The unofficial IKEA Report is a self-initiated editorial series by Kai Kwong a.k.a. dollgirls, celebrating the good stuff from IKEA.

The title is set in City Boy TM and Recoleta Condensed, with Domino Mono and League Script. Text typefaces are Instrument Sans and what looks like a condensed version of Times New Roman.

Catalogue!!!, a new collaborative zine from Dazed and IKEA, launching at the Milan Design Week, explores the meaning of home for young people today, as “the first environment you have the freedom to design, the first spot that embodies your taste, the first space you can author as your own”.

Born out of a deep dive into the IKEA archive – as well as conversations between Jefferson Hack and Ingka Group (IKEA Retail) creative director Marcus Engman – Catalogue!!! shines a spotlight on different, radical types of living, from live-in tattoo parlours, to micro-apartments and communal housing schemes, with a specific lens on a younger generation making the transition into their first homes.

The zine’s inventive format splits its pages into two distinct halves: one showcasing vibrant A2 pull-out posters, perfect for adorning any space with an edgy flair, while the other functions as a tabloid newspaper, delivering cutting-edge content in an unconventional package.

The bold and versatile All Purpose Grotesk punctuates each page with its distinctive presence. With its clean lines and contemporary feel, it serves as a striking contrast to the zine’s raw, punk-inspired imagery and design.

The magazine logo appears to be lettered, possibly inspired by Betatron from CoType Foundry which has similar (but less heavy) lettershapes.

Semihandmade is a company that makes customizable cabinet doors for Ikea cabinets. The Semihandmade logo uses Gneisenauette. Text on the website is rendered in various weights of GT Walsheim.

Front cover

DIY or How to Kill Yourself Anywhere in the World for Under $399 is a book produced by artist Joe Scanlan as part of the No Ghost Just a Shell project.

No Ghost Just a Shell was created in 1999 by two French artists, Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno. They acquired the copyright for a manga figure called AnnLee (a.k.a. Annlee, or Ann Lee) – a character with only a physical description (a young woman with pointed ears, purple hair and eyes) but otehrwise no characteristics. Huyghe and Parreno have invited other artists to use AnnLee’s character in various productions that can be globalized in the No Ghost just a Shell project. During the course of the project, Parreno decided at one point to put an end to AnnLee and scripted her death. Joe Scanlan’s DIY is his contribution to the project. Originally conceived for Waste Management, an exhibition and catalogue organized by Christina Ritchie at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, in 1999, DIY was published by Imschoot Uitgevers in 2002 in an edition of 1,000 copies. The book was edited by Kurt Vanbelleghem and designed by Miko McGinty.

From the publisher:

DIY presents—in extremely dry and methodical detail—a plan for how to go into any IKEA store in the world and buy materials with which to build your own coffin. As is the case with all Do-It-Yourself projects, some basic skills and tools are required. In the most basic sense, then, DIY is a shopping guide, a manifesto for how to get what you want from the world of commerce rather than having to accept what it wants give you, an epic tale about the transformation of mundane merchandise into a transcendental escape vehicle. DIY was the 65th artist’s book published by the esteemed Imschoot Uitgevers in Ghent, Belgium. It also features a guest appearance by AnnLee, a Japanese manga character owned, operated and ultimately put out of commission by Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno.

With this background, we can grasp the book’s design. First of all, the cover in IKEA colors and the logo show the intention to build soemthing (in this case, a coffin). The IKEA logo is modified to read “DIY”, using a different letter style, namely Helvetica Rounded, which is quite different from the original with its angled and pointed letters. The round letterforms give it a childlike look. Perhaps this is because AnnLee could be a young character, and this DIY design is intended for her.

At the end of the book, we better understand the death part of the piece with the last call and the photo of the coffin with two vases. The coffin was exhibited in a museum along with other pieces from the project. The piece is called Do It Yourself Dead on Arrival (AnnLee). The back cover shows a drill, which can also be seen as a pistol.

The title page uses all-caps Helvetica Rounded.

The shopping list is set in Univers 45.

AnnLee’s last call

The coffin

Back cover

Book presentation in museum

Cover, typeset in Marr Sans Ultra Black.

Published by IKEA in three languages, along with the limited edition collection “Föremål” – a collaboration with artist and ceramicist Per (Pelle) B Sundberg featuring skull-shaped vases, dog-candleholders and more.

The book, designed by Malmsten Hellberg, with photography by Ola Bergengren, Märta Thisner and Tina Axelsson, shows the making of the collection in the studio and on travels along with unique images of Pelle’s works from museums, private collections and pizza restaurants.

Body text is set in Lyon Text. Headlines are set in Marr Sans Ultra Black and Marr Sans Cond Bold. Captions are set in Marr Sans Regular.

Table of contents in the English edition. Typeset in Marr Sans Cond Bold, Marr Sans Ultra Black and Lyon Text.

Chapter opening in the English edition. Typeset in Marr Sans Ultra Black and Marr Sans Regular. Photo: Ola Bergengren/IKEA.

Spread in the English edition. Typeset in Lyon Text. Photo: Märta Thisner/IKEA.

Spread in the Swedish edition. Typeset in Marr Sans Cond Bold.

Spread in the German edition, typeset in Marr Sans Cond Bold.

Covers of English, Portuguese and Danish editions. Type set in Lyon Display.

This book is published by IKEA of Sweden in 16 languages, along with the limited edition collection AVSIKTLIG, where members of the legendary textile collective Ten Swedish Designers (known in Swedish as 10-gruppen) are joined by young textile designers from IKEA. The book is divided into 10 chapters with photography from the making of the collection along with prints from the archives of 10-gruppen.

Contents spread in the English edition. Type set in Lyon Display.

Text spread in the Polish edition. Type set in Lyon Text.

Text spread in the Portuguese edition. Type set in Lyon Text.

Chapter start in the English edition. Type set in Lyon Display and Lyon Text.

Image spread. Type set in Lyon Text. Photo by Erik Wåhlström/IKEA.

Stockholm Design Lab:

IKEA is a worldwide Swedish home furnishing company with 28 distribution centres and a global network of 267 stores attracting a total of 590 million visitors.

Stockholm Design Lab created a design and packaging concept when the company combined its various food and catering units under the IKEA brand. The aim of the Swedish Food Market is to enhance the Swedish identity of IKEA.

The range of products is aimed at attracting food lovers who are interested and curious about different food cultures and eating habits, particularly Swedish ones. The packaging should therefore provoke interest in the products as well as present the food in a clear, honest and appetizing way. The products should always express the key values: reliability, quality and Swedishness.