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CIRCLE MAGAZINE — “Ketch d’autore”

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Interview by Chiara Cantoni

There is no end to the iconic brands interpreted by the exuberant vision of Ora-Ïto and, considering the list of excellent cooperations, the french designer should be over-eighty. Instead, born in 1977, he is just half and he has just done a carreer of a consumed decan. Jumped in the big deployment when he was twenty, with genius and naivety, he thought to create a very personal virtual showcase of virtual objects, borrowing the names of very famous international griffes, launching products online, without their knowledge. 3D projects, commissioned and never produced for real, unless in his fertile immagination, but so disruptive in their lines to attract full of orders and induce the “stolen” brands to propose the best cooperations. Since then, this enfant prodige has worked for many industries, of different categories. Today, he enters the world of luxury sailing, Perini Navi, to be precise, who commissioned a renovation of famous 56 meters, flagship of the fleet. During the last Monaco Yachts Show, the shipyard presented the Perini Navi/Ora-Ïto capsule, developped in cooperation with the eclectic designer.

Technology, furniture, fashion, jewellery, architecture, transports, hôtellerie, and now yachting as well: there is no industry that Ora-Ïto has not attended. How does the approach to each client vary?

The number of sectors in which I have worked allowed me to acquire a global approach to design, over time. In a certain sense, the method is the same, but it is translated in a research of timeless high quality. 

Is it the simplexity concept?

Exactly. A word invented to express the tension to give a simple answer, but not easy answer to a complex problem, that is to enclose in a more immediate, rigorous and accessoble form all the amplitude of the problem. It means, in other words, to create essential shapes coming from a unique powerful idea, instead of resulting from the addition of many ideas, imprecise and weak. 

What about the approach used with Perini Navi?

It is the one I always adopt. Last september, at Monaco Boat Show, we presented our partnership and presented our first concept. A sort of manifesto of the shipyard stating “We are working with a designer coming from outside the sector, living him free, and we want to begin by Ora Ïto”. I am flattered to be the first to enjoy this opening, but it was necessary to proceed step by step, presenting a vision and launching my name in the nautic world. 

What is Perini Navi’s core, according to you?

It is a brand that showed its ability to be on the market, a hybrid between the comfort of a motoryacht and the charm of sails; but it is not only a question of elegance, it is a question of culture, passion, and family as well. There is business, but also passion. 

How was it to work with Perini Navi?

They welcame me like in a family and it is the first time that this happens to me with a client. At the shipyard, the professional dimension passes through the human one. They want to talk to you face-to-face, hold your hand, understand who you are. Once you are in, you are at home for all your life. And I like it. 

What is multidisciplinariety?

Every yacht narrates its conditions of use, performance, style choices, technology in a pecular way. And in the articulated combination of all these elements, at micro and macro level, each one expresses its unicity: structure, volumes, layout, but also details. 

The transversal look of an outsider brings freshness, but in a sector like nautic, experience is fundamental …

Sure. It would be simpler to work on a train or a plane, where structure is decided by engineers. Here, instead, designers have a major role. Support and experience of the Perini team are determining: from commercial vision to familiarity with the clients of the CEO, or the punctual work of marketing, the constant relationship with Franco Romani, Style & Design Director. It works because it is a team work. A great one.