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It’s a pleasant, contented life inside the world of IKEA. So smile. No, seriously, smile. Don’t stop. Ever.
This short film by Jeroen Houben explores a madness kept in place with Allen screws.
-via The Hairpin | Director’s Website
Sorry, guys, but this shopping trip to IKEA is going to take longer than you think. The woman in your life would like to spend a looooooong time looking at various options. Why? I have no idea, but this particular IKEA offers an alternative to the tedium. Manland is an in-house temporary daycare center that keeps men occupied with snacks and pinball machines while the ladies shop.
Ladies,
does your man have a short retail attention span? Well, he no longer has
any valid excuse for not going shopping with you now that IKEA has a dedicated
room for your retail-phobic boyfriend or husband:
MÄNLAND is being trialled for four days this Father's Day weekend as a male-only play space to hang out in while wives and girlfriends peruse the aisles.
Publicity manager Jude Leon said the idea was modelled on the Swedish furniture giant’s existing child play area, SMALAND.
Ms Leon said women were given a buzzer to remind them to collect their other half after 30 minutes of shopping.
Sexist? Maybe. Genius? Definitely. Link - via The Week
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Things You Didn't Know About IKEA
This Twaggie was illustrated by Cecile Dyer from a Tweet by @derekasaurus. Like all Twaggies, it can be purchased on a t-shirt or print. Link
The
demise of books has been foretold by many pundits, but perhaps the writing
is now on the wall ... or in this case, the bookshelf. Specifically, the
IKEA bookshelf.
John Biggs of TechCrunch wrote:
If you needed any more proof that the age of dead-tree books is over take a look at these alarming style changes at Ikea: the furniture manufacturer’s iconic BILLY bookcase – the bookcase that everyone put together when they got their first apartment and, inevitably, pounded the nails wrong into – is becoming deeper and more of a curio cabinet. Why? Because Ikea is noticing that customers no longer buy them for books.
This isn’t quite the canary in the coal mine – think of it as a slight tickle in the mine foreman’s throat – but all signs are pointing to the end of the physical book. There are plenty of analogs to this situation. When’s the last time you saw a casette tape rack sold outside of Odd Lots? What about the formal “stereo cabinet” with plenty of room for records? What about Virgin Megastores?
As much as it pains me to say this and as horrible as it sounds, the book is leaving us.
Link | More from The Economist
Inevitably, you’ll open your toolbox and find three Gungans but not a single Torx wrench.
At the link: Doctor Who, Back to the Future, and Jurassic Park.
IKEA is the world’s largest furniture store. In fact, the company is so big, it is estimated that around 10% of all Europeans alive today were conceived on an IKEA bed. Despite its success though, the company still has quite a few dark secrets, as well as a number of interesting trivia bits. Whether you love the flat-pack manufacturer or hate it, these 10 facts about the company are certain to spark your interest in the things that happen behind the scenes of IKEA.
Image via Calvin Teo [Wikipedia]
The Store Was Created By A Nazi Sympathizer. Founder Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943. He was only seventeen at the time. At the same time, he was also directly involved with fund-raising and recruitment for the New Swedish Movement, a pro-fascist, anti-Semitist group that emphasized Swedish Nationalism. When the matter came out in 1994, Kamprad claimed it was the biggest mistake of his life. He apologized for his involvement with the group and wrote a letter to every Jewish employee on his staff to personally apologize for his actions. Even so, the issue caused a minor controversy when IKEA opened its first store in Israel. In the end, the country seemed to forgive him and IKEA is now one of only a handful of companies to have stores in both Israel and other Muslim Middle Eastern countries.
Image via yassan-yukky [Flickr]
Image via DrJohnBullas [Flickr]
Their Catalog Is More Popular Than The Bible. Ok, maybe that’s a little misleading, but every year, there are almost three times more copies of the catalog printed than the bible. They started printing the catalog in 1951 and it has since taken on a life of its own, consuming a full 70% of the companies marketing budget every year and developing a devoted fan base of people who analyze the images looking for obscure books in the bookshelves, Mickey Mouse references and cats hiding in the fake households. There are now 55 editions printed in 27 languages every year.
