HI-JINX DESIGNER / AGE: 28
Digital Journal — From prankster to prodigy. That could be Ora Ito’s biography, if Europe’s most creative designer ever took a break to pen his life’s story. And it’s a tale worth telling: Ito, high school dropout and perpetual troublemaker, first worked at a magazine where he designed phoney ads for a Louis Vuitton backpack and a Gucci villa — all complete fakes, all electrifying the public as if he lit firecrackers under their asses.
His playful recklessness caught the attention of companies who wanted to see what this kid could do with real products. Adidas hired him to design a perfume bottle, LaCie won praise for Ito’s Lego-brick external hard drive and Heineken launched a global campaign around a sleek aluminum bottle Ito created. He also worked with clientele ranging from Apple to Levi’s. His unique products impacted the design world so profoundly he earned a spot speaking at conferences next to the late famed designer Philippe Starck. If Europe had to nominate an “It boy” for design, Ora Ito would be the leading candidate.
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After all, Ito thinks big. He sees his work as “more of a vision of the world, not just a product here and there.” Maybe that’s why this Frenchman chose a catchy Japanese pseudonym to sum up his global reach (real name: Ito Morabito). Or maybe the prankster inside him never really left.
Don’t mistake Ito for just another product doctor. He’s been known to redesign bricks-and-mortar like a man-child high on peyote — Toyota’s Ito-designed flagship store in Paris features curved walls of seamless white polymer and a second level that overlooks the ground like a spaceship control deck. It’s as if Ito colours every project with his personality, a technique that’s winning the designer respect in both the art world and in stuffy boardrooms.
Clearly, Ito’s brain doesn’t work like ours. We see a green beer bottle, he envisions an aesthetic masterpiece. His designs catch the eye and tug on the imagination, tearing us out of our comfort zones and renewing our faith in creative corporate design.
ITO’S INFO
- Ora Ito’s father, Pascal Morabito, is a well-known designer and retailer of luxury goods in Paris
- Ito’s Paris studio employs 12 people and pulls in revenues of $3 million (US) a year
- He named his Labrador dog Ogo after the bottled water company, for whom Ito designed a stylishly squat bottle
This article is part of Digital Journal’s national magazine edition. Pick up your copy of Digital Journal in bookstores across Canada and the United States! Or subscribe to Digital Journal now, and receive 8 issues for $29.95 GST ($48.95 USD)!
