{"id":3410,"date":"2026-03-04T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=3410"},"modified":"2026-03-04T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:00:00","slug":"the-multi-disciplinary-world-of-ini-archibong-whisky-hip-hop-and-collecting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=3410","title":{"rendered":"The Multi-disciplinary World of Ini Archibong: Whisky, Hip-Hop, and Collecting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The designer talks bridging music, sculpture, and luxury craft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ini<\/div>\n

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). <\/p>\n

His collaborators are numerous. Among them is Herm\u00e8s, for whom he created La Galop d\u2019Herm\u00e8s watch in 2019; Snoop Dogg, who recruited Archibong as creative director for his spirits<\/a> brand, Gin & Juice; and Diageo and Sotheby\u2019s, 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\u2019s 200th anniversary.<\/p>\n

Archibong was raised in Pasadena, California, but has lived in the lakeside Swiss town of Neuch\u00e2tel for the past 11 years. <\/p>\n

What is your relationship with Port Ellen? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve 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 \u2018ghost\u2019 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 \u2014 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. <\/p>\n

See also: The Most Exciting Whisky Right Now Isn\u2019t Scottish \u2013 It\u2019s English<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What is your ideal work environment? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a studio inside my flat where I create music and design. When I\u2019m working, I\u2019m usually listening to records that inspire the project or I\u2019m listening to whatever music matches the energy of what I\u2019m 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. <\/p>\n

You mentioned music is important. What records do you have on repeat right now? <\/strong><\/p>\n

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 \u2014 that stays on repeat. While I was working with Port Ellen, I was listening to a lot of Kendrick Lamar \u2014 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. <\/p>\n

You grew up in California and now you\u2019re in Switzerland \u2014 how does each location inspire you?<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Where I grew up and the way that I grew up is my foundation and it\u2019s what gives my work the feeling that it has. I was born in LA<\/a> in \u201983, and I was raised by hip-hop. That culture and artistic expression is the foundation for everything I do. I\u2019ve tried my hand at graffiti and breakdancing, and I\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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\u2019s not a strict structure. It\u2019s a musical composition that\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

What do you collect? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m an obsessive collector: watches, books, glass, vinyl, records, art, furniture, socks, ties. Saint Laurent sunglasses. I probably have 100 Pez dispensers. I also collect Herm\u00e8s. Even before I did the watch, I knew I wanted to design for Herm\u00e8s. 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\u2019s an obsession \u2014 there are lots of orange boxes in my daughter\u2019s room. The weirdest Herm\u00e8s thing in my house is a hobby horse. It\u2019s absolutely beautiful. <\/p>\n

What do you look for in your own collecting? <\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019ve had that with two watches \u2014 one was a FP Journe. It\u2019s the reflection of sitting there and being like, \u2018Seven years ago you were living in your car and now you just spent this much on a watch.\u2019<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The designer talks bridging music, sculpture, and luxury craft.\u00a0 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 Herm\u00e8s, for whom he created La Galop d\u2019Herm\u00e8s watch in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_preview_token":"","beyondwords_player_content":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_status":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}