A Corridor of Light: What Our National Design Nomination Really Means
Chameleon Sand Candle is a National Nominee for Best Achievement in Design at the 2026 Australian Event Awards and Symposium. The nomination recognises our 1,200+ candle installation for the Sodexo Australia 2026 Excellence Awards at Crown Perth. We styled 23 banquet tables to read as one continuous corridor of light for 368 guests, using plant-based, non-toxic sand candles we make in-house.
Chameleon Sand Candle is now a National Nominee for Best Achievement in Design.
I'm still getting used to saying that sentence out loud.
When Kuno and I started Chameleon in 2023, we had more conviction than certainty. We believed candlelight could be beautiful and responsible at the same time, with no trade-off between the two. We made our own wax, tested our own wicks and styled our first tables with care.
Three years later, our name sits on a national shortlist beside Australia's leading event professionals. Humbling. Surreal. Quietly affirming.
Because to me, this nomination says something bigger than "we did a pretty room." It says responsible candlelight belongs in serious event design, at scale and under pressure, in rooms where every detail is judged.
What are the Australian Event Awards, and why does this nomination matter?
The Australian Event Awards and Symposium is the only national program where event professionals compete directly across every part of the industry. The goal is to find out who is actually setting the standard, not who has the loudest marketing.
The judges look at four things:
Innovation: is the work doing something genuinely new?
Direct benefit: did it deliver real value to the client and their guests?
Degree of difficulty: how demanding was it to execute?
Evidence: can you prove what you're claiming, not just say it?
The last one is the criterion I respect most. Anyone can write a beautiful award submission. Proving it with outcomes, images and client feedback is a different discipline entirely.
Who else stands in this category?
Last year's Best Achievement in Design winner was Artists in Motion, for their New Year's Eve production on the Burj Khalifa. That's one of the most-watched light displays on the planet.
Artists in Motion also won this year, for Hong Kong Winterfest - 360-degree immersive light and sound show.
Standing in that category as a National Nominee is a milestone I didn't expect this early. It puts a Perth candle studio and a production on the world's tallest building in front of the same judges, with the same question about design and intention.
I don't mention that work to compare scale. I mention it because it shows something we've always believed. Light, in every form, is design. A skyline and a banquet table ask for the same craft: precision, restraint and emotion.
What did we create for the Sodexo Australia 2026 Excellence Awards?
The brief brought together 368 guests, 23 banquet tables and one of the grandest rooms at Crown Perth. Our design idea was clear from the start. The tables shouldn't feel like 23 separate islands. They should read as one continuous corridor of light.
That sounds poetic. In practice, it's exacting work.
A corridor only reads as a corridor when every element agrees. Each vessel lines up with the next, and each candle line keeps its rhythm from one table into the following one. One crooked line or one smudged vessel, and the eye catches it. The illusion breaks.
So we designed every table as part of a whole rather than as a standalone arrangement. Over 1,200 candles were styled for this room and this moment, not copied from a template. The work was bespoke, design-led and built to be seen as one.
What happens before guests ever see the room?
Our standards show up in moments nobody photographs.
Every vessel is inspected in our studio before it leaves. If it's chipped, scratched or clouded, it's pulled from service. No exceptions.
Every vessel is handled with gloves from load-in to the final check. No fingerprints. No dust. No "good enough."
We work closely with the venue team on timing, access and flow, so our installation moves alongside theirs instead of getting in the way.
Every candle is lit in sequence and checked before the doors open.
Pack-down gets the same care as installation, right through to the last vessel.
Kirsty West of Shining Events Support has worked beside us on many events since 2024, and she puts it better than I can: "They don't just provide sand candles, they get to know your event and figure out how they can elevate it with simple but glamorous styling. They are efficient at loading in and out of a venue, their work is seamless and their products are beautiful."
What happened when the guests walked in?
The nomination was never the point.
The real moment happened when Sodexo's guests walked into that room. More than 1,200 candles, aligned and glowing in quiet unison, filled the space with a warmth nobody could quite explain, only feel.
That's what we build for. The second a room stops being a room and becomes an atmosphere. The nomination is just proof that it worked.
In Sodexo Australia's own words: "We were extremely happy with your services and the candles on the night. They created exactly the atmosphere we were hoping for, and our attendees were absolutely blown away."
The same thinking guides our hospitality work. It's why Sofitel Hotels Australia chose us as their National Candle Ritual Partner, bringing plant-based, non-toxic candlelight into their everyday guest experience.
Explore our Sofitel Hotels Australia partnership →
Why does responsible candlelight belong in serious event design?
For a long time, large-scale candlelight meant compromise. Planners had to choose between atmosphere and what guests were breathing in a closed ballroom for hours.
We built Chameleon to remove that choice.
Plant-based granulated candle wax that is dye-free, fragrance-free and always white
Lead-free cotton wicks with a plant-based, non-toxic coating
An RSPO-certified supply chain, and Australian Made certification
Complete in-house manufacturing. Chameleon is the only sand candle styling company in Australia that makes its own sand candles, so every standard is ours to hold.
For a 368-guest gala in an enclosed room, that matters. This is not just a beautiful room. It's a responsible one. Our candles create atmospheres every guest can breathe in comfortably, and that's what responsible luxury looks like at scale.
The Chameleon Perspective: Why do the small details matter so much?
I think this is true of most meaningful work. You don't do it for the trophy. You do it because you can't stop noticing the small details nobody else sees. Eventually, someone outside your studio confirms you were right to care.
Chameleon began with a belief that light can transform a space and offer comfort when people need it most. That belief doesn't shrink when a room gets bigger. If anything, scale makes it matter more.
At Chameleon, we believe true quality is internal. It lives in the vessel inspection at 7am, in the line that's straightened when nobody is watching, and in the gloves that stay on long after anyone would notice. Guests never see that work. They only feel the result.
We do not follow industry standards. We set them.
What comes next for Chameleon?
My sincere thanks to the Australian Event Awards and Symposium and the judging panel for recognising Chameleon Sand Candle alongside Australia's leading event professionals. Thank you to Sodexo Australia for trusting us with your night. And thank you to Kuno, Katz and everyone who has believed in this from the start.
A national nomination is authority. We're proud, grateful and more certain than ever that responsible candlelight at scale belongs in serious event design.
This is only the beginning.
Planning a gala, awards night or corporate event that deserves to be remembered?
We'd love to design your corridor of light, with bespoke, non-toxic candle styling delivered with white-glove care from first plan to final pack-down.
