MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom

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words and design
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can project yourself into the future without
being interested in the past and vice versa.
X. Allard: Why work with one company
rather than with another?
Ora Ïto: To start with, I have to like the brand.
Not just its name, but what it triggers off
in a fragment of a second in my imagination.
I follow my instinct here. If I need
to make an effort to ‘see’ images,
if I don’t feel inspired, then I turn it down!
Then there’s the brand’s history.
Behind the great brands, there’s often
a man in a barn or a workshop, hammering,
cutting out, folding, welding, sowing…
Because he was the best in his fi eld, his
‘little business’ grew. He then transmitted
his know-how and his skills as an
artisan become a part of the consumer
society. I fi nd this fascinating.
When I was approached by Fred Farrugia,
I wasn’t particularly interested in make-up.
But I liked the idea of the palette and
I invented the nomad kit. For this project,
I spent a lot of time watching women’s
movements when they are putting
on make-up. Movements, the way
in which an object is held or handled,
are extremely important.
X. Allard: Do brands expect their history
to be revisited?
Ora Ïto: They expect me to fi nd the next
phase, to provide my understanding
of the period and above all a capacity
to project them into the future. I like the idea
of an artist who does not always have his
hammer, chisel, clay or brush, but who meets
astrophysicists or engineers… I love going
into the R&D offi ce of a company which has
asked me to work for them and studying
new materials or composites. These then
become my creative tools.
X. Allard: Should the designer keep
in the background and let the brand occupy
centre stage?
Ora Ïto: Not necessarily. Being a designer
is also about having your own identity.
The objects that I create, if you look at them
independently, are completely different
to each other. But they all have a common
style. My style is to economise in the use
of materials, to favour simplicity, the
‘almost nothing’. I hate piling up concepts:
the best content is a single idea strong
enough to accomplish all its functions.
The search for this simple idea is complex.
This is what I call ‘simplexity’. I demand