2-D2, but different. Simple, spherical -- even revolutionary.

J.J. Abrams' sketch of BB-8 from 2013.

The crude napkin doodle was enough to pique the interest of Lucasfilm concept designer Christian Alzmann, who -- along with Neal Scanlan, head of creatures and robots on the film -- got the ball rolling on what became BB-8, the tiny star of "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens."

It was a project shrouded in secrecy, misdirection and non-disclosure agreements, but after a long enforced silence the men who made BB-8 have finally spoken about their mission to bring the Resistance droid to the silver screen.

'Mona Lisa': Hidden portraits 'found underneath'

The subtle smile of the "Mona Lisa" has enchanted the art world for more than 500 years. But does it belong to an entirely different woman?

French scientist Pascal Cotte says he has revealed three hidden paintings beneath the surface of Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece -- one of which is likely to be the real portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the woman thought to be the subject of the painting.

The hidden picture shows a woman looking into the distance, with no trace of the characteristic smile. Cotte believes he has discovered the genuine portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, also known as Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant.

"My scientific imagery technique (L.A.M.) takes us into the heart of the paint-layers of the world's most famous picture and reveals secrets that have remained hidden for 500 years," Cotte said in a statement. "The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo's masterpiece forever."

Is there a second Mona Lisa? 02:31

The scientist used a multispectral camera to project intense lights on to the painting while measuring the reflections. This helps expose what happened between the paint layers.

Art historian Martin Kemp was skeptical, despite recognizing Cotte's techniques as "highly innovatory," he told CNN.

"There are considerable changes during the course of the making of the portrait -- as is the case with most of Leonardo's paintings. I prefer to see a fluid evolution from a relatively straightforward portrait of a Florentine women into a philosophical and poetic picture that has a universal dimension."

Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon, who has made a BBC documentary about the discovery, believes this changes history. "It's jawdropping," he told CNN. "The Louvre are going to have to change their label."