MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom

When Xavier Allard, Director Design&Styling Alstom, meets
the young design prodigy Ora Ïto, what do they say to each other?
Tales of technological anticipation or children’s dreams of
the trains of the future? Projections, free of constraint, where each
gives his vision of today’s brands and the mobility of the future.
BACK TO
THE FUTURE
Xavier Allard: You are young but you
already have an impressive career…
Ora Ïto: I began at a design school
which I left before I had fi nished the course.
At 19, I became well known by inventing
the fi rst virtual brands. I changed Vuitton,
Apple and Nike products into 3D …
After reports in the press, thousands
of Internet users wanted to order these
products which did not in fact exist.
This buzz – I was one of the fi rst people
to generate one on the net! – introduced
my work to the major brands.
Since then I have worked for the tableware,
cosmetics, fashion, accessories and furniture
industries: Christofl e, Guerlain, Steiner,
Roche Bobois or Laguiole, each of whom
is a mythical brand in their fi eld. It is
a coincidence that these brands are mostly
French. I’m not at all obsessed by everything
French; I am more interested by a mix
of cultures, but I like the idea of working
for the fl agships of my country’s industry!
X. Allard: What is your creative process?
Ora Ïto: I initially go into a project weightless
and uncontaminated. I then get to know
the brand’s history, its identity and DNA.
I am like an actor who immerses himself
for a while in a character.
Guerlain, for instance, is baroque,
feminine and sculptural…
There is the insignia, the history, the saga…
morphing all this helped me to create
the most recent bottle for the perfume Idylle.
For Miss Pucci, I reworked in 3D one of
the brand’s recurring motifs. Madame Pucci
said to me: “Your design has imposed
itself as the obvious choice among
the fi ve others.” This is the type of reaction
I’m looking for!
To sum up, everything remains an Ïto object,
but I would not have been able to design
it without the brand.
X. Allard: Do you give a lot of importance
to the brand universe?
Ora Ïto: Brands are extraordinary! It’s
fantastic what they contain in terms of grey
matter, intelligence and different forms of
know-how. Tradition too! I like modern things
but I also like tradition. I don’t think that you �
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