Ikea Inspiration

I went to Ikea yesterday with some of my very good friends.  It was so fun--as always--to spend time with them, and also to look at all the neat things at Ikea.  Oh, lunch was good too.  Swedish meatballs and french fries are hard to forget.  I took a bunch of pictures yesterday, but I ended up deleting a large percentage of them because, as much as I love Ikea, it's not exactly the prime photoshoot location lighting-wise.  But I thought I'd share a few of my photographs as a way of letting you know what things I really liked.  I got some neat design ideas, too, so it was an inspirational trip as well as a fun one.

To start off with, they have a little recycling center near the return and customer service section.  The signs were pretty neat.

I like the thick lines and the fact that the recycling symbol is an outline as opposed to just a boring shape.

On the outside of the store, there is lots of signage and words - all in a uniform sans serif font.  I noticed the way this same font keeps appearing all over Ikea, on the inside and on the outside.  It even made its way onto the string containers.

And the exit sign...

The brilliantly designed help wanted posters also use the same font.

I like the simplicity of the poster design, the repitition of three posters, and of course, the creative slogan.  Ikea has really thought through their marketing.

I saw this amazingly cool couch inside with a knitted pattern on it.  And yet... it was just printed, not knitted!  I want to try something like this myself soon.

There were lots of cool art pieces in the showrooms and in the art and framing section of the marketplace.

I really like this alphabet art.  The color combination is great (I'm a big fan of red), and the scattered red letters add impact.  In fact, I just now noticed that it's the vowels that have been turned red, and the consonants are black.  I love the ingenuity!

This black and white flower photography also caught my attention.  The conversion is unique and different from most I've seen.  I want to try it.

I also thought these pieces of scribbly paint stroke art were interesting.

And this number poster was just too fun.  This is something I'd love to try sometime as well.

Ikea also has some very well done packaging for their products, like these battery packages, for example.  Watch out, Duracell...because I don't think I've ever seen a more creative box of batteries.

Even the batteries themselves are bright yellow!  How cool is that?

I also really loved this poster that I saw more than once in Ikea.

I love the way the font stays consistent, but there is variation in type size as well as between capitals and lowercase letters.  This is a concept I'll definitely keep in my arsenal.

And finally, last but not least, the lamp.  Oh wow.  Ikea has come up with some amazing lighting ideas.

All those flowers are made of paper!  Isn't that so neat?  There are many more great lamps, too.  This is just one.  I'll leave you with one last, closer up picture of the lamp.

It was a great day at Ikea, and I loved all the neat inspiration I got!