The IKEA Catalogue is a catalogue published annually by the Swedishhome furnishing retailer IKEA. First published in Swedish in 1951, the catalogue is considered to be the main marketing tool of the company and, as of 2004, consumes 70% of its annual marketing budget. Worldwide, approximately 208 million copies of the catalogue were printed in fiscal year 2013, more than double the number of Bibles expected to be printed in the same period. For the 2013 edition, 62 different versions of the catalogue were created for 43 countries. The 2010 edition was published in 30 languages.
Production and distribution
Containing over 300 pages and about 12,000 products, it is distributed both by mail and in stores. Each edition of the catalogue takes about 10 months to develop from concept to final product. Most of the catalogue is produced by IKEA Communications AB in Älmhult, Sweden, the site of the original IKEA store and where IKEA Communications operates the largest photo studio in northern Europe. As of 2012, the studio employs 285 photographers, carpenters, interior designers and other personnel working full-time on photo shoots. The catalogue itself is printed on chlorine-free paper of 10-15% post-consumer waste. According to Canadian broadcaster CTV, "IKEA's publications have developed an almost cult-like following online. Readers have found all kinds of strange tidbits, including mysterious cat pictures, apparent Mickey Mouse references and weird books wedged into the many shelves that clutter the catalogues."
Innovation
The company began experimenting with computer-generated imagery in 2005 by placing a single computer-rendered image of a wooden chair in the 2006 edition of the catalogue. According to Anneli Sjögren, head of photography at IKEA, customers did not notice that the chair was computer-generated. In 2010, the first entirely computer-generated room was created for the catalogue. By the 2013 edition, 12% of imagery for the IKEA catalogue, brochures and website was computer-generated. As of 2014, 75% of product images and 35% of non-product images across all IKEA communications are fully computer-generated. Augmented reality was introduced in the 2013 edition of the catalogue. "X-ray" views through furniture compartments, videos, how-to guides and other interactive content could be accessed by scanning a symbol on the catalogue with a mobile device. The 2014 catalogue contains an augmented reality app that projects an item into a real-time photograph image of the user's room. The augmented reality app also provides an indication of the scale of IKEA objects in relation to the user's living environment.
Typeface
In 2009, IKEA changed the typeface used in its catalogue from Futura to Verdana, expressing a desire to unify its branding between print and web media. The controversy has been attributed to the perception of Verdana as a symbol of homogeneity in popular typography. The change drew considerable media attention. In 2019, the company switched from Verdana to IKEA Noto Sans as its official corporate typeface, including its catalogue. The typeface is a modified version of Google’s open-source font Noto Sans.
Criticism
In October 2012, IKEA was criticised for removing women from photos in the Saudi Arabian version of the 2013 catalogue.
