Ikea attempts to co-opt Ikea hacking – Info Web Design

There’s certainly a significant market for those looking to add an easy and affordable twist to Ikea’s mass-manufactured designs, and indeed, the Lyskraft collection was “inspired by people’s creativity that is seen in Ikea-hack communities,” says Ikea’s creative lead, Michael Nikolic. “Hacking and DIY are trends that continue to grow. More and more people take creativity into their own hands, loving to remake and renew. And so we do at IKEA. The hackers are an inspiration to us, and with LYSKRAFT, we feel it’s our time to show we got inspired by them.”

The marketing strategy behind Lyskraft recalls the brand’s recent collaboration with British designer Tom Dixon, who designed a simple modular daybed. In its quest for product longevity and relevance, the team sought not permanence but flexibility, actively inviting college students to further “hack” the design in new ways. The development process speaks to a shift in how large furniture companies can approach mass-manufactured designs.

But is “Ikea hacking” truly hacking when it’s been commissioned, issued, and stamped for approval by the brand itself?

There’s a sense of agency and originality lost when the choice of accessories comes readymade alongside the factory issue. When I think of the internet-born breed of Ikea hacking, an irreverent and newfangled collage of inelegant yet humorously and (sometimes) ingeniously fitting elements come to mind: A coffee table made into a bar trolley with the addition of bicycle wheels. An Expedit bookshelf made into a hamster cage. A children’s bicycle made from Frosta stools, or a hanging chandelier made from colanders. Heck, even the luxury world has taken a nod from the wild and wacky world of Ikea hacking, with upscale, tongue-in-cheek takes on everyday classics.

While Scholten & Baijings’ vibrant, scalloped designs are surely an alluring and handsome take on old Ikea best-sellers, in truth, more than the aesthetic or approach of Ikea hacking, the Lyskraft collection reminded me of a recent limited-edition collection from the legacy Finnish furniture house Artek. For its 80th anniversary in 2015, Artek also tapped a Dutch design star known for color, Hella Jongerius, who gave a colorful new look to several of Alvar Aalto’s canonical designs made from bentwood, long acknowledged as the source of Ikea’s inspired Poang lounge and Frosta stools, which sell for fractions less than the original.