Saturday, February 20, 2010

He's a Glorious Bastard

A few weeks ago, when I attended a design-meeting with ex-students at the faculty of architecture (L.Quaroni, Università di Sapienza), I heard this great story about a young designer who auto-commissioned himself to design products for famous luxury brands and after publishing them on his site risks badly to be sued. Heard this story before? If not, it's something you won't want to miss, the guy's a freaking genius! I didn't catch his name on the meeting and then kinda forgot about him at all, until yesterday while surfing on yatzer.com I came across his new project. About that later. First let me tell you his story.

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Ito Morabito (1977), son of a well-known french designer and retailer of luxury goods Pascal Morabito, at the age of 21 decides he couldn't bare spending 10 years inching his way up the career ladder and drops out of design school. Invents the pseudonym Ora Ïto to carve out his own identity and without using his father's financial sources neither connections starts to make himself a name. After different small jobs (too small for his talent, obviously) (he also worked for the shoe master himself- Roger Vivier, God.. I love his creations!) ... arrives the crucial point of his career: he virtually designes made-up products for mega brands like LV and Apple and so on and a selection of these 3D projects gets published on magazines like Crash and Jalouse. The media reaction is electrical and his site gets over 200.000 clicks per day, on the top of everything, desperate customers start inundate the luxury goods companies asking for the products which never actually existed. Companies like LVMH (Moët Hennessy/Louis Vuitton) are really infuriated for the caos created and strongly considere the possibility of sueing the young designer. Fortunatelly no legal actions are made, the designs were well-received by the consumers, no actual harm was made. Instead.. many (clever) brands try to hire him and soon enough Ora has a pretty long list of clients between who to choose.

Check out his works:

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This curious item above is his latest project thanks to which I rediscovered him in the first place. Photobucket

Guerlain's new parfume "Idylle" is a mystical scent in a tear drop shaped 18 K gold bottle which the young designer managed to encapsule perfectly in precious Baccarat crystal (30,000 euros, if interested). In order to smell it you have to break it. Quite expensive toy.. I think I'll pass this one;)



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"Abstract", jewelry line for Cristofle.



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This is the first jewelry collection made by Ora Ito.


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"Fly", Chaise Lounge by Ora for B&B Italia.


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Ora Ïto for LaCie.


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Now this is farmost the coolest USB & FireWire hub I've ever seen in my life. Works both for Mac and PC. The lowest price is 89€.

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A Hard Driver.
Pretty glam, huh?
LaCie.




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Oxygenwater.
I LOVE THE SHAPE OF THIS BOTTLE!
Like a magic potion or something.



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Heineken, The Green Line.
Isn't this a fancy design for a bottle of beer?
Drinking beer can now be almost classy thanks, to Ora Ïto.


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Bookshelf "Ecco" made entirely of recycled material, Ora for Artelano of Paris. There's also a white version.



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"Evolution" is the name of this armchair. Zanotta.

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"Arborescence", home accessories collection for Cristofle.

15 comments:

Gonçalo Gameiro said...

i like some of his work, but not all the pieces you show.


Gameiro *

Café Naïveté said...

:) which ones you like?

The Photodiarist said...

I like the series of rings - his first jewelry design . . .

Julia, the Thanksgiving Girl said...

Wow, thank you so much for introducing me to this guy! I've never really heard about him before, but his designs are just awesome. Not really sure what's all the hype about regarding him being sued though? Anyways, I love all of the above, and of course, being a huge designer chair lover, I love both of these chairs!

Ahti Sepsivart said...

Äge disainivärk, materjalid on natuke veidrad-pole harjunud, kuid sulav hard driver on isegi elus. Ühe sõnaga see on nii tehis ja just massitootmiseks, eriti see riiul. Toolide kohta ma ei oska midagi ütelda, annab valmistada, aga mitte massidesse paisata.Kuubikuga ripats on just minule. Nüüd tean ka.
See on hea kraam, mida sa jagad.

Café Naïveté said...

Julia, the guy's a total bad-ass and I do find him handsome too... No wonder the media was obsessed with him.. They always love the good-looking bad-acting guys. (who of us, girls, does not?) It was quite dfficult for me to find his project's pictures and I heard there are many new things I didn't manage to post here, if somebody knows something, let me know;)

Café Naïveté said...

Ahti! Nii tore oli sinu kommentaari lugeda, lòpuks sina ka siin!
Igaljuhul jah, tùùp teeb massile tooteid, ta ongi osalt kuulus materjalide valiku tòttu.. Isiklikult meeldib mulle vaid ta viimane projekt. Teised jàtavad kùlmaks.. aga eks ta ole maitse asi. Originaalsust mehel kùll vàheseks ei jàà..;)

Café Naïveté said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Julia, the Thanksgiving Girl said...

You still managed to find a lot! :) And regarding the guys... I like men that look like bad boys but who are nice guys. Something between the contrast that is incredibky charming to me. Maybe because it feels like I know a secret or have a key to this guy's softer side... I think I like my man slightly mysterious haha

Café Naïveté said...

Ohh yes, you are so right about that "knowing his secret, his softer side".. Oh well, let me know when you do find a man like that!
The italian men tend to be everything else than MYSTERIOUS:D

Anomaly said...

Sõrmustest olen ma igal juhul vaimustuses. Need on just sellise lihtsa disainiga ja saab üksteisega kokku sobitada, nii et mitut korraga kandes ei teki ülepaisutamis momenti :)

Hea sissekanne, taaskord!

Julia, the Thanksgiving Girl said...

Hehe, lol at your comment regarding Italian men! One of my male Italin friends keeps saying "never trust an Italian guy" all the time! LOL

And well... I've met men like that at least 3 times :) I know how to look because I know just exactly what I'm looking for! Once you see your goal clearly it's easier to find it I think!

p.s. Btw, I LOVED your reply about what makes you happy on my post!

Café Naïveté said...

Julia- You see! Your italian friend is soo right!! At least this is the conclusion I've come to made too... they are pretty expert on messing around with your mind, hahahha:D

Lucky you, I guess experience is everything in this field.

:)

Lisa Petrarca said...

Very cool post...interesting.

Julia, the Thanksgiving Girl said...

LOL :)