The designer talks bridging music, sculpture, and luxury craft.
Name an artistic medium and Ini Archibong has tried it: watch design, beverage packaging, music production, stonework, furniture design (although he is best known for his rippling sculptural glasswork).
His collaborators are numerous. Among them is Hermès, for whom he created La Galop d’Hermès watch in 2019; Snoop Dogg, who recruited Archibong as creative director for his spirits brand, Gin & Juice; and Diageo and Sotheby’s, with whom he worked on a bespoke whisky cask release. His latest creation is his largest glass work to date, a 7.5-ft cast bronze and glass sculpture that was installed at Port Ellen distillery in 2025, to commemorate the Islay whisky brand’s 200th anniversary.
Archibong was raised in Pasadena, California, but has lived in the lakeside Swiss town of Neuchâtel for the past 11 years.
What is your relationship with Port Ellen?
I’ve been a fan of Scotch whisky, particularly single malts, for quite some time, but [this project] began in around 2021. I realized that with it being a ‘ghost’ distillery [it ceased prodution four decades ago], there was a limited quantity of this coveted liquid. This made me see it in a more philosophical way — every drop that gets consumed is one less drop of Port Ellen whisky that exists. Period. From there, I stopped thinking about the collaboration from the terms of making something that was commissioned and more about making sure that everything that I create for Port Ellen recognizes its spiritual and mythological essence.
See also: The Most Exciting Whisky Right Now Isn’t Scottish – It’s English
What is your ideal work environment?
I have a studio inside my flat where I create music and design. When I’m working, I’m usually listening to records that inspire the project or I’m listening to whatever music matches the energy of what I’m trying to create. But with a project like this piece, so much of the work is internal and comes from the purity of inspiration. In that sense, my studio was outside in the green fields of Islay and on planes, flying back and forth: thinking, getting inspired, and just imagining. The next step was working with the craftsman, traveling to the Czech Republic to visit the glassmakers there, reviewing samples, drawing out my ideas, finding ways to express them clearly, and then going into the making process and praying for the best.
You mentioned music is important. What records do you have on repeat right now?
Every Friday, I see what new records were released and I give them a spin. For a period, those will be what I lean toward. Right now, I just came from the gym, so Rage Against the Machine [is playing]. Also a lot of Hit-Boy and The Alchemist — that stays on repeat. While I was working with Port Ellen, I was listening to a lot of Kendrick Lamar — he always takes me back to California. The GNX album had just come out, but I was in a more reflective space, so Mr Morale & the Big Steppers was on the most then.
You grew up in California and now you’re in Switzerland — how does each location inspire you?
Where I grew up and the way that I grew up is my foundation and it’s what gives my work the feeling that it has. I was born in LA in ’83, and I was raised by hip-hop. That culture and artistic expression is the foundation for everything I do. I’ve tried my hand at graffiti and breakdancing, and I’ve spent 20 years producing hip-hop music in a traditional way with vinyl records and a sampler. If you look at the Port Ellen piece, the colored glass inside and the way that it’s moving references the Wild Style graffiti aesthetic from LA that I used to see while driving on the freeways. And the way that my chandeliers are composed, there’s not a strict structure. It’s a musical composition that’s akin to the rupture and flow in hip-hop production. Things are placed in a rhythmic way, but off-kilter and non-traditional. All of that is inside of me, and it’s in my craft. You could say that replacing the tools that I grew up with with the tools that I found in Europe is what makes my art what it is now.
What do you collect?
I’m an obsessive collector: watches, books, glass, vinyl, records, art, furniture, socks, ties. Saint Laurent sunglasses. I probably have 100 Pez dispensers. I also collect Hermès. Even before I did the watch, I knew I wanted to design for Hermès. I started going into every store in every city I visited. After I got the contract and more money, I started buying things to investigate more about the brand. And then it just became a habit. Now it’s an obsession — there are lots of orange boxes in my daughter’s room. The weirdest Hermès thing in my house is a hobby horse. It’s absolutely beautiful.
What do you look for in your own collecting?
Something that moves me. I lean toward anthropomorphic representations and people in general, but with fantasy attached. Even with photography, one of my favorites is a Kwame Brathwaite picture of an Alvin Ailey performance, but it looks like a surreal landscape. Even though it’s on stage, it looks like something otherworldly with the rising sun behind it. What is the most out-there thing in your collection? There are a couple of things that after buying them, I thought I was crazy for spending that much money. I’ve had that with two watches — one was a FP Journe. It’s the reflection of sitting there and being like, ‘Seven years ago you were living in your car and now you just spent this much on a watch.’
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