Design Story: Happiness Pillar Candles

Artist Yinka Ilori shares the story behind the development of Happiness Pillar Candles, his debut design for Areaware.

Photo of a group of colorful chairs designed by Yinka Ilori

Restoration Station by Yinka Ilori

Chairs have played a central part in my works since I started in design. To me each chair can tell many stories about people, about power, about history. I like to convey this idea of a hidden narrative in all of my works - a story that can de discovered if you really want to look for the meaning in it.

When Areaware approached me about this project I was looking at some of my chair designs we have in our studio which I had created for my 'Types of Happiness’ installation in 2019. That project had brought me so much joy and I thought it would be interesting to carry this narrative over into a different form, looking specifically at the chair legs becoming the pillars of the candles.

Yinka Ilori's 'Types of Happiness Chair' photographed from four different perspectivesTypes of Happiness, "Strength"

Looking at the strong shapes and silhouettes of these chair legs, I started to sketch some ideas on paper, bringing in the bright signature colours that I use in my works to incite happiness and positivity, mixing them up between candle shapes. I want these candles to act as art pieces in their own right - to make a statement as part of a room and that have this story behind them to be discovered.

  • Happiness Pillar Candle
  • Happiness Pillar Candle
  • Happiness Pillar Candle
  • Happiness Pillar Candle
  • Happiness Pillar Candle

Yinka Ilori

Happiness Pillar Candle

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This candle is adapted from designer Yinka Ilori's chair series, Types of Happiness. Each chair in the series tells a story of the sixteen different types of happiness. These stories continue through the pillar candles by replicating the colors used on the chair legs, each of which evoke a type of happy feeling.