Inimfon “Ini” Joshua Archibong (born 23 June 1983) is an industrial designer,

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

, artist and musician who is active in product design,

furniture design Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

environmental design Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. It seeks to create spaces that will enhance the natural, social, cultural and physical environm ...

, architecture,

watch A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached b ...

design, and

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion i ...

. He has said about the relationship between art and design " e idea that something has to be useless in order to be art is something I reject." Archibong's work reflects an interest in master-craftsmanship and its relationship to modern and ancient technology. It is inspired by the study of architecture, environmental and product design, as well as mathematics, philosophy and world religions. His clients include brands such as

Hermès Hermès International S.A., or simply Hermès ( , ), is a French luxury design house established in 1837. It specializes in leather goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Its logo, since ...

Knoll In geography, knoll is another term for a knowe or hillock, a small, low, round natural hill or mound. Knoll may also refer to: Places * Knoll Camp, site of an Iron Age hill fort Hampshire, England, United Kingdom * Knoll Lake, Leonard Canyon, A ...

, de Sede,

Bernhardt Design Bernhardt Design (a division of the Bernhardt Furniture Company) is an American modern furniture company based in Lenoir, North Carolina. The company is known for working with a wide variety of international designers, and for their investment ...

, Sé. and

Logitech Logitech International S.A. ( ; often shortened to Logi) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software, with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Newark, California. The company has offices throughout Europe, ...

. Archibong lives and works in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Early life and education

The son of Nigerian parents who emigrated to the United States as academic scholars, Archibong was born in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

, California. He attended and graduated from the

Polytechnic School Polytechnic School, often referred to simply as Poly, is a college preparatory private day school located in Pasadena, California with approximately 850 students enrolled in grades Kindergarten through 12. The school is a former member of the ...

, then briefly attended the USC business school, and subsequently enrolled at

ArtCenter College of Design Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred ...

, from which he received a degree in Environmental Design. He was both an Edwards Endowed Scholar and an Outreach Grant recipient. After graduation, he joined Tim Kobe's Eight Inc. in Singapore, before continuing his studies at the École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL), where he earned a master's of advanced studies in Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship. He is the younger brother of Olympic athlete Koko Archibong.

Career

In addition to his artwork and design practice, Archibong has taught at several design institutions and is a visiting professor at his alma mater ECAL, and has also taught at the

International Institute for Management Development International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is a private business school in Lausanne, Switzerland specializes in executive education offering open enrollment programs for senior executives, as well as longer-term educational engageme ...

(IMD) in Lausanne and the National University of Singapore in Singapore. He has also lectured and spoken internationally including at the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their underst ...

conference,

USC School of Architecture The USC School of Architecture is the architecture school at the University of Southern California. Located in Los Angeles, California, it is one of the university's twenty-two professional schools, offering both undergraduate and graduate degree ...

, and in Dubai and

Design Indaba Design Indaba is a trademark and brand founded and run by Interactive Africa in 1995 with a focus on design and under the slogan "A better world through creativity". Consisting of an online publication and a series of events and creative projects, ...

in Cape Town. In 2019, along with business development collaborations with Benjamin de Haan, Archibong founded L.M.N.O. CREATIVE, a multi-disciplinary design collective. The collective includes fellow graduates from Pasadena's ArtCenter, Jori Brown and Maxwell Engelmann, as well as designer Ebony Lerandy, who studied under Archibong at ECAL.

Awards and exhibitions

Archibong's work has been exhibited at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

(V&A) in London, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery in Pasadena, Galerie Triode in Paris, the Museo Bagatti Valsecchi in Milan, Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan, Design Indaba in Cape Town, the

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

, the High Museum in Atlanta, and the Design Museum in London. In 2020, Archibong began working on the creation of sculptural pieces for a solo exhibition at the Friedman Benda Gallery in New York. He is the recipient of the ICFF Studio Award, Best of NeoCon Silver, International Woodworking Fair's Design Emphasis Award, ICFF's American Student Designer of the Year Award, and the 2019 Elle Deco American Design Award. In 2019, he received Distinguished Alumni awards from both ArtCenter and Polytechnic in his hometown of Pasadena. His design for a Pavilion of the African Diaspora (PoAD) won the Best Design Medal at the London Design Biennale in June 2021 at Somerset House. In 2021 the Metropolitain Museum of Art (MET) in New York acquired three of his designs for its Afrofuturist Period Room. In 2022 the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

(LACMA) added his "Switch" table to its permanent collection.

Writing

The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

published an essay by Archibong titled "Ini Archibong: What We Believe About Storytelling" in 2021. The essay is part of a series called ''The Big Ideas: What Do We Believe'', which also includes essays by Agnes Callard,

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...

, T.M. Luhrmann,

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...

, and Carlo Rovelli, amongst others.

Publications

* ''Speechless: different by design''. Schleuning, Sarah (2019). Dallas Museum of Art, High Museum of Art. Shapco Printing, Dallas, Texas. . . * ''The ECAL manual of style: how to best teach design today?''. Jonathan Olivares, Alexis Georgacopoulos (2022). Phaidon Press, London. . . * ''Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room.'' Ian Alteveer,

Hannah Beachler Hannah Beachler () is an American production designer. She worked on the 2015 Rocky film '' Creed'', the Miles Davis biopic '' Miles Ahead,'' and most recently has become known for the film ''Moonlight'', Beyoncé's 2016 TV special and visual a ...

, Sarah E. Lawrence, (2022). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. * ''Question everything: a Stone reader''. Peter Catapano, Simon Critchley (2022). Liveright, New York. . .

References

External links

Design by INI
(Official site) {{DEFAULTSORT:Archibong, Ini Living people 1983 births Art Center College of Design alumni Artists from Los Angeles People from Pasadena, California American designers American people of Nigerian descent Furniture designers Industrial designers Designers Neuchâtel American furniture designers