The Unofficial IKEA Web Journal

“IKEA wasn’t just one of the first mass-market companies to sell design, it was
also among the first to sell designers, running their names–and often
black-and-white pictures of them–alongside each product. The MoMA Store, on the
other hand, has relied less on designers’ names than on the beauty and
functionality of their objects. The result is that while MoMA offers a limited,
highly edited collection of goods, Ikea offers thousands of items designed for
different needs and tastes.

 

How do these different retail philosophies affect which designers’ products
are carried in each store? On Monday, May 16, as part of Metropolis’s “Next
Generation: Crossing Cultures” seminar, Lars Engman, the design manager of
Ikea’s PS Collection, and Bonnie Mackay, the creative and marketing director of
MoMA Retail, discussed the ways that they search for new products and
talent.

 

For designers in the audience aspiring to a place on either store’s
shelves, there were two messages: Make It And They Will Come, or Send It Out And
Pray That They Chose It From The Pile…”