With IKEA turning 80 this yr, Dezeen spoke to its international design managers Eva Lilja Löwenhielm and Johan Ejdemo about AI, working with exterior designers and why it stays a “distinctive low-price model”.
Löwenhielm and Ejdemo oversee Swedish furnishings model IKEA’s 23 in-house designers, in addition to the 200-or-so freelance designers that assist create its 2,000-2,500 new merchandise per yr.
Whereas some design to particular pitches for various areas of the house, Löwenhielm and Ejdemo additionally work with groups which are wanting additional forward.
“Some designers give us pitches or are in shut collaboration with our enterprise areas, after which we additionally work with what we name collections, the place we’re extra explorative or interested in issues,” Löwenhielm stated.
“We’re in some early exploration tasks as effectively, the place we’re working with our innovation groups and searching into issues which are possibly 5 to 10 years forward.”
In addition to creating in-house collections, IKEA additionally continuously collaborates with exterior designers and lately labored with Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis on the Varmblixt assortment.
In line with Löwenhielm and Ejdemo, that is symptomatic of the model’s curiosity about designs that differ from its personal.
“We’re interested in different expressions that we do not usually do, or which are questioning,” Löwenhielm stated. “And people rely on the collaborators. So that’s the starting – why will we do that collaboration collectively?”
“An instance might be a curiosity about how we convey gentle into the house differently,” added Ejdemo. “It is likely to be fairly near what we do, however nonetheless have a really particular viewpoint.”
“We’ll proceed to evolve within the methods we collaborate, and the portfolio of collaborations would possibly look completely different sooner or later than it has up to now – likely it can as a result of we attempt to enhance as effectively.”
The model’s designs have typically been tailored and copied, with quite a lot of firms providing their very own designs that can be utilized to refurbish present IKEA merchandise – one thing that Ejdemo sees as a optimistic factor.
“I personally have a really optimistic view of it. We allow creativity and we allow inventive options at dwelling,” he stated.
These diversifications may also assist the IKEA staff perceive what folks need from their merchandise, in line with the design managers.
“We in all probability study rather a lot ourselves about issues that we’d not be doing that we needs to be doing,” Ejdemo stated.
“However these options that we check with, they would not slot in our imaginative and prescient of being reasonably priced – they typically turn out to be extraordinarily costly, and may take a whole lot of time earlier than you get them.”
Previously few years, IKEA has closed quite a lot of its bigger shops and created smaller places in metropolis centres together with a car-free retailer in Vienna with a gridded facade and a Copenhagen retailer with a rooftop park that’s set to open this yr.
The model can be set to open a retailer on London’s Oxford Road this autumn.
This transformation from bigger out-of-town shops to smaller shops hasn’t affected the best way through which the merchandise are designed, in line with the design supervisor duo.
“We nonetheless have the identical design ideas and we attempt to be the place individuals are,” Ejdemo stated.
Whereas prospects at the moment are maybe extra more likely to see the merchandise on-line earlier than going to an IKEA retailer, the one factor that has been affected is the model’s logistics.
“The one change we’re working in the direction of is making the dimensions of the packaging extra accessible for on-line gross sales,” stated Löwenhielm. “We have now at all times tried to minimise the fabric use and be good.”
“With IKEA, you at all times design [products] to suit right into a field,” Ejdemo stated. “We do not need to transport air, that sits inside sustainability and prices as effectively.”
“It is within the DNA when doing an IKEA product design – you can’t do the design with out having an thought of how it may be damaged down to suit into packaging,” he added.
Previously yr, synthetic intelligence (AI) has begun to have an growing impression on the structure and design industries, with structure studios, together with Zaha Hadid Architects, utilizing it to get inspiration for tasks.
Among the many design outfits to have used it’s Space10, IKEA’s analysis collective, which lately created an idea for a foldable sofa.
The know-how has additionally been picked up by the designers working with Löwenhielm and Ejdemo.
“The design staff is taking part in round with it already as a result of they mess around with every little thing new, that is simply the character of who they’re,” Ejdemo stated.
“[Not using it] could be as flawed as saying that images would not be fascinating for us as a result of we’re portray such real looking photos,” he added. “Clearly, we’re interested in what’s coming sooner or later.”
The corporate lately celebrated its eightieth anniversary with an exhibition at Milan design week that checked out IKEA’s previous in addition to its future.
“We at all times get the query of what has to vary and the way to keep related, ” Ejdemo stated. “We’re at all times reflecting the society that we’re in.”
“Butthere are additionally a whole lot of issues in IKEA which are a continuing – we all know now we have a imaginative and prescient, we all know who we’re: we’re for a lot of, possibly not for everybody,” he added.
“We have now an thought that’s to make merchandise which are reasonably priced. If our merchandise make you content, provide help to think about the way to remedy one thing in your house and do not put an enormous gap in your pockets, that is type of what we do beneath our imaginative and prescient.”
Whereas mass-production typically carries destructive connotations, Ejdemo argued that IKEA sees it as a chance to drive progress and affect industries.
“For us, [mass-production is] a chance to drive progress and alter and really affect industries to enhance and turn out to be higher,” he added. “Low-price is an final result of doing that extra effectively.”
“I often say that we’re a low-price band however not any low-price model, we’re a really distinctive low-price model with a really distinctive viewpoint on what we do,” Ejdemo stated.
“There are only a few firms that make investments as a lot in design as we do at IKEA.”
“We’re additionally a progressive firm that desires to lean ahead, like [with] AI, and I am certain there might be errors there as effectively,” Ejdemo added.
“However we’re an organization that encourages errors, so long as we do not repeat them.”
The images is courtesy of IKEA.
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