MEET INI ARCHIBONG

DRAWING FROM A DEEP EXPERTISE IN ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL AND PRODUCT DESIGN, INI ARCHIBONG’S DIVERSE PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND HAS TREMENDOUSLY SHAPED HIM AS AN ARTIST.

Drawing from a deep expertise in architecture, engineering, environmental and product design, Ini Archibong’s diverse professional background has tremendously shaped him as an artist.

His design strategy also draws from his lifelong passions for mathematics, philosophy and world religion. As the son of Nigerian emigrants to the United States, and a resident of the US, Archibong has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Singapore and Switzerland. His work respects and acknowledges the rich cultural traditions from which he comes from and the places he has experienced over his lifetime.

It all started when Archibong dropped out of business school in favor of pursuing a creative career. With no plan or direction in mind, he started exploring his options. He was also making music as a part of LA’s underground beat scene, when he landed a mentorship position at an architecture firm and started working immediately. His architecture background significantly cultivated his ability to see things in a meaningful way, which is something he uses everyday in his design work. After a stint working in a technology-focused design position in Singapore, Archibong moved to Switzerland to pursue a more hands-on creative route. With degrees in Environmental Design from the Art Center College of Design and a Masters in Luxury from the prestigious Ecole cantonal d’art Lausanne (ECAL), he’s become a brilliant designer with an undoubtedly strong career in front of him.

Tell us about your background and how you first got interested in the field of design. Has it always been something you felt connected to?

No, to be honest! Design was never something I considered to be a career option. I was more involved in academics, but the school I attended had a robust arts program. I took advantage of it, and around age 12 I started teaching myself photoshop and other 3-D programs. I also did ceramics, enamel, woodwork and sculpture. Then life took me in the typical direction with college, and I started studying business at USC. After two years, I realized it wasn’t for me. I spent all of my free time either making digital art at home, or auditing art and philosophy classes at school. That’s when I dropped out and got into architecture. I’d create architectural renderings on my 3-D programs at home, and I decided I wanted to pursue it. I walked into an architecture firm, and that was the beginning. He asked me to meet him the next day and took me on as somewhat of an apprentice. He gave me a few weeks to learn CAD and put me straight to work.

You’ve mentioned that mathematics, philosophy, even world religion are some things that influence you. How do these personal passions fit into your work as a designer?

My journey wasn’t very straightforward. There was a point where I was very lost. Once I dropped out of school, I didn’t have a plan at all. I didn’t drop out to be an architect — I dropped out just knowing that I needed to be a creative person. I’ve always been into books and when I was feeling lost, I started getting more into spiritual books. I grew up in church, so there was always a spiritual element to my life. I started noticing artists I respected and their spiritual connections to the art they were creating, which lead me down this path where I explored topics like sacred geometry, golden ratio, pythagoreans, things of that nature. Elements and things leading toward spiritual but still tied to the physical world.

What was your goal when you first started pursing architecture as a career?

As I was expanding my life in those ways, I was becoming more coherent with my idea of what I thought was beautiful. I was putting that on paper and applying it to design as well. It kind of all started moving in one direction. When I decided to pursue architecture as a career, I came to a conclusion that within my own personal philosophy, I wanted to use whatever I was given to have a positive impact on the world. It’s strange to think about, but I’m now doing what comes easiest to me. At a certain point, you have to reflect and ask why? Then use the “why” to try and benefit as many people as possible.

Architecture seemed like the realm where you could create the background for people’s experiences. That’s the impact of architecture, so as I came to these realizations, I felt that I wanted to take it one level deeper. That’s why I decided to apply to art school and go to the Environmental Design program. It’s architecture on scale, but it’s about designing the experience within spaces. That intrigued me. It was more micro, in my mind. It’s kind of like the powers of 10 video where you start as far out as possible. You’re looking at architecture, space, cities, but then you get closer in and you’re looking at the sphere of experience. You’re talking about the individual spaces, how they are impacted, the impact of the decisions being made, how you design those spaces. From there, I went to furniture which was one step further in. And then, I started designing smaller and smaller objects and details. Now it’s really to me about the experiences in those closest, smallest circles.

The tools that I have to draw from have become broader. It’s not that my design has necessarily changed, but what I can pull from and how I think has expanded.

You’re currently based in Switzerland. How did you choose Switzerland as the place to live and work? Has it changed your design mentality or aesthetic?

With all the things I do, they’ve become sort of the same to me. I think they’re relatable, and it helps me to think about them in relation to one another. What’s interesting to me about music for example is once I got out of LA, I moved to Singapore. When I move to a different place, I go shopping for records. I had 1,100 vinyl records in storage, and a lot of those records were collected in LA. My music was influenced by the records that were available to me in the location where I lived at the time. I moved to Singapore, and there was a new set of records. Then I traveled to Hong Kong, and there was a totally different set of records. When I moved to Switzerland, I found a completely different cache of records. There are always new genre’s I haven’t experienced and the historical precedence of music that comes from a specific place. Because of that, the location where I’m living is always going to influence what my music sounds like. Elements of that place will come through, even if I execute the same way each time. It’s exactly the same with my design. As I’ve moved around and seen more of the world, it’s broadened my record crate, for lack of a better word! The tools that I have to draw from have become broader. It’s not that my design has necessarily changed, but what I can pull from and how I think has expanded.

