The Story behind ilo

ilo [eye-low] - Finnish word for joy

I started ilo after watching guests at a wedding I was photographing. The photo booth there was a mess of feather boas and busy backgrounds, and the photos looked like a mall kiosk from the 90s. I watched people take their prints, take a photo of the print with their phone, and then throw the paper away. I immediately thought, “This could be done better.”

So ilo began. We focused on making the process simple—you should just have the photo sent to your phone. We leveled up the quality by using our photography background to build a professional portrait studio in an automated, portable form.

As we grew, we never lost the drive to make things better. I spent my life as a musician and photographer. My mom always told me I would be an engineer because I was the kid who took everything apart to see how it worked. I still do that.

We care about the details, but just like a musician who obsesses over guitar tone, it isn’t really about the gear—it’s about the music. It’s the same with ilo. It isn’t about the fancy tech; it’s about how we use that tech to create the best possible product in the simplest way possible.

That is our goal: beautiful photos that are fun to make because the process is so easy. That’s how joy happens in a photo booth.