Ini Archibong has come full circle. After following Tim Kobe, the creator of the Apple store concept, from San Francisco and New York to Singapore in 2012, the Southern Californian designer joined Eight Inc. to work on the cutting edge of industrial design and the latest technologies. However, deeply aware of the inherent obsolescence of technology, he knew he was destined to make objects with a long lifespan instead.
Singapore Dream
“I developed a lot of that mindset because I spent two and a half years in Singapore working on that technology stuff,” he recalls. “It’s true that my goal is to have a lasting impact with the things that I make, so it was a bit frustrating that by the time anything got made, we were already thinking about the next thing. Experiencing the approach to luxury in Singapore made me start to look at it in a different way and valuing luxury.”
Ini’s recent creative consultancy work with Swiss consumer electronics giant Logitech marks his return to the technology field a decade later, except this round, his inaugural project was designing the high-end Ultimate Ears CSX earphones that fit the ear shape of each individual. “It was part of the reason we decided to work together,” he says. “Before, my work in technology felt so innovation-focused, and I knew that I had more to offer. I feel like Logitech is putting me in a position to use its platform to impact people’s lives and show how technology can be a catalyst for creativity in long-lasting, impactful experiences.”
Although Ini has participated in numerous group exhibitions and design fairs, Hierophany, his first solo gallery show last October at Friedman Benda in New York marked the first time he had the opportunity to fully immerse visitors in a cohesive body of work and create the environment for which it would be experienced. The unique sculptures of “pure expression” he created for the showcase are more like the freedom one feels when given a block of wet clay, rather than the rigid direction you get when making mass-produced products.
They are his most personal works, which he considers art, and include the cantilevered obsidian and glass Shade table, the blued steel and glass Dark Vernus chandelier, the Manna chandelier with oblong, multi-coloured glass orbs echoing the console of the same name, and the white marble or black granite and blown glass Obelisk lamps.
Beyond the Surface
Ini presented his own vision of spiritual reality, where his pieces are artefacts based on mythology or storytelling that is universal or spiritual. “The spirituality of any culture can be a huge help in understanding that culture,” he explains. “Having a very church-centred life as a kid opened my mind to it, and being an avid fan of fantasy makes it quite natural to feel a connection to the spiritual realm. Once you feel that connection, exploring it is second nature.”
Global child
Ini’s creations reflect his upbringing and passion for global philosophies, cultures, world religions, and mathematics. “I’m somewhat of a cultural sponge, and it allows me to move comfortably in foreign places,” he discloses. “I’ve been to a lot of places where I don’t speak the language and don’t know the cultural norms, but I absorb a lot. When I make things, I can look at them afterwards and see the cultural influences quite clearly.”
“A person’s creative expression is an algamation of all their experiences and how they have influenced their wolrd view up until that point. There is no escape. If you’ve lived somewhere, it is going to influence the form or the use of the objects you create.” Ini’s Se furniture collections, for example, are inspired by his time in Asia, and some of his tables exhibit a West African sensibility combined with European materials.
Born in 1983 in Pasadena, California, Ini is the son of Nigerian immigrants who came to the US as scholars. A hyperactive, troublesome child in a high-achieving household, he dropped out of business school at the University of Southern California and became a musician, before falling in love with architecture and collecting books on Shigeru Ban, Tadao Ando and I. M. Pei. “I started to question the trajectory of my life, what I was doing and what I was meant to be doing here on earth, and becoming a rich banker didn’t seem right any more,” he says. “I realised my passions lay elsewhere and that I had a better way to serve the world.”
Ini studied environmental design and architecture at ArtCenter College of Design and founded his studio Design by Ini in 2010 while still a student, and after training under Tony George for three years.
After earning a master’s degree in luxury design and craftsmanship from Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne in 2015, he remained in Switzerland. At present, he works alone from a lakeside home studio in Neuchatel, teaming up with L.M.N.O. Creative, which includes designers Jori Brown, Ebony Lerandy and Maxwell Engelmann, when needed.
Personal Touch
Whether ultra limited or mass produced, luxury or everyday, Ini adds layers of meaning into any object he crafts. A chair is never just a chair, but communicates an idea to the user like a 3D piece of poetry. The second black designer to join Knoll’s roster of masters such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Gehry and Eero Saarinen, after Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye, Ini recently launched the Iquo indoor-outdoor cafe table and chair collection, which combines femininity with strength and durability. After designing furniture with which one can interact in a fully tactile manner, he aspires to move up in scale to create architectural spaces that enrich people’s lives, maybe even a skyscraper.
Meanwhile Ini’s most ambitious project yet is the Pavilion of the African Diaspora, an exhibit inspired by the transatlantic slave trade that premiered last year in London. It was conceived as a trio of twisting, free-standing structures that are a place for collaboration, education, and dialogue. The Shell echoes with the voices of the African diaspora, which gains shape in the Wave Gate, which in turn propels sound waves into the world by filling the Sail, taking us to a brighter future. Together, they serve as a platform for reflection on the past, present and future of the African diaspora.
Through his designs, Ini wants to provide a moment for pause and contemplation, inviting users to experience a transcendental experience. “I feel that if I can create a piece in someone’s home that makes people pause and appreciate the light streaming through the coloured glass and how it colours the room, or appreciate a curve in a coffee table, then that is something spiritual.”
Key Designs
Bernhardt Design Serif Table
The elegant piece remains one of Ini’s most popular products to this day, having been launched as a student project with John Phillips and Stephanie Stalker at ICFF 2011, after meeting Bernhardt president, Jerry Helling, at ArtCenter College of Design.
Vernus 3 Chandelier
This Swiss-made chandelier with a profusion of glass pendants, acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was partly influenced by the work of Ettore Sottsass. Ini wanted to convey the feeling of hope fulfilled when you see a bunch of flowers on the first day of spring after a bleak winter.
Pavilion of the African Diaspora
Winner of the 2021 London Design Biennale’s Best Design Medal, the billowing sail-shaped architectural folly in aluminium, sail fabric and stone is the first of three structures, which served as a space for performances and talks where black contributions and voices could be seen and heard.
Se Below The Heavens Collection
A combination of wood finishes, hand-blown glass and marble, these sculptural and sensual pieces evoke serenity and celestial beauty at the threshold between heaven and earth.
Galop D’Hermes Watch
Ini was also invited to design for French luxury house Hermes. Rather than design a watch based on traditional shapes, Ini imagined a timepiece that was both futuristic and classic. The watch is available in rose gold or steel, with or without diamonds and references Hermes’ equestrian roots with the number eight on the dial shaped like the unusual stirrup-shaped case upside down.