IKEA’s vision is to make everyday life better for the many people across the world. The Swedish home furnishings company has now identified few areas in which it could use its deep understanding of ‘life at home’ to create products for special needs.
For instance, in fitness – many people want to exercise at home due to the ease and lack of time, IKEA can combine its understanding of ‘life at home’ with that of Adidas which understands fitness at a deeper level to create solutions. Then there is gaming – globally more than a billion people play electronic games as professionals and hobbyists. IKEA could again help create relevant products for gamers so they can play better and comfortably.
To address these areas, IKEA announced a list of collaborations with some of the best brands and artists of the world during the IKEA Democratic Design Days 2018 held at IKEA of Sweden, Älmhult. It is an annual event where IKEA reveals the big news for the coming year, give sneak peeks of upcoming collections and products, and reveal future collaborations.
List of IKEA’s collaborations announced this year:
Collaboration with UNYQ and Area Academy: IKEA along with UNYQ, a daring revolutionize of 3D printed medical wearables and educational e-sport company Area Academy, wants to explore how home furnishing combined with new technology could improve gaming and life around it. Together with UNYQ and Area Academy, IKEA wants to find new ways to make a gaming setup work in a home, new ways to solve gaming in different places and new ways to produce more personalised and ergonomic equipment for a better, faster and more successful gaming experience.
LEGO Group: IKEA and the LEGO Group, join forces to encourage more play by triggering play in the functionality of the everyday life. The collaboration aims to increase the opportunity for playing more and to make the whole home a better functioning and more fun place. IKEA in collaboration with LEGO wants to deal with the challenge that some parents might have with mess that is created by children during play.
Adidas collaboration: IKEA and adidas will collaborate to explore the connections between living spaces and sport, and how both can adapt to help create healthy habits. IKEA is curious to understand what people want and need when it comes to exercising, sleeping and eating at home. IKEA wants to explore how homes can better enable active lifestyles, working in collaboration with adidas. The partnership will bring together designers from both companies to exchange knowledge, insights and ideas to imagine ways to make working out at home easier.
Little Sun collaboration: IKEA in collaboration with Little Sun, global project and social business that connects the world by sharing the sustainable energy of the sun, hopes to raise awareness about clean water, reliable communications services an electricity and explore the potential of off-the-grid solutions and renewable energy, to make everyday life more sustainable. IKEA wants to discuss the importance of energy access as well as clean water and communication tools – learning from the challenges faced by people living off the grid and from the experts committed to creating off-grid solutions with the best technology available. The collaboration aims at bringing this shared knowledge to IKEA customers, introducing them to portable solar lighting and other off-grid solutions whilst raising awareness for the global need for energy access for all.
Sonos collaboration: IKEA and Sonos will explore how to enable many more people to create atmosphere at home with great design, music and sound. IKEA and Sonos will together strive to make it even easier for people to play any song, anywhere in the home, without interrupting the flow of daily life. By teaming up with Sonos, IKEA wants to combine IKEA home furnishing knowledge with Sonos’ expertise within great home sound.
Byredo collaboration: Together with Ben Gorham from the fragrance company Byredo, IKEA will explore new ways of adding scents at home. The collaboration aims at looking into both the role of scent in the home, the carriers and the products as well as exploring innovation in scent, how IKEA can integrate scents in completely new ways.
Teenage Engineering collaboration: IKEA along with Teenage Engineering, known for making music, designing electronic instruments like synthesizers and speakers, will explore how to engineer new solutions for having fun at party and what else is needed for a great party. The collection FREKVENS will consist of products such as an electronic choir, vinyl player, party lighting and everything else you need in order to throw a really good music party wherever you are.
Off-White collaboration: This collaboration is meant to offer a provocative viewpoint on how young people consider design, and how they live with design and art at home. The aim is to work together with students in this project and create unique, innovative and inspiring furnishings and decorations, which are all conceptual collector‘s pieces, as well as functional and commercial home items for everyone.
