Over the last 30 years Tracy Pepe has been developing her superpower – the connection between mental health and our sense of smell. As a perfumer, specializing with essential oils and aromatic chemicals, her career has defined her as a “pioneer”, curating various scent solutions to rethink practical synesthesia in architecture and interior design. Pepe and her team featured the first SCENTED ART Installation at Nuit Blanche Toronto, 2013.
Most of her design collaborations explored the idea of sensorial expansion—adding the intertwinement of scent strategy and color to create newly deepened ways of visitor sensation. Tracy’s work answers the question, how to scent a space to impact how we feel.
In her TEX TALK How the Nose Knows, Tracy Pepe refers to the research connected to lack of smell and depression. With smell and emotions being closely linked, people living without a sense of smell are more likely to experience low mood or symptoms of depression. Published author, of “So What’s all the sniff about?” and her recent book WHY the NOSE? As a perfumer, Tracy teaches us to re-think how we smell and use aromatic plant materials, essential oils to re-train and how to train one’s sense of smell. Her passion for scent is contagious, in her book she demonstrates techniques to help individuals to regain their sense of smell and taste, specifically as it has been lost from COVID -19.
Tracy Pepe has been working with brands using scent as a communication tool to expand visitor experiences.
Honors
TEDx speaker, How the Nose Knows..
• Winner of Olfactive brand for Samsung – Smitty Award 2013
• Winner of the 2012 Best Scent Marketing Campaign
• 2009 ‘FIFI’ award nomination (the fragrance industry’s top accolade)
• Inventor of a scent dispersal application method (patent pending)
• Honored in the Who’s Who of Canadian Women
• Winner of the Innovative Product Award By A.R.I.D.O - Sensory Design
• Author of the first published book on scented spaces, So, What’s all the Sniff About?
• Author first smell learning workbook, Why the NOSE?
Scent Events:
• http://todesignoffsite.com/event/the-sniff-bar/ was the Critics top 5 pick, Tracy’s Scent Bar http://todesignoffsite.com/event/the-sniff-bar/ was one of Toronto’s hottest event in 2017
• GOAway! special feature exhibit at IIDEXCanada 2015
• Nomination Best Scent Campaign Trump Hotels AND Best Scent Marketer 2013
• Scent Designer Nuit Blanche Toronto, 2013
Media
SCENT Design - https://sourceable.net/scent-design-an-aromatic-approach-to-interiors/
Define a Luxury Hotel - https://sourceable.net/what-defines-a-luxury-hotel/#
Aromas are the new frontier in Interior Design http://observer.com/2015/06/aromas-are-the-new-frontier-forinterior-design/
Globe & Mail, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/design/a-sense-of-occasion-how-luxury-hotels-andcondos-seduce-you-with-signature-scents/article20513403/
