www.KarimNassar.com
In 1996, Karim Nassar lived a year in Japan on a Scholarship awarded by the Japanese Ministry of Education. He spent his time studying the Japanese language and culture at Nagoya University, and working as an intern in Industrial Design Fujita, the Deisgn firm owned by the renowned Masao Fujita, designer of the original Toyota Celica.
During this time, Mr. Nassar was contacted by the editors of "Japan Pictorial," a quarterly journal on Japanese trade and tourism. The resulting interview was a part of an article called "Crossing Oceans in Search of Skills."
Karim Nassar is a junior at North Carolina State University majoring in industrial design. As a visiting student spending nine months in the engineering department of Nagoya University, he is fascinated by traditional Japanese architecture. He comments that "the modular use of tatami mats in the design of Japanese style rooms is a rich source of ideas." When not in class, he spends his time gaining practical experience in the office of Fujita Masao, a lecturer in the same department who is also an automobile designer.
Fujita, noted for creating light sports cars with flowing lines in the 1960's when such designs were unheard of in japan, is now applying the formal concepts of the Japanese sword to automobile design. Under Fujita's supervision, Nassar built his own design prototype for a car. "Traditional Japanese design is beautiful because it allows no compromises," says Nassar.
"For example, the Japanese sword shows its beauty in the fact that everything about it is meant to maximize its function, to serve as a weapon. Automobile design is strongly influenced by fashion... so new models all tend to look the same. It would be wonderful if the severely functional beauty of the sword could be applied in the design of automobiles."
