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The Story Behind the IKEA Photo of Amsterdam
- holografix 8y agoReally enjoyed this!
- schoen 8y agoPlease watch the video rather than just reading the article (there's much more material in the documentary). Actually, the video made me cry a little bit. After watching the video, I found https://www.deepakg.com/the-canal-in-ikeas-amsterdam-photo https://www.deepakg.com/the-canal-in-ikeas-amsterdam-photo which gives the location and the name of the houseboat. (If you want to see it in Google Street View, a better search is probably Brouwersgracht 56.)
- rosege 8y agoI just tried the co-ordinates for the spot in the link you provided but its directs you to the IKEA store in AMS and not where the photo was taken. As I'm currently in Amsterdam I might go snap my own photo of it just for the hell of it.
- RyJones 8y agoThe video is quite good. It's interesting how many trivial decisions lined up to make an iconic photo
- krackers 8y agoI don't think the decision to make the bike red was as trivial as it seems. Even though the designer mentioned the bike could have been any color, there's a clear aesthetic precedent for red against black & white (see e.g. schindler's list) which also has a emotional component that I think pairs well with the supposed melancholy of the picture.
- schoen 8y agoThe documentary shows that there are several other posters in the same series, which all of have some kind of color against black and white. All of them are realistic in some way (for example, yellow taxicabs in New York and a red double-decker bus in London), but not all of them are red. https://www.google.com/search?&tbm=isch&q=ikea+vilshult https://www.google.com/search?&tbm=isch&q=ikea+vilshult
- mc32 8y agoIn photography circles selective color is up there with HDR in that it’s seen as a fun but amateurish venture which detracts from an original but while trying to make the original “pop” more. None the less, this was a trend in the 90s I think with greeting cards companies whose tropes were highlighted kids, roses/flowers, balloons, etc., against a gray backdrop.
- prepend 8y agoI think it’s funny that in this case amateurish is perfectly fine for the audience. Photography circles aren’t necessarily concerned with creating accessible art that hangs in people’s home and affects them every day. IKEA is. “Finally, I got in touch with the lead designer at IKEA who had picked the photo more than 10 years ago. I ask him why he picked the photo, and he told me that the first thing they design at IKEA is the price. This photo was just very, very cheap, and that’s why they picked it.”
- random878 8y agoThank you for highlighting that to us. I dismissed the article, but I'm very glad I went back and watched the video.
- benj111 8y agoI tried watching the video, my Dutch is a bit rusty. As a warning to others, there is a nsfw bit.
- specialist 8y agoI too thank you. That's such a well produced, well told, compelling story. As someone a bit older, I almost can't stand how awesome everything is today. Just one technique that popped out was the timing, animation of the captioning. Done before, sure, but this author's technique somehow adds to the story telling. What a time to be alive.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- tivert 8y ago> Finally, I got in touch with the lead designer at IKEA who had picked the photo more than 10 years ago. I ask him why he picked the photo, and he told me that the first thing they design at IKEA is the price. > This photo was just very, very cheap, and that’s why they picked it. It makes total sense, but seeing it stated directly like that reduces my desire for their art and decor. Not knowing how they do things lets you fool yourself into thinking there's something more there than the cheapest acceptable photo from an archive. Edit: decor -> art and decor
- avar 8y agoWere you under the impression that IKEA's flimsy materials and construction were some quaint design choices unrelated to cost?
- 2muchcoffeeman 8y agoThat’s a bit uncharitable. I found out about IKEA’s Democratic Design Day through My Mini Factory. It’s probably not a unique philosophy. But I like the idea that good quality design should be available to everybody. It’s probably a tough gig trying to design an item starting with the cost first. But I think they have largely succeeded.
- pgeorgi 8y agoThe construction is also optimized for amateur builders. You can get wonderfully built artisan furniture, but it won't be as robust against abuse as IKEA stuff generally is.
- tivert 8y agoWe have a misunderstanding. I was only talking about decorations and art, not more functional items like furniture and utensils.
