PLAYING WITH PATTERNS
Updated: Oct 27, 2023
Seeing IKEA through fresh eyes!
The IKEA archive is a rabbit warren of interesting design styles. Designs from decades gone by that wouldn’t look out of place in present-day homes. What is noticeable is that IKEA has always had a look that is unique to them. “Lagom ar bast” the Swedish phrase meaning the right amount is best is evident throughout the whole history of IKEA.
IKEA’s commitment to sustainability shines through, it’s clear that their designs are not products to be thrown out with the changing seasons, more so to be kept for years. Having now launched a recycling system called buy back aiming for their products to be reworked and live many lives to come.
The store visit opened IKEA in a new light, rather than wandering around picking your favourite room sets or which candle scents were coming home with you, suddenly design styles, shapes, contrast, the use of colour and how things were displayed, looking at all the small details rather than just what’s on the surface became the focus. Even though it’s commonplace for brands to completely swap out design concepts from year to year, with IKEA a clear design relationship can be seen, old and new could easily be mixed without anything looking out of place. With pieces seeming almost timeless.
Opting to lean towards the design styles of 2013 and 2014, the contrasting black-and-white with a fresh pop of calming blues and greens and a focus on line and shape. It was easy to also include many present-day features from today’s IKEA store.
Visual research focused on shape and pattern initially, having done some sketches whilst on the store visit it was always important to use these rather than all direct copies from the originals. Collaging with archive images proved fruitful and highly enjoyable. Since the focus on line and shape were important the tracings from these collages, simply picking out sections rather than looking like a recognizable object. Mixing florals with line drawings created interesting new shapes, then overlapping with an image of an object created further interest and dimension.
Whilst sampling I decided to try three very contrasting designs, disaster struck as one turned out a lot darker than expected, one a lot brighter and completely out of context and the last one, well, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking. The designs were busy, but I still attempted to foil and flock print over them which didn’t fail completely, it just wasn’t where I imagined going with the design. The positive side, however, was that it was very clear now how the banner wasn’t going to proceed, leftovers from the flock printing proved useful and became a source of colour inspiration as well as texture. Even though the samples weren’t appealing to the eye, once scanned in and colour manipulated, zoomed in, the texture from the weave of the fabric was something I felt could be used.
Being concerned that the design was too busy I broached this in a one-to-one, being advised to scale the busier sections up proved to be a turning point and a simple step that hadn’t been thought of but will be paramount going forward.
Making a conscious point of having areas of block colour broke up the design, scaling the patterned areas up reduced the chaotic appearance in sections. Using zoomed in texture also appeared to blend some of the busier parts.
With the options of overprinting, embroidery and embellishing I knew as soon as I saw the final printed banner that free machine embroidery to create depth and texture was going to be the finishing touch. Taking inspiration from the free machine embroidery style of Alison Holt, whose biggest inspiration is nature, the first step on the banner was to embroider the leaves from the sketches done in store.
Images courtesy of Alison Holt Embroidery
Peer notes confirmed that embroidery was the finishing touch, with most mentioning this.
Choosing threads that matched the shades and tones of blues and greens to complement the print, using self coloured black thread on black print purely for texture that turned out to have a velvety effect. A pop of purple embroidery to draw the eye around the banner.
Overall I’m extremely pleased with the outcome of the design, although having seen the other colour mock ups it would have been exciting if there had been time to sample the other colourways, the blue version especially I had great visions of a finished banner. The highlight feels as though it is on the free machine embroidery, perhaps some beading would have finished it off a little more. A point noted for future reference.
If time had permitted it would have been easy to continue free machine embroidering, since the embroidery creates a textured look and feel it’s possible that a heavily embroidered banner would have been a showstopper.
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