Now that's what we call a flatpack! How Ikea shuns photoshoots and uses 'wireframe 3D' to design its catalogue pictures - but can you tell the difference?



Furniture maker Ikea has made its reputation - and fortune - by flat-packing easy-to-assemble products.

But the Swedish firm's flatpacking philosophy seems to extend throughout the company - with many of the glossy kitchen images you see in its catalogue existing only in the imagination of a computer graphics designer.



The company now shuns your typical kitchen-shoot - calling it a waste of money - instead using 3D software modelling tools like AutoCAD and Photoshop to recreate idyllic kitchen spaces.

Real or fake? This entire Ikea image - from appliances to shelves and accessories - exists nowhere except in the imagination of a 3D designer

How your kitchen might actually look: This wireframe IKEA design is a bit more flatpacked than usual

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal , the company said that 12 per cent of the images used on the company's website and 324-page catalogue are designed entirely on a PC.

Next year, the company aims to increase this to 25 per cent.

This not only saves the company money by meaning it does not need to design, build and decorate entire sets for the sake of one picture, but also means that they can digitally manipulate the images for different markets, such as changing the flooring or shelving if it will be more suitable in a different country.

Ikea's head of photography Anneli Sjogre said: 'It's a clever way to save money - we don't have to throw away kitchens in the Dumpster after the photo shoot.

'With real photography you're constrained by the four walls.



'A kitchen has to be built in a week or two and then torn down the following week to make room for a bedroom shoot…everything has to run like clockwork.'

Another render: This image is another kitchen designed entirely by PC, showing how straight-forward - and cheap - it is to use 3D rather than an actual setup

Who are you calling a pot? Even simple utensil pictures are rendered on a computer

Referring to how the company can easily touch up a computer-generated kitchen over a studio kitchen, she said: 'Now let's say we want to sell that kitchen in Japan. Japanese people, like Scandinavians, like lighter hues of wood than Americans.



'And we can still use the same basil plant on the counter. In 3-D, the basil plant never wilts.'

Sjogre did not break down how much it saves through this method, but the WSJ reports that the company has managed to reduce prices by two to three per cent per year in the last decade despite aggressive expansion.

The company publishes 208million catalogues per year - which the WSJ notes is more than twice the number of Bibles expected to be published this year. In total, there will be 62 versions of the catalogue spread across 43 countries.

The company, founded in 1943, spends ten months designing its catalogue, and has relied so far on one of the largest photography studios - covering 94,000 square feet and containing 285 employees - in order to sell its wares.