- Doxin 8y agoWell yes, the cheapest version of the furniture at ikea isn't exactly what I'd call sturdy, but try buying some of the more expensive stuff. It's still stupid cheap compared to other furniture stores and no worse quality.
- lordnacho 8y agoWhere I grew up almost every pizza shop would have two specific photos hanging. - "American Girl in Italy" which appeared to be a lady being leered at by a whole load of guys. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/30/europe/tbt-ruth-orkin-american-girl-in-italy/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/30/europe/tbt-ruth-orkin-ame... - "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" which is a bunch of guys sitting suspended in the air. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QCYDzsQ_yM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QCYDzsQ_yM Not sure why those particular two, but I'm almost surprised if I don't see one of them in one of those types of shops.
- choot 8y ago>American Girl in Italy" which appeared to be a lady being leered at by a whole load of guys. When you are not good looking, leering behaviour is called harassment. So, this painting promotes harassment it seems.
- rawTruthHurts 8y agoWhen you are good looking, harassment behaviour is called leering. So, this painting promotes leering it seems.
- choot 8y agoIt also depends on culture i guess.
- AdrianB1 8y agoIt is not a painting, it is a picture and it does not promote something, it captures an image from an era you obviously know nothing about. If you judge other cultures from your perspective you can easily get to wrong conclusions and talk about it on the Internet.
- specialist 8y agoSorry you're being downvoted. I just spent 30m poking around. Their story is terrific and remains relevant today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Orkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Orkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninalee_Craig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninalee_Craig
- pouetpouet 8y agoIt's nice to hear from the designer himself not to overinterpret the choices. It could have been any other photo, any other colour for the bike.
- tobyhinloopen 8y agoYeah I loved his reply
- ekianjo 8y ago> This photo was just very, very cheap, and that’s why they picked it. Sounds like a poor justification. There are tons of pictures in the public domain so it's not like there is no abundance of choice there.
- dr_hooo 8y agoIt was from a famous photographer and it was cheap. Sounds like a good deal to me.
- martokus 8y agoEn example of why I love the HN community - there's something special in this story that is hard to explain and not everyone will understand. But people here seem to!
- techstrategist 8y agoThere's something about this that resonates with me, in the stark reality of the intersection / tension between art and commerce: “Finally, I got in touch with the lead designer at IKEA who had picked the photo more than 10 years ago. I ask him why he picked the photo, and he told me that the first thing they design at IKEA is the price. This photo was just very, very cheap, and that’s why they picked it.” We {makers | artists | artisans} want to create something that's great, or beautiful, or complete. But commercially, what's viable is the (forgive the cliche) Pareto solution. This photo is 80% of a great photo, at 20% of the price. I tend to forget that the 80% solution is an option to consider when I'm working on a project. I coincidentally live in Amsterdam and also have been learning photography, not because of any intrinsic interest but because my wife said "buy an SLR because we'll be having kids in a few years, and I want to have nice photos of them." We now have a baby (and many wonderful photos), but I find myself really frustrated that I've put significant effort into learning the technical part of the skillset and she has not. But when I really consider the imbalance, it's true that she can get the 80% result with point and shoot auto or my presets, and there's no reason for me to get judgmental that she doesn't make more of an effort.
- matchagaucho 8y agoReminds of the saying "You can own 100% of nothing or 10% of something big." When partnering with a distributor like IKEA, and considering they've sold ~500K of these prints, a "cheap" royalty can be very lucrative.
- techstrategist 8y agoSo true. One of my dreams is to sell Ikea on an affordable, extensible set of construction toys hearkening back to the great industrial sets rather that the branded plastic collectible stuff that’s popular now. One day...
- contingencies 8y agoHaha, I spent years running around the world with SLRs, now I have a kid I have no energy for it and just shoot mobile.
- salmonz 8y agoI find it funny that 400K people have put up a photo with an overflowing trash bin in their living room. We noticed this after we bought and couldn’t stop laughing. We literally hung up a picture of garbage.