Flash based Ikea catalog

June 3, 2006 10:15 AM

This flash demo for IKEA's kitchen stuff is kinda fun to play with. Takes a bit of time to load, when it does, click the mouse & hold down on the right or left halves of the photo, it's interesting. Note - the flash stuff contains audio, so careful with speaker volume
posted by jonson (31 comments total)

This "kitchen stuff"...it can be used to dispense Pepsi Blue?
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:21 AM on June 3, 2006

hmmm, bullet time meets this old house.
posted by doctor_negative at 10:22 AM on June 3, 2006

Totally Pepsi Blue, but it's Ikea, so I have a hard time being outraged about it.
posted by Hildegarde at 10:44 AM on June 3, 2006

The music absolutely rules....libiaaaaammo nei dolci freeeemiti ! So pepsi bliue, but fun !
posted by elpapacito at 11:13 AM on June 3, 2006

I'm pretty sure this popped up when it was actually new, can't find it ....and since it just won every ad award known to man it's not suprising that it's doing an encore around the web.
posted by dabitch at 11:19 AM on June 3, 2006

This is so cool!
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:28 AM on June 3, 2006

I hate myself for liking this, just as I hate myself for shopping at Ikea. I should know better.
posted by Ryvar at 11:31 AM on June 3, 2006

If the website was made by IKEA, it will be broken within six months.
posted by brain_drain at 11:35 AM on June 3, 2006

Very creative. I like it!
posted by blendor at 11:45 AM on June 3, 2006

Very nice piece of design. Was this originally a TV ad? If so, this was a great way to move it to the web.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:00 PM on June 3, 2006

If the website was made by IKEA, it will be broken within six months.

I just counted. I have 31 pieces of IKEA furniture in my house (not counting lighting, rugs, or things that hang on the wall). Some of it is over 3 years old and some of it is brand new. None of it is in any way broken, nor have I had to throw out anything I've bought from IKEA.

But you knew that six months thing was bogus.
posted by crawl at 12:07 PM on June 3, 2006

Just bought one of their midrange foam mattresses to replace a 'top of the line' innerspring mattress that cost near four times as much.

We're sleeping MUCH better. Also got a rug some lamps and four of their POANG chairs - very comfortable.

Good stuff, cheap. I look forward to when they're as ubiquitous as WalMart.
posted by JB71 at 12:16 PM on June 3, 2006

The first piece of ikea furniture I recently threw out was 18 years old.
posted by furtive at 12:29 PM on June 3, 2006

Ikea furniture is good value for money, no doubt; looking forward to them being as ubiquitous as WalMart? What are you some sort of Ikea fanatic?
posted by econous at 12:40 PM on June 3, 2006

Cute, but sucks for CONTENT delivery.*

I liked one but had no luck finding out more beyond the still/NONinteractive photo you get from the Find out more link.

*Like the VAST majority of FLASH sites
posted by HTuttle at 12:55 PM on June 3, 2006

I was joking about the six months, but I have had poor experience with my IKEA furniture. Three items broke and became unusable, including the leg breaking off a dresser and a handle breaking off a cabinet. In fairness, I put greater than average wear and tear on the furniture when I owned it (a couple of moves), although my other furniture managed to survive. In any event, I'm glad to hear others have had positive experiences with the stuff.
posted by brain_drain at 12:57 PM on June 3, 2006

The toaster in the $4445.00 kitchen looked like fun, but maybe special bread is needed for that kind of pop-up.
posted by Cranberry at 2:15 PM on June 3, 2006

brain_drain: I've moved 6 times in the past five years, and our Ikea furniture has been with us throughout. The one time a piece broke was the one time we hired 'professional' movers who 'forgot' to unscrew the legs from the couch, snapping one right off while bringing it through a door frame, which the moving company compensated us for.
posted by Ryvar at 2:25 PM on June 3, 2006

HTuttle - I agree, but maybe that's cause this was only a demo, or something. Perhaps the final site had more content or easily accessed content.

As for the jackass Pepsi Blue comment, man, nothing screams "I'm an idiot with nothing to contribute to this thread" more than popping into any thread that mentions a commercially available product or manufacturer and chiming in with a poorly thought out kneejerk comment. It's just like a neon "I'm an idiot" sign. Jesus.
posted by jonson at 2:52 PM on June 3, 2006

The gal on the countertop...nah, I'll let someone else admit it first. *drags mouse minutely*
posted by sidereal at 3:26 PM on June 3, 2006

sidereal: "The gal on the countertop...nah, I'll let someone else admit it first. *drags mouse minutely*"

The rose is in the way.

Anyway, this is a spectacularly good use of Flash.
posted by Drunken_munky at 3:31 PM on June 3, 2006

opps, rose = is actually a jacket
posted by Drunken_munky at 3:33 PM on June 3, 2006

That was awesome. Forget pepsi blue-callers. We've already addressed that point - what matters is it's clever, entertaining, and well done. That it happens to have been done by a large company just makes me happy for the company.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:50 PM on June 3, 2006

econous:

I'd heard about IKEA for years, but it was only recently one opened close enough to get to. Since then, we've bought linens, kitchen utensils, furniture, mattress, rugs, lights, glassware and so on, replacing a lot of stuff that was pretty much junk in the first place. Everyone's got their favorite store - mine's IKEA. I like competition in the retail market - and they up the ante considerably on the price/value scale that's been dominated by WalMart, K-Mart and Target here in the south.

Plus their shit's just so damn cool! (grin)
posted by JB71 at 7:12 PM on June 3, 2006

Love or hate, I wish we would get one in our town. It isn't going to happen, but I can still think about it...
posted by Samizdata at 9:40 PM on June 3, 2006

Fight Club!
posted by philosophistry at 9:44 PM on June 3, 2006

On quality... In my experience, any ikea product currently over 15 years old that's made it this far, is obviously a solid, well-designed piece of furniture. Anything younger than that probably didn't make it past 5 years because of particle boards being used as a key structural component.

They offer a wide price-range and subsequently, quality-range. You are definitely getting what you pay for, and keeping this in mind, can still find "good stuff"- it just won't be the advertised sale price that sucked you in.

These days, I'd stick to the kitchen-ware. Sleek. Simple. Swedish.
posted by sunshinesky at 1:00 AM on June 4, 2006

and of course, nothing beats (previously mentioned) IKEA homes.
posted by sunshinesky at 1:05 AM on June 4, 2006

Very nice piece of design. Was this originally a TV ad?

No Mr-roboto, the ad you see in flash is the ad that won all them awards, in the interactive design etcera categories. It was never a TV ad.
:)

Oh and just to mess up that six month joke, it's over a year and six months old.
posted by dabitch at 2:01 AM on June 4, 2006

I keep wondering about the lady with the two chickens fluttering through her kitchen...I remember reading about some really high-end pedigreed gourmet pullets you buy live in a Paris market, and I wonder if these in the picture are two of them.
posted by pax digita at 3:23 PM on June 4, 2006

JB71: "I look forward to when they're as ubiquitous as WalMart."

In Europe, they already are, no? I mean, if I remember correctly, they have something like 200 stores there. Okay, so that's not quite the density that Wal-Mart's achieved, but it's damn close. And, considering that Ikea brought in $1.7 billion in 2004, about a seventh Wal-Mart's over $10 billion, with a twentieth as many stores (235 as opposed to over 4300 and counting), Ikea is more profitable per store, right?

This was a very interesting read. I guess Ikea does all this by exploiting tax-exemption structures and charity status. It's very weird to think of Ikea as a 'charity...'
posted by koeselitz at 11:00 PM on June 4, 2006