Around my house, there’s a lot of green space and farmland. I live in the outskirts of Basel, and there’s beautiful nature. When I need to clear my head, I go walk in nature with my dog. It’s a completely different design approach to when I was living in Singapore and Los Angeles. The environment definitely shapes that experience.

Your parents are from Nigeria, which is another place with incredible cultural traditions. Does that heritage influence your design work as well?

I actually haven’t been! The right time to go experience that would have been when I was young, but my parents kept us involved in academics and sports. I never made it out there, but I grew up within a Nigerian community in the US. That had a very strong influence on my world view, and my view of myself as an American. There was a strong sense of family and a strong sense of community, and to this day it’s still a big part of who I am. My house was filled with Nigerian things, and we dressed as Nigerian people. It’s definitely influenced my design, simply because my aesthetics are based on the aesthetics I grew up around. There’s also this cultural approach — it’s not necessarily opulence but it’s this bold way of creating things. It’s very bold in colors, finishes, mixtures, it’s high flavor. I definitely tried to design in a less loud way when I was in school! But I feel like I finally embraced and accepted it. It was a struggle, but I had to decide to be true to myself. I am lucky to have part of my heritage that allows me to explore how bold I be can at any given moment, within my own design.

When you were younger, did you always have an affinity for creative ventures? Do you remember the first thing you ever designed?

Definitely, I always did. More than designing, I was always taking things apart. I remember getting in trouble for completely destroying several things. I had the type of imagination that when I saw a vacuum and a computer, I thought I could make them into a vacuum robot. I’d get my dad’s tools and take them apart and not know how to put them back together. The first thing I built that actually worked was a gas-powered RC car when I was about 9. There were older kids in my neighborhood that used to race them, so I begged for a kit. My parents were very supportive of these ventures, even though they didn’t really understand what was going on. For Christmas, I asked for the Corel Draw Suite. It was bigger than Photoshop at one point. I basically taught myself how to work these computer programs. I designed and animated an X-wing fighter from StarWars flying in a circle. And very primitively, I saved it on a floppy disk!

"He sat down and threw this amazingly beautiful piece of pottery and then smashed it in front of me. He told me he enjoyed making it more than seeing it finished. "

"He sat down and threw this amazingly beautiful piece of pottery and then smashed it in front of me. He told me he enjoyed making it more than seeing it finished. "

When does your work make you the happiest?

I’m a little embarrassed to say that I still get a huge kick out of seeing the final manifestation of something that started in my head. I had a mentor when I was about 13 who was my ceramics teacher. I used to throw a lot of pottery. As I started making bigger pieces, there became a higher risk for them to explode in the kiln. I had a couple of pieces that didn’t make it out of the kiln, and so he sat down and threw this amazingly beautiful piece of pottery and then smashed it in front of me. He told me he enjoyed making it more than seeing it finished. And he was teaching me that you have to enjoy the process more than the end product. I really took that to heart. I still love seeing my finished products, but I think it’s the moment that I’ve gotten it out of my head, and I’ve gotten in into the computer. I’m working with the craftsmen, and I’m knee-deep into the process. Everything starts to crystalize, and it’s probably the point when I’m most stressed out! But it’s all about that moment when I ask myself if it’s beautiful or not. It’s a weird feeling, because I try to detach myself a little bit and try to absorb it.

What first attracted you to collaborate with OTHR?

Joe Doucet has been kind of like a mentor for me since I was in school. I first met him when I’d make trips to New York, because I started my business two years before I graduated. I’d skip class and fly to New York for events. We were both presenting in an event called Product Placement. After that, I always made a point to meet up with him. I admire and respect him, and he’s always been very forthright with me. For the past five years or so, we’ve talked a lot about design. He approached me about OTHR in Milan this year, and told me about the concept. So I immediately started coming up with some ideas for him.

How did you decide upon the book ends that you made for them?

I got back from New York, and we had just moved into our house. I started thinking about things that I’ve never been able to find that touch you. You can find chairs that touch you and that you fall in love with. I looked around my house and saw the disarray and madness of our bookshelf. And I realized I’ve never come across a bookend that I absolutely love. I’m sure they’re out there, but I couldn’t even think of a place to look for a beautiful bookend. I’m open to being influenced by whatever is happening to me at that very moment. I was thinking about the shelf as the landscape and the things on the shelf as the architecture. I did a recent trip to Treviso, and I was looking at Carlo Scarpa’s work. Things started moving together, and I got this image in my head of this bigger idea of monument. With OTHR’s technology and 3-D printing, porcelain is a monumental material. Unlike traditional porcelain, they have the ability to get solid masses of thick material. I also thought about beams and columns, and building this solid form. It was an intersection of need for stopping the books, but making it monumental and very clear, brutalist architecture. And I mixed that with the idea of adornment. When you look at the piece, it has elements of my influences, like art deco and Carlo Scarpa details.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

I kind of love all of it. I love the creation process — seeing something in my head and then actually making it. I also get to surround myself with beautiful stuff all the time, which is amazing. Working in Switzerland allows me to go into these places that are very sacred places, where the craftsmen work. Not everyone has that access, because the craftsmen are very protective of their spaces. Being able to go there and learn about the processes and to watch everything going on and interact with the craftsmen is definitely one of my favorite parts.