MARKERAD: Practical Versus Fashionable Objects

Image courtesy of IKEA

By GRACE LI ‘20

 “The ethos of the collection is to add an artful quality to anonymous objects.”

- Virgil Abloh, designer

Virgil Abloh—the CEO behind OFF-WHITE and the creative director of Louis Vuitton—and IKEA have redesigned homeware to create statement pieces that elevate everyday objects. With products ranging from clocks to door mats, this collection combines the avant-garde style that Virgil Abloh is known for with IKEA’s clean palette. In line with IKEA’s “democratic design” concept, the collection aims to raise the bar when it comes to affordability and fashion. Appealing to art-loving millennials, the collaboration demonstrates the intersections between art and design by integrating Abloh’s “pop-art” style of design into IKEA furniture. Using quotations around words has become part of the designer’s style, and the calling card can be seen in some of the pieces of the collection: a grassy rug that reads “WET GRASS” and a bag labeled “SCULPTURE,” for example. 

Earlier this year, Virgil Abloh designed a $500 rug that sold out in under 5 minutes. The rug featured antique Persian aesthetics with white lettering against the grey background. Printed with “KEEP OFF,” the rug conjures the image of an overbearing parent protecting his furniture. Abloh incorporates the ironic streak of furnishing a home as if it were a showroom throughout his pieces; the “little bit of irony” that Abloh strives for in his creations can be seen throughout this collection. The designer has been making waves in both the fashion and, now, the furniture realms. The sensational aspect of both the fifteen-piece collection and the rug demonstrate the reach of haute couture beyond clothing and into the home.

From a clock with “TEMPORARY” printed on it to a rug in the style of an IKEA receipt, much of the collection represents aspects of the deconstructive and humorous elements of Abloh’s work. Elevating the basics and grounding highbrow aesthetics can be seen throughout the collection, as well as intersections between streetwear and classic examples of Swedish furniture. In a lecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Abloh said that “the ethos of the collection is to add an artful quality to anonymous objects.” Many of the redesigned clocks, chairs, and doormats in the collection are pieces that can stand alone as either art pieces or functional everyday objects; but when the form and function work in tandem, the pieces become characters within a home, and they begin to take on personalities. The line between form and function blurs in these pieces, much like the light-up replica of the Mona Lisa.

Incorporating the two different design styles has created bold and contemporary homeware that shows how two different designers, Abloh and IKEA, experiment with the design process. Abloh’s mark on the minimalist Swedish furniture brand is pronounced through the tongue-in-cheek references imprinted on the pieces. The collaboration between these two well-known brands illustrates how cross-discipline collaboration can create works that appeal to a larger audience, as well as the possibility of making art and design more accessible.