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It’s all here! 70 years of IKEA Catalogs at your fingertips

This most inspiring archive is now at the IKEA Museum and online.

The IKEA 2021 catalog is rolling out progressively across the IKEA empire. Canada and Sweden (of course!) seems to be the first few countries to have uploaded the digital version to their website. So, if you’re dying for a sneak peek, click those links above.

But before we run ahead with the new 2021 catalog, IKEA wants us to remember the old ones.

Just yesterday, IKEA celebrated the opening of the “IKEA Catalogue Through The Ages” exhibition at the IKEA Museum in Älmhult, Sweden.

70 years.

That’s how long the IKEA catalog has been produced in Älmhult. Initially, it featured more than furniture. The catalog from 1950 (pix below) carried bags, pens and some clothing. If you didn’t know, the late Ingvar Kamprad started at age 6, with selling matches. At 17, he founded IKEA. (Read his story, which is the main exhibition in the museum.)

IKEA Catalogue Through The Ages” exhibition at the IKEA Museum in Älmhult, Sweden

IKEA Museum tells the story of the catalog

The exhibition takes you behind the scenes and shows you how one of the world’s most widely distributed printed works has been produced and has changed over the years – from basic product pictures, to furnished rooms and 3D design.

A fun activity in this exhibition is to photograph yourself on the cover of the 1973 and the 2021 catalog.

IKEA Catalogue Through The Ages” exhibition at the IKEA Museum in Älmhult, Sweden

Go back in time to 1973.

IKEA Catalogue Through The Ages” exhibition at the IKEA Museum in Älmhult, Sweden

After the perfect shot, print the photo and keep it as a souvenir.

Along with the onsite exhibition, they’ve also launched a new digital archive of IKEA catalogs from the last 70 years on the IKEAmuseum.com website.

IKEA Catalogues

That translates to thousands and thousands of pages to geek out on.

You can browse through each page of the Swedish catalogs.

1950

In them, you may find a few regular friends, like the IVAR, in this kinda James Bond set-up.

1951

Another familiar one — the KLIPPAN and ENETRI.

1971

If you have time on your hands this weekend, take a journey through 70 years of IKEA catalogs. Or when you need to find the name of that one item, hit the browser and visit the exhibition at the IKEA Museum.

The post It’s all here! 70 years of IKEA Catalogs at your fingertips appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

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