
IKEA's New Catalogs: Less Pine, More Pixels - petethomas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444508504577595414031195148.html
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jswanson
A lot of IKEA criticism here, but what they are doing is actually pretty neat.

All of their products are probably designed in some sort of CAD software,
which means they already have the models necessary to do these sort of
mockups.

It still must have taken them foresight and money to get from "having models"
to "easily arranging and realistically rendering", but now that they are there
they can save money, update their catalogs faster, and generate less waste.

Fairly obvious, yet still a cool practice. Wonder how many other companies are
doing something similar.

~~~
panacea
"Wonder how many other companies are doing something similar."

Easy bet that Apple's website 'hero' images have been 3D renders for years.

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mongol
I just checked the fifth image from the top (the kitchen)
[http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-
UG852_IKEAb0_G_...](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-
UG852_IKEAb0_G_20120822201235.jpg) in the real catalog. I would never have
guessed it was not real when browsing through it. If I knew there were some it
could have been a candidate because there are no people in it. But otherwise,
it looks like a very regular photograph.

EDIT: Mistake! I did not look at the correct image, mine was similar but
different. Disregard the above.

EDIT 2: So this means I am looking at a picture in the catalog that I don't
know whether it is real or rendered. But knowing that they new render some
images, that the image has no people in it (which is not uncommon in the
catalog), and that especially the cupboard doors have some artificial feeling
to them, my guess is that "my" image is rendered too. But also, there is a
bottle of olive oil on the counter, and its brand is a brand that is common in
Sweden, and contains details on the label that seems authentic. So they put
much effort into small details in that case.

~~~
rane
It says there "This is a 3-D model." below the thumbnail of your image.

~~~
mongol
I was looking at an image in the paper catalog which I at first thought was
the same but turned out it was not the same.

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BklynJay
I've had a consistently bad experience with Ikea furniture.

Bedroom dressers - the bottoms fall out of the drawers and should ideally be
glued in place (the instructions don't suggest this). Even with glue, they sag
after a year or so.

Kitchenware - their handles on their pots and pans are very heat conductive so
make sure you're wearing an oven mitt. Their kitchen block furniture with the
thick wood top is well made, though it should be stained and varnished to
avoid stains.

Chairs - maybe half the chairs I've gotten from Ikea had poorly drilled screw
holes such that the chair couldn't be assembled correctly. Fortunately, the
benches are made of such soft pine (read: scratchable) that you can drill your
own hole easily.

Sometimes Ikea will eliminate a part (eg: a supporting brace for a dresser)
but not redesign the assembly instructions. You might think you're missing
that part, when in fact it was omitted deliberately.

They save money where they can by selling you disposable furniture.

~~~
ericdykstra
Really? I've had pretty good luck. I've been using one of their shelving units
[1] for more than 5 years, and it's held up very well. My wife and I are using
their dining set that was just $100 for the table and two chairs, and it's
fantastic [2]. We're also using an Ikea bed. I was a little skeptical about
getting a bed from Ikea at first, but it's more comfortable than any regular
mattress I've ever tried, or the Select Comfort bed I used for a number of
years (it's one of the foam mattresses with slats).

Sure, it's a pain to put some of them together (especially the bed frame and
slats... yikes), but I've had consistently good quality. The only problem is
that you really need to check the box before you go home. There are often
missing or wrong parts.

Just my experience, though. The furniture is good, but shopping there is an
adventure I'd rather not go through again.

1\. <http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10196431/> 2\.
<http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80157129/>

~~~
masklinn
> Really? I've had pretty good luck. I've been using one of their shelving
> units [1]

Same here, although only 2 years so far the Expedit feels like a beast, and
the modularity is great. Plus it's fun moving baskets around.

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sbierwagen
Bah, yet another "can you spot the CGI" test. I've never seen one that wasn't
badly imbalanced in favor of CGI, by using tiny (400x300) images.

~~~
panacea
I got 4/5 (and the one I got wrong was the one I was most unsure about).

Even with the small nature of these images, there's certain things that stood
out as either not worth the hassle to get right in 3D for a catalogue (too
naturally imperfect or detailed), and others where it looked like it would
take way more time to make realistically in 3D instead of just taking a photo.
Some of the lighting effects were pretty poor too.

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ZoFreX
"In all, IKEA plans to publish 208 million catalogs this year, more than
double the amount of Bibles expected to be produced."

What a silly comparison. I'm not sure if that's supposed to sound impressive
or not, but I would assume the number of bibles being produced isn't that high
- everyone that wants one already has one, and it's not like they update it
each year!

~~~
megablast
It is a fun comparison, that is all. You can compare anything to anything, it
doesn't have to be meaningful in a big way.

~~~
panacea
I now choose to compare the Curiosity rover doing a donut on Mars, with IKEA's
choice of Verdana and 3D imagery in their catalogue.