Image via thekellyscope [Flickr]
Do you like the company or hate it? More to the point, have you changed your opinion after learning about Kamprad’s dirty secrets or about their progressive ads targeted to homosexuals?
Sources: Wikipedia and Mental Floss
What was the purpose for Stonehenge? Was it a calendar, an observatory, or a sacrificial site? These suggestions by archaeologists assume that it was a completed design instead of a project left half-finished because the assembly instructions were provided by IKEA. Justin Pollard, John Lloyd and Stevyn Colgan composed a cartoon illustrating this explanation. This is the first panel; the latter stages seem to involve magic and heavy drinking.
Link via The Presurfer
Katja’s hamster Fred has a home to die for, for a hamster. Katja converted an Ikea Expedit bookcase into a multi-level hamster home featuring a different room for each activity. Fred has a large room for running, stairs and ladders to traverse, a room to burrow in, a room to take a dust bath in, a room to eat in, variable lighting, and plenty of places in which to explore and play. See more pictures and find out how it was done at Pawesome. Link
Ever been lost in an IKEA store? It’s not your fault – turns out the store was actually designed like a maze. Why? Elementary, my dear Watson: it’s so you shop more!
The home furnishing chain’s mazy layouts are a psychological weapon to part shoppers from their cash, an expert in store design claims. The theory is that while following a zig-zag trail between displays of minimalist Swedish furniture, a disorientated Ikea customer feels compelled to pick up a few extra impulse purchases.
According to Alan Penn, director of the Virtual Reality Centre for the Built Environment at University College London, Ikea’s strategy is similar to that of out-of-town retail parks – keep customers inside for as long as they can.
‘In Ikea’s case, you have to follow a set path past what is effectively their catalogue in physical form, with furniture placed in different settings which is meant to show you how adaptable it is,’ he said. ‘By the time you get to the warehouse where you can actually buy the stool or whatever’s caught your eye, you’re so impressed by how cheap it is that you end up getting it.’
Our friends over at Cool Material have come up with a very fitting tribute to the IKEA furniture purchase. The only thing I can add is that I always seem to get lost in IKEA and can’t figure out how to escape! Link
Styling Evelina Bratell / Vaniljhorn, Photo: Carl Kleiner
Everyone who’s ever had to put together some furniture from IKEA would chuckle at Carl Kleiner’s series of photographs, which are to be used for the upcoming IKEA baking cookbook: Link – via Laughing Squid and Boing Boing
Comments Off
What would happen if you release 100 cats in your local IKEA store? That’s exactly what the Herding Cats Experiment is all about:
These are not specially trained film cats. No one knew what they would do. … A team of animal handlers are on site along with 5 film crews to capture all the action. They went into every little hole, crevice, every dark bit which is great because we have some infrared night vision camera which gives you these lovely shots when these went right to the dark corners …
Check out the video clips at Geekosystem: Link
Next up: 100 snakes! Are you listening, IKEA?
We’ve all contemplated that nightmare scenario: you’re trapped in an IKEA store after closing, the cold of winter is seeping into your bones, and worst of all, a pack timber wolves is starting to circle around you. You need to start a fire now. But how? This video by Vimeo user Helmet tells you how to start a fire with nothing more than the products you can find in an IKEA store.
via reddit
The Swedish furniture retailer IKEA has an interesting showcase in Paris. They display some of their furniture collections at four major metro stations, allowing people to try out the products instead of only seeing them as prints on the walls.
Photo: Michelle Pred (planting her work into IKEA’s inventory.)
As crowds rushed to find deals at the Emeryville, CA IKEA store, one of them had a plan other than shopping. Michelle Pred was actually placing her artwork, complete with working IKEA barcodes, into the inventory, an act she calls “shopdropping.” Unlike shoplifting, she isn’t breaking any laws, and IKEA pocketed the money. It’s all a statement by the artist.
