Swedish furniture giant IKEA has had a bit of a thing this year for making little tweaks to its logo that you might not notice. Back in April it unveiled a brand new logo that looked almost exactly the same as the previous one, and now it's come up with a version that's surrounded by quotation marks.
What's this new logo design all about? It's to promote IKEA's latest collaboration with top fashion designer Virgil Abloh. The founder of achingly hip label Off-White, and the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection, he's got together with IKEA to create the MARKERAD collection, a range of 15 pieces that, says IKEA, fuses functionality with street cred and high cultural references.
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And what exactly does that have to do with putting quotation marks around the logo? Well, as all the cool kids amongst you will know, Off-White often uses quotes around the names of its collections, and a few of the pieces in the MARKERAD collection do the same, such as the green high pile rug that reads "WET GRASS" in big white letters, and the wall clock with "TEMPORARY" printed across the face. Deep.
Other pieces in the collection include a low pile rug in the form of an IKEA receipt, a pair of carrier bags decorated with the word "SCULPTURE", and a 17-piece tool set; prices start at £12 for the smaller of the carrier bags and for the tool set, while the most expensive item on offer is the solid wood MARKERAD table, a snip at £250.
To celebrate our new collab with one of fashion’s hottest designers we’ve given our Wembley store a little “makeover”. Collection on sale 01.11.19. Ticket holders only. More info at https://t.co/zrV7LGENd5 pic.twitter.com/PfqDRwD8MTNovember 1, 2019
The collection launches today, and to mark the event, IKEA's Wembley branch boasts a temporary logo upgrade complete with quotation marks, making it look, really, like, ironic, yeah? And to go with the new look, the branch has also installed the world's comfiest queue for all the people clamouring to get their hands on some instant IKEA collector's items, complete with sofas, armchairs, blankets and cushions.
It's not going to be there for long, though; the event runs from today until Sunday 3 November at IKEA's Wembley, Croydon and Dublin stores, and if you fancy getting your hands on your own MARKERAD piece then you're almost certainly too late. Anticipating huge demand, IKEA is restricting access through a ticketing system that sold out last month in under five minutes. You snooze, you lose.
If you have deep pockets, though, you can already find MARKERAD pieces on eBay at unsurprisingly massive markups. Happy shopping!
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