2020 Digital Design Festival, promotional image, courtesy Digital Scent Festival-April 14-May 31, 2020
While we try to make the most of our time indoors, we find comfort filling our time with virtual gatherings and events. For fragrance lovers, while Esxense Milan’s 10th anniversary was cancelled, and the IAO’s inaugural Scent Week in Los Angeles was cancelled, a smart and lively festival of community and scent was hatched. On April 14, 2020 Yosh Han in collaboration with Aroma Village, launched a Digital Scent Festival, where VIP access to professional noses and industry leaders are being brought to you in the comfort of your office, studio or living room
2020 Digital Design Festival, Scent + Future, image courtesy Digital Scent Festival
The event is six weeks in, and people are tuning in from all corners of the globe from Sri Lanka, India, Asia, UK, Europe, across the USA, and Australia. Yosh has curated the attendees with an eye on art, indie, diversity and a deep understanding of the importance of scent reaching many disciplines and areas of expertise. In addition to professional Noses, the multi-faceted perfumers are musicians, designers, architects, writers, healers, herbalists. Indie veterans from Sarah Horowitz of Sarah Horowitz Parfums and Miriam Vareldzis of Palette Naturals to young perfumers Dana El Masri of Jazmin Saraï and Heather D’Angelo of Carta Fragrances are all sitting at the table together sharing insights and awareness to their respective practices.
2020 Digital Design Festival, Scent + Manufacturing, image courtesy Digital Scent Festival
With topics ranging from sustainability to lunar vibes, and art and music to natural scent construction the festival is built of weekly Instagram live chats on Tuesdays (varying times, though all posted are PST) and 10 AM PST Thursday Zoom panels. It is growing exponentially, with new events and panels lining up weekly. Speaking to co-founder and curator Yosh Han she shares, “in week one, we started with five Zoom panels and two instaLIVES, and now ten zoom panels,15 instaLIVES and over 55 presenters!” She is also establishing a YouTube channel with the zoom recordings. * The Instagram live events are free, and the Zoom panel has a sliding scale $5-30, as a gesture or upwards $400 for products from the panelists. You must RSVP on Eventbrite if you would like to attend any of the Zoom panel sessions listed here.
Top Row – L-R: Dana El Masri, Jazmin Saraï, Charmmie Hendon, Sorceress Charmmie, Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist, Michael Coyle, Mik Moi SF, Justin Copeland, Stay Fresh Productions, Kelly Jones, Kelly & Jones , Alicia “Ace” Easter, Aceyogala, Laurie Stern, Velvet and Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery (Digital Design Festival, image courtesy Digital Scent Festival)
The Digital Scent Festival has a clear mission to foster inclusivity and diversity. Panelists for Scent + Storytelling include Alka Henni, whose novel set in India The Henna Artist was just recognized as a Reese’s Book Club May book, and had a fragrance created by Mandana Navi of Essentique inspired by the book. Justin Copeland of Stay Fresh Productions, who is a fragrance reviewer and a musician did an instaLIVE with Yosh on May 12 at 4 PST. Also, if you are interested in the different distribution models of scent that are evolving you can hear from retailers American Perfumer, Olfactif and Scent Trunk. The final Zoom panel on May 28 titled Scent + Future will have a curious and powerful panel comprised of perfumer Christophe Laudamiel, Olivia Jezler of Future of Smell, Caro Verbeek art and olfactory historian, Rachelle Ornan, aerospace engineer and Celestine Johnson from Boom Capital.
Recently added, a Scent + Startups session is scheduled for the last day of the festival — Indie perfumers will pitch their ideas to a jury comprising a brand strategist and VC matchmaker, trend casters and a NY publicist. There will be a celebratory brunch at the very end which will result in a collaborative virtual scent with all the attendees. This is an event not to be missed.
Digital Design Festival, Scent + Design, image courtesy Digital Scent Festival
The Digital Scent Festival participants stand in solidarity with one another, supporting each other’s practices while connecting with new audiences. The topics are by design broad, and the talks are meant as amuse-bouche tastings for larger conversations. The conversations whether more intimate instaLIVE or Zoom panels are tickling people’s brains to reconsider the landscape of scent in a new light. I was a panelist on the Scent + Design talk, along with fellow panelists Dannielle Sergent, artist and designer who is a finalist with her “Wild Child” scent for the IAO award this Spring, and Sydney Buffman, a perfumer, clinical herbalist, and graphic designer who has done perfume commissions for Stanford’s Design School. The talk was vibrant, with many questions asked and answered. The talk was recorded, and went over its allotted time, and only just began to get more nuanced and energized in how we describe and consider perfume/scent as art.
2020 Digital Design Festival, Tuesday’s are instaLIVE interviews with perfumers, image courtesy Digital Scent Festival
Not only has the festival been a success with respect to diversity of content, participants and demographics, it is a big win for broadening the dialogue of scent and its potential to shape and inspire our worlds. Whether you are curious about a perfumer’s practice, broader market trends, or intuition and scent there is something here for you to enjoy.
*If you are reading this and wondering how on earth to “instaLIVE” etc. – it’s fairly intuitive, you just need to follow the festival (@scent_festival) and/or presenters on Instagram, and you will see them “go live” during their scheduled time.
– Catherine Haley Epstein, Guest Contributor, Perfumed Plume finalist for her book Nose Dive | A Book for the Creative Seeking Potential Through Their Noses, and the recipient of the 2017 Perfumed Plume Award in Fragrance Journalism, for her writing on the use of scent as an art medium.
Thanks to the generosity of the participants we have three unique Discovery Gift sets from Tigerlily Perfumery, Scent Trunk and Olfactif with some of perfumers presenting in each of the sets. To be eligible you must be a registered reader in the USA and Canada (the draw for each set is random, but it you have a strong preference it will be noted, but not guaranteed). To be eligible please comment on which festival event you have or would like to attend–MANDATORY. Draw closes 5/17/2020
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