Yinka Ilori

British-Nigerian multidisciplinary artist, designer and storyteller whose contemporary design practice draws on Nigerian parables, heritage and visual symbolism to create joyful, community-oriented public spaces and objects. He delivered the TED2026 talk “How I Turn Joy into Art” on transgenerational joy.

Joy Is Inherited Through Shared Rituals, Places and Symbols

Artist Yinka Ilori argues that joy is less a private achievement than an inheritance carried through family rituals, places and gatherings. Drawing on his Nigerian parents’ life in London and Instagram responses about people’s earliest joyful memories, Ilori found that togetherness appeared in about 80 percent of accounts, ahead of nature, freedom, growth and stillness. He turns those memories into a visual language of shared symbols, intended to make transgenerational joy visible and transferable.

TEDAug 13, 20264 min read