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Olay Yinka Ilori (born April 1987) is a British artist and designer known for his bold use of bright colours and playful designs for furniture and public spaces. His work includes architecture, interior design, graphic design, textiles, sculpture, and furniture. It includes storytelling using design as a medium, referencing his British and Nigerian heritage.
The New York Times Style Magazine described Ilori as "one of '12 Talents Shaping the Design World'", and Abitare referred to him as belonging "to a more open-minded and inclusive generation that sees design as offering a possible response to social and environmental changes."
His father was a store manager for B&Q and his mother worked as an events caterer. Ilori recalls the vibrant outfits worn by his parents' friends and family at house parties when he was little. Visiting Nigeria as a child had an important impact on him and helped him better understand his family's cultural heritage.
Ilori studied art and design (with a focus on furniture and product design) at London Metropolitan University from 2006 to 2009. He lives and works in London.
Ilori's mixed cultural heritage is an influence in his work. The Nigerian parables his parents told him as a child have become a major source of inspiration for his designs. In 2013, one such parable, "No matter how long the neck of a giraffe is, it still cannot see the future", led to a five-piece collection of chairs which Ilori transformed from broken and cast-off furniture into abstract, brightly coloured new works of art "to share a lesson from this childhood story — that we should not be judgemental".
More recently he has created public works and installations such as Happy Street, in which he transformed a railway bridge underpass at Nine Elms with brightly coloured murals; The Colour Palace at Dulwich Picture Gallery, a temporary pavilion described as "a testament to universal themes of colour, pattern, and celebration"; and Get Up Stand Up at Somerset House, which "celebrates half a century of black creativity in the UK" and was called "a riot of colour and pattern".
Ilori founded his design studio in 2015. The practice includes architects and designers for whom colour is a key interest. As his team has expanded, Ilori has been able to take on larger-scale architectural and interior design projects. His clients include companies such as Adidas, Kvadrat, Lego, Meta, Nike, Pepsi, and SCP, as well as the NHS Foundation Trust for which he created works for the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and Springfield University Hospital.
In 2020 he launched an eponymous homeware brand which manufactures and distributes his own products. He was also awarded the Emerging Design Medal by the London Design Festival.
Ilori collaborated with British stage designer Es Devlin on the design of the Britannia statuettes for the 2021 Brit Awards.
In 2022 he designed a playground titled The Flamboyance of Flamingos in Parsloes Park, East London. In the same year, the Design Museum in London staged an exhibition of Ilori's work featuring 100 of his projects as well as "Canary Wharf's first ever basketball court." His work has also been exhibited in museums such as the V&A Dundee, Vitra Design Museum in Basel, and the Guggenheim Bilbao, and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York as part of the Afrofuturist Period Room.
Ilori has said, "I use colour as a way of starting a conversation. It's quite a nice way of opening up a topic and softening what could be a harsh reality", and is quoted in The Guardian as saying, "My work is very much about inclusivity and how people enjoy design."
According to the architect David Adjaye, Ilori's work "transcends just function and product and acts as a device for cultural memory".
Ilori was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Design in the 2021 New Year's Honours.
In July 2024 Ilori was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) "for his outstanding contributions to art and design."
In 2024 he launched a clothing line featuring his trademark vibrant patterns in collaboration with The North Face, The NSE collection (Never Stop Exploring) was described by the brand as its "most playful" to date and includes a range of items such as rain jackets, fleeces, sweatshirts, trousers, t-shirts, and a bag.
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