THE CHALLENGE: BTI
Carl Öjerstam contacted us and asked about creating a breath-taking item (BTI) for IKEA. A BTI is a product – in this case, a chair – at such a low price that it’s affordable for anyone.
“After completing more than 100 projects in plastic for IKEA, my next step was to ask Svekon for support at an early stage of the design process. To meet the extremely tight margins of IKEA’s assignment description, we had to balance between conceptual design solutions and sophisticated models of materials throughout the process.The result is a huge success that also meets the substantial requirements of the global market where IKEA is operating.”
Carl Öjerstam, Industrial Designer
A WINNING WORKING METHOD
In this kind of project, the designer usually collaborates with the producer to develop the product. Another way of doing it is estimating and modelling in advance to reduce lead times and costs. Svekon met Carl Öjerstam to develop a concept tailored to the requirements of the design, while also keeping in mind the amount of plastic material that IKEA had calculated for the cost – not an easy equation.
Through close collaboration between Carl Design and Svekon, we have now created an efficient and iterative working process. The result is IKEA Loberget: a classy, white plastic working chair that you can purchase in store for the remarkable price of €25.
