Here’s a bit of Swedish you can bust out at cocktail parties (remember those?) when the global COVID-19 pandemic ends and social gatherings become a thing again: The word is ” överväldigad!”* Roughly translated it means “mind blown!” And that’s what we uttered, dare we say “exclaimed,” when we heard that Swedish furniture maker and global retailer IKEA had scanned and uploaded to the interwebz each and every page of each and every one of its product catalogs published in its entire 72-year history!
The project is part of the IKEA Museum’s website in an archive called IKEA Kataloger. Viewing the Kataloger quickly reveals how furniture and design trends have evolved, some disappearing altogether, new ones taking their place. Some concepts for interiors have stayed the same with only slight modifications over the decades. See examples below. All of it infused, of course, with that same strain of practical, beautiful Scandinavian contemporary-domestic modernism.
For designers and stylists, this is a treasure trove.
*At least this it what Google Translate told us, so take it with a grain of salt.
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 