3 ms·

The video is quite good. It's interesting how many trivial decisions lined up to make an iconic photo

• krackers 8y ago
  I 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 ago
    The 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 ago
    In 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 ago
      I 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.”