The (new) IKEA principle?

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Maybe it has already arrived through your letterbox: the new IKEA catalogue. The Swedish furniture department store is flooding the republic with this hefty volume and has also provided some great operating instructions about how to use the “Bookbook”. It promises a host of lovely furnishing ideas on 328 pages.

Not many people notice that around 75% of the photos in the catalogue show 3-D visualisations rather than real products. Three-quarters of all the images – ranging from the light to the surfaces and structures and the rooms – are generated at the computer. Why does IKEA do that? To save time and cut costs. To produce the mood shots for the pictured rooms, kitchens and bathrooms, the furniture prototypes used to be sent all over the world for extravagant photo shoots. The results were impressive, but they consumed a lot of time and money. Now, IKEA digitalises the products’ surfaces, models them virtually and provides them with high-res textures. In this way, the furniture can then be placed in virtual rooms and illuminated flexibly.

This type of presentation is particularly effective for interior articles, as the articles – assuming they are available in digital form – can be used in different ways for all possible purposes and channels in marketing and sales. Here is a best-practice example from an Italian kitchen manufacturer.

lichtecht 3D visualisations would be delighted to advise you if your plans include similar projects.

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