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Yankee Candle: Making Scents of Emotions

A burning flame, a base note of fresh cut flowers, and an insight into the brain's chemical processing: there is more to a candle than one might think. The interactive data project Yankee Candle: Making Scents of Emotions explores these connections "between smell and memory." Noting that Yankee Candle's "whole business is selling memories and emotions packed into glass jars," the project uses the company as a launching point for psychological and scientific revelations. For example, the project details the sensory processes that connect smells and memories, explains connections between colors and scents, and reveals the complexities of scent profiles (notably, 25 percent "a quarter of all candles use a 'musk' scent as their final impression,"). Toward the end of the piece, readers are invited to explore data themselves by toggling over information broken down by location, season, and time of day, among other categories. The concluding remarks to the resource center its purpose: "whether or not you buy into the idea that the connection between smells and emotions implies an emotional significance to candles for sale, it's interesting to look at such a wide and varied product line finely tuned to connect with consumers on an emotional level." The project is housed on tidbits, a website dedicated to "exploring a few interesting ideas and the best ways to visually explain or explore them," operated by designer and developer Jonathan Larson.
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Date of Scout Publication
April 24th, 2020
Date Of Record Creation
April 9th, 2020 at 12:54pm
Date Of Record Release
April 15th, 2020 at 9:31am
Resource URL Clicks
82
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