Ora Ito
Paris, France
In 1997, Ora ïto hijacked top brands with his virtual Vuitton and Apple products
that instantly became global icons of the digital revolution. A phenomenon in
pop culture, he is the youngest designer of his generation to collaborate with
jewels of luxury goods and industry, after the huge multi-acclaimed success of
his aluminium Heineken bottle. Cassina, Cappellini, Bouygues, Alstom, Laguiole,
Zanotta and Accor highly rate his sculptural design that has become a mark of
modernity.
The multidisciplinary, transversal Ora ïto studio has since gone from telephone
to architecture, from furniture to the hotel industry, from perfume to tramways
and from flying saucers to restaurants, manipulating symbols to simplify them.
A tenacious methodology for which he has invented a neologism: simplexity,
decoding today’s DNA to conceptualise future mutations. His fluid vocabulary
materialises movement reinventing streamlining in the digital era and giving
shape to the desires of our contemporary society.
In 2013, he created MAMO, an art centre on the roof terrace of the mythical Cité
Radieuse designed by Le Corbusier in Marseille. A historical and contemporary
place high in the sky, with a 360° view that summarises his passion for levitation
and lightness, ‘Defying the laws of gravity creates feelings that go beyond
aesthetics.’ The greatest contemporary artists from Xavier Veilhan to Dan Graham
are exhibited there before Ito inaugurates an architectural collaboration with
Daniel Buren, the master of French conceptual art.
Ora ïto now attracts media and economic benefits that make him a unique
player in the international design arena. Wallpaper ranked him amongst the top
40 most influential designers under 40 years old. He was appointed Chevalier
des Arts et des Lettres in 2011.
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