Ep. 41: Ini Archibong [encore]

Ini Archibong (0:02)

I would take apart the computers and try to make robots. And every so often, I would try to put something back together after I got in trouble for breaking it.

I was very, very unsuccessful at that. I think the first thing that I actually successfully got to work, I was probably about nine or 10 years old, and I built a gas-powered remote control car from scratch, which was a big accomplishment for me. It was the cool thing in the neighborhood, because the older guys in my neighborhood, a lot of them were into street racing, like illegal street racing, Fast and Furious style before the movie. And for kicks, they would make the model version, the gas-powered model version of the cars that they would race. And I loved hanging out with them, and I was determined to build my own car to race with them.

Amy Devers (0:59)

Hi everyone, I'm Jamie.

Amy Devers (1:01)

I'm Amy, and this is Clever. And today we've got Ini Archibong.

Ini is an emerging product designer currently working out of Basel, Switzerland. You may remember his name from a previous episode of Clever, because we talked about him with Terry Crews in episode 7 They collaborated on a furniture collection together. Ini was born and raised in Pasadena, California, and studied architecture and industrial design at Art Center College of Design.

Amy Devers (1:27)

After Art Center, Ini moved to Switzerland where he got his Master's in Luxury from École Cantonelle d'Art de Lausanne.

He's exhibited globally at galleries, museums and design shows, and has also been featured in Metropolis, Surface, Architectural Digest, and other print and digital publications. And he's done work for brands such as Hermes, Bernhardt, Herman Miller, and various European luxury brands. So let's talk to Ini.

Ini Archibong (1:57)

My name is Ini Archibong. I live in Rhinock, Basel Landschaft, which is near the city of Basel.

And I'm a designer, industrial designer, spatial designer, and sometimes artist. And I do what I do for the culture and to advance things.

Amy Devers (2:17)

I would like to know first about your upbringing, because I understand your parents came to the US from Nigeria. Is that right?

Ini Archibong (2:25)

Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Devers (2:26)

Yeah. So how what was it like growing up there? How old were you when you came to the US.?

Ini Archibong (2:32)

Well, I was actually born in the US. My parents came for college and stayed.

So even though I have Nigerian heritage, I grew up in America as an American.

Amy Devers (2:45)

But funny enough, where did they move to when they came over? Where did you grow up?

Ini Archibong (2:49)

I grew up in Pasadena, but my parents, my dad went to Colombia and my mom went to Rutgers. So they were on the East Coast until they moved to California and had me.

Amy Devers (2:59)

Can you tell us about your childhood and what it was like growing up in Pasadena with Nigerian heritage and being an American and all that sort of cocktail of stuff going on?

Ini Archibong (3:09)

My mom always used to say, out there, you're in America. But when you're in the house, you're in Nigeria.

I was definitely raised as a Nigerian child. And we had a very tight knit Nigerian community in LA also growing up. I mean, a lot of my closest friends to this day, we grew up together, seeing each other every weekend and celebrating birthdays and weddings and holidays altogether. So, you know, we had a very strong cultural upbringing, even though we were living in the States, and they made it a point to make sure that we knew about our heritage.

Amy Devers (3:51)

That's nice. And I imagine you probably had friends your age too, who were also Nigerian-American and dealing with all that comes up with that. So you had people to bounce stuff off of or a shared experience, I guess, is probably a good way to say it. Yeah, definitely.

Ini Archibong (4:05)

And because we had... Actually, my older brother is two years older than me.

So within our age group, we had a lot of other Nigerian kids our age that we grew up with. And it's really cool now because we're all adults and doing our different things throughout the world and keeping up with each other on social media and seeing each other when we're back home visiting. And on special occasions, we always see each other. And our parents are still in touch and they still hang out with each other. So it's a strong community.

Amy Devers (4:38)

Were you like a creative kid? Did your creativity start at an early age? And if so, how did it manifest?