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znarfdwarf02
12% 3D-Renderings per catalog seems a nice optimisation effort, but rather
deadline-wise than cost-wise. While it makes it easier for them to meet the
catalog deadline, the cost savings are neglible (at least compared to the
total cost of the "demo furniture" in their 350 shops worldwide)

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kaiyi
I like Ikea's selections, and its designs are appealing to younger home
owners. But from my experience, Ikea really needs to improve customer service.
I called Ikea regarding some problems with delivered furniture, and they put
me on hold for about an hour.

~~~
twelvechairs
Have you ever tried their website with 'Ask Anna'? I actually wasted my own
time formulating a very direct and specific question, got a 'hold on, I'm
thinking' response, then 10 minutes later found out that it wasn't a live
text-chat with customer services, but a terrible AI, whose final response was
'have you tried looking at the catalogue?' (yes! and its not there. Which is
why i need to ask someone a question!).

Thanks for wasting my time Ikea! Better to just not have that 'feature' there
at all IMHO...

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mnicole
I love this, it puts them in a great position to be able to offer DIY
SketchUp-like interior design right from their website simply by inputting
your room's dimensions. The boyfriend was just speaking to how useful this
would have been for some of his recent projects if Home Depot offered
something similar. Allow the ability for people to build with individual parts
from other pieces ala IKEA Hacking and I bet it would be really successful.

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nathan_long
The quote that caught my eye was:

>> "We don't have to throw away kitchens in the Dumpster after the photo
shoot."

That does not speak well for the quality of the furniture.

~~~
nicholassmith
It's been used commercially, which makes it tricky to repackage and sell. It
could be donated to a charity, but once it's been used for a shoot it'll
generally be _torn_ down rather than taken down to save time.

~~~
nathan_long
Yeah, I'm just imagining this conversation.

"Should we let some charities know they can come get free furniture when we're
done?" "Nah, it's probably break if they try to move it now that it's already
set up. Just trash it."

And "we don't have a few hours to wait" doesn't sound like a great excuse,
either.

~~~
nicholassmith
Depends, when you've got one studio to work in, a very finite amount of time
allocated to you and you've got to build and take down an entire set they'll
generally not be too worried about keeping things in giftable condition.

I don't necessarily agree with it, but I do understand it.

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tricolon
I just wish they'd stop using Verdana.

~~~
MagerValp
They want the catalog to look cheap though, and Verdana certainly helps with
that…

The font nerd in me died a little bit when they switched.

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ef4
To me this is another interesting example of Marc Andreesson's "Software is
Eating the World" meme:
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190348090457651...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460.html)

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confluence
I honestly think everything is going to go information.

Also, I think that games, the little industry that could, is going to totally
disrupt and destroy creative media production and consumption
(movies/music/tv). Get ready to see an entire industry absolutely crush it.

Human needs - outside of survival - are largely experiences.

Having that great car, going on that ski trip, watching a movie, having a good
family, spending time with people we like etc. I'm talking first world here
(the vast majority of consumption). The rest of the world will catch up (I'm
fully aware of their situation).

Experiences are information and information is cheap, scalable, plentiful and
most importantly - limitless. Want a great house? Jack into your own personal
VR and have whatever you like. Want to drive a lambo through Monte Carlo in
the summer? GTA 15 has got that covered. Want to go out with a French
supermodel? Done and done.

If all humans want are experiences then photoreal VR has, or will have,
everything you could possibly need (outside of survival). You can create
music. You can create movies. You can do that which you cannot do because of
scarce resources (I'm ignoring the second law of thermodynamics).

Games are going to lead the charge, and you can already see the beginnings of
it with the rise of the Machinima movement and, most importantly, with the
recent release of photoreal game engines that support full scale movie
production and development (Valve with Source Filmaker and Crytek's Real Time
Cinema tech).

The price of making films is going to zero. The price of making novels is
going to zero. Music - zero. Flying a jet - zero. Whatever it is that you want
- VR can and will do it - and it will begin within this decade. Indeed - with
the advent of fusion - energy is going to zero.

What could you achieve if everything was free? What happens when you _can_
divide by zero?

We may very well see the death of physical consumption within this century
(outside of fusion supplied energy).

Tell me I'm crazy.

Sources:

Crytek CryEngine 3: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqNHJ-ekMR4>

Source FilmMaker: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zri1c_If6Ic>

DICE FrostBite 2 for Battlefield 3 - "Is it real?":
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtMaJf45mQ8>

[E3 2012] Watch Dogs: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU7WGAJPRRw>

[E3 2012] The Last of Us: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbLOokeC3VU>

Red vs. Blue epic fight scene: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke9wtbzGjCI>

GTA4 "Like a G6" music video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5tuUU5dKb8>

~~~
Swizec
> If all humans want are experiences then photoreal VR has, or will have,
> everything you could possibly need (outside of survival)

But it's just not the same. Even if it looks, feels, tastes, smells and acts
the same. It's not.

The real trick will be, can we convince people that they _actually_
experienced that? The moment they know it was a simulation, they will feel
like something's missing.

Same as even though chocolate produces the same chemical response as sex does
... it can't quite replace sex. (I'm not a biologist, this is data I picked up
from Discovery Channel, but I do know chocolate doesn't replace sex)

~~~
confluence
Not with current tech - no.

But I highly doubt this is an insurmountable obstacle.

Humans can be convinced of many things that aren't in fact "real" or in indeed
supported by any evidence other than appealing to human
emotions/biases/prejudices (religon/"natural" markets/trickle down
economics/communism/libertarianism/racisim).

Give it time - it will happen.

Or we nuke ourselves in the process of getting there.

Either way it'll be blast (see what I did there?).

~~~
Swizec
What I'm saying is more along the lines of:

1\. Step into a machine you know is VR - even though the experience will be
fine, it won't be "quite the same"

2\. Step into an aeroplane and fly around the world for ten hours. Then see
something cool and go back home. - it will be an awesome experience .... even
though everything beyond the airport's front gate was VR.

And even then, as soon as it got out the whole airport and everything beyond
was VR, there would be people willing to pay a lot for the real thing.

I think what I'm saying is VR will be the McDonald's of experiences.

