Iranian-French architect India Mahdavi has created an armchair clad with not one but 10 yellow plug sockets by designer Omer Arbel, unveiled today at Paris’s Matter and Shape design fair.
The sugary pink Smiley chair is covered with round yellow sockets in a visual ode to the universally recognisable smiley face symbol, first illustrated by American artist Harvey Ball in 1963.
Mahdavi collaborated with Arbel, co-founder of design brand Bocci, who integrated 10 of his 22 System electrical sockets across the chair’s arms and body.
By reinventing the plug socket as a decorative as well as a functional design feature, Mahdavi and Arbel aim to fuse practicality with playfulness.
“Smiley is about celebrating the small details that bring joy to our daily lives,” said Mahdavi.
“By reimagining the electrical outlet as a design element, we invite people to see the beauty in the functional and the familiar.”
Mahdavi chose to redesign her Oliver chair for the project, a compact and geometric textile-clad armchair originally created for a private residence in London and named after the client’s newborn child.
A bespoke yellow colourway called Kelly was created for the plug sockets, nodding to Ball’s famous illustration while enhancing the project’s sense of joyfulness.
Smiley is being unveiled today at the Matter and Shape design salon, which is now in its second year and takes place annually during Paris Fashion Week.
Known for her penchant for colour and maximalism, Mahdavi recently completed the interiors for the PoMo art gallery in Trondheim, Norway – her first museum project.
Arbel recently unveiled designs for a series of concrete homes in America’s Washington State made from “cedar orb clouds” intended to cultivate ecosystems over time. He founded Bocci with Randy Bishop in 2005.
Matter and Shape 2025 takes place from 7 to 10 March 2025 at Tuileries Garden, 75001 Paris, France. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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