In Pred’s case, the statement is “You Are What You Buy,” which also happens to be the title of the prints she shopdropped, a commentary on excessive consumerism on a day where excessive consumerism practically is celebrated. She says that as a conceptual artist, she valued the opportunity to make a statement about society over the chance to make money. The shopdrop itself, in fact, is part of the piece.
Pred gained national attention in 2002 when she made art out of knives and nail-cutters snagged by security at local airports. In 2006 she attempted to demystify the cannabis plant by growing one in a San Francisco gallery.
The signed, limited edition prints were marked and sold for $8.00 each. The same prints can be bought in Pred’s studio for $200. Story at Link.
Artist’s website
Ever wonder how IKEA makes their furniture sturdy yet light? The secret is the honeycomb skeleton inside their tabletops. National Geographic went inside an IKEA factory in Poland: Link
Capitalizing on the viral popularity of People of Walmart blog (previously on Neatorama here), there’s a new blog called the People of IKEA.
While that’s nifty and all, there’s an even stranger IKEA phenomenon: Chinese people love to go there, not to shop, but simply to hang around!
With no plans one Saturday, Zhang Xin told his wife, son and mother to wear something smart and hop into the family sedan. He could have taken them to the Forbidden City or the Great Wall, but he decided on another popular destination — IKEA.
Riding an escalator past a man lying on a display bed with a book opened on his belly, the clan sauntered into the crush of visitors squeezing onto the showroom path, bumping elbows and nicking ankles with their yellow shopping trolleys.
Zhang said the family needed a respite from the smog and a reliable lunch.
"We just came here for fun," said the 34-year-old office manager. "I suppose we could have gone somewhere else, but it wouldn’t have been a complete experience."
Welcome to IKEA Beijing, where the atmosphere is more theme park than store.
David Pierson of the LA Times has the intriguing story: Link – via Look At This
I work in the darkest, dingiest office building known to man. It’s like any light is sucked into the beige fabric-covered cube walls… not the best environment for creativity. Needless to say, I’m quite intrigued by this cube makeover – click the link to see the “before,” if you’re lucky enough to be unfamiliar with the confines of a cubicle.
Link via ikea hacker
I mean, if you find cockroaches cuddly. Or is it a roly poly? I don’t know what this thing is supposed to be, and I can’t find it on the IKEA site. All I know is that I was simultaneously repulsed and amused when I saw a big bin of these at IKEA the other day, so I snapped a picture. His mouth zips open, so he can be used for storage or as a purse or something. I thought about getting this for a friend’s upcoming baby shower, but then decided she probably wouldn’t appreciate the gesture.
I’m torn. What do you guys think – funny? Creepy? Or both?
I love IKEA. It’s one of my major complaints about Des Moines. If we had an IKEA, a Trader Joe’s and an H&M, I’d be totally content here.
Anyway, there’s something about the cheap but cool stuff at IKEA that inspires people to hack it and create something completely different than its intended purpose. I suppose because the stuff is so cheap, you don’t feel bad if your experiment goes wrong. That’s where IKEA Hacker comes in.
One IKEA Hacker reader turned these mere salad bowls into wooden speakers, and I think the result is quite pretty.
Link via Not Martha
TheraminTrees and his brother QualiaSoup collaborated to make this interesting animation called Instruction Manual for Life. There’s an unmistakeable (truthful/heavy-handed/blasphemous? Take your pick) message in there – which you don’t have to agree with – but all I could think of when watching the clip was all those IKEA cabinets I built over the years!
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks Bruce!
IKEA is definitely nicer than my house… well, maybe not nicer, but definitely cleaner and more organized. So it makes total sense to have a party there, which is exactly what the people at Cockeyed did. Dinner at the buffet (why not? I could always go for their Swedish meatballs), then on to various dining tables and living rooms to play BananaGrams, Boggle and Catchphrase. Looks like a good time was had by all.
