Sara Kristofferson, design history, Kostfack, Stockholm

2009-2014

The project is concerned with Ikea, a global brand that impacts on how the world regards Sweden and Swedish design but that is also important to how Swedes view themselves. Determining a company's nationality is difficult in our globalized existence. In the case of Ikea, it is clear that the concept and the brand are owned by Inter IKEA Systems B.V. which is registrated in the Netherlands, while most of the products are manufactured far beyond Sweden's borders, frequently in low-wage countries.
That IKEA functions as Sweden's face in the world as well as a symbol of Sweden is not just a role that the company has assumed voluntarily. In Sweden IKEA is proudly regarded as a sort of national symbol, and even though there is little in IKEA's corporate structure that has anything to do with Sweden, the company still receives a helping hand from the Swedish authorities.
For decades IKEA has taken advantage of established notions about Sweden as a democratic and egalitarian welfare state. The company's narrative has acquired a certain standing and a degree of official legitimacy.
Indeed, on occasions IKEA has been chosen to represent Sweden and to shape notions about Swedish society and Swedish design. And so it is important to ask ourselves which narrative is being promoted, as well as reflecting on the fact that a commercial brand can play such an important role in promoting the image of a country's culture, ideology and politics. Fundamentally it is a matter of how the conception of Sweden and Swedish design are renegotiated and shaped by a corporate culture.
The success of the chain of stores is often explained in terms of well-developed logistics, a potent corporate culture, and Kamprad's curious style of leadership. Flat packs and low prices are other common explanations. But the starting point for this particular projcet is in the narratives that have played a central role in IKEA's success story.
That companies make use of narratives both internally and externally in building their brands is in no sense unique to IKEA. The fundamental question is, rather, concerned with what it is what makes IKEA's narratives so effective.
Yet another aspect that prompts the project is the fact that IKEA has largely 'written it's own history' without encountering any serious friction. The historical narratives are then credulously repeated by the media and in surveys of design history. By partially financing exhibitions and books about the company, IKEA has been able to retain an influence on its own historical narrative which is then adopted and reproduced by other people in other contexts.
My aim is not to identify the recipe for IKEA's success. Rather, it is to analyse and deconstruct IKEA's narratives in order to explain why these particular narratives have been so extraordinarily effective. Several questions need to be answered: Is there some form of guiding principle or recurring Ur-narrative? What is emphasized and what do the narratives refrain from mentioning? How have the narratives been shaped, used and handed on?
The project's three main results and a discussion of these.
The IKEA narrative can be read as modern Sweden's myth about itself. During the 1990s Sweden went from being a model country to becoming a welfare state in crisis. Looking back we can see that the more the welfare state eroded - which happened in parallel with IKEA's expansion into a multinational corporation - the more IKEA stressed the notion of the Swedish welfare state. That the company explicitly and consciously presents itself as a Swedish rather than a global business is, to a large degree, a matter of differentiating itself through its narratives. IKEA constructs its own Swedish narrative, adapting it to its own self-image. IKEA's national identity can, in other words, be exchanged for Swedish currency.
The company and its narratives are also used by the Swedish government in order to give the national identity new life. Just like IKEA, Sweden can be regarded as a brand that seeks to establish its profile in the global arena. The government's eagerness to highlight IKEA illustrates the belief that success leads to success. IKEA uses pictures of Sweden in its marketing and Sweden uses IKEA. The company and the nation seem to enter into a symbiosis with advantages to both parties. The respective brand profiles have common denominators and the narratives confirm mutually established and stereotypical notions about the nation and Swedish design. The process is, in other words, reciprocal.

Just like IKEA's presentation of Swedishness, the company's self-image as innovative and pioneering, as illustrated in the narratives, can be questioned. Clever solutions to problems are credited to IKEA's distinctive way of being, and are often the result of a constant effort to reduce prices. That IKEA is innovative cannot be questioned, but it is not necessarily innovative in the way that the company claims. Reality is adapted and refined in the company's narratives. The creative and pioneering aspect is more a matter of building on traditions and developing concepts right from the start.

New research questions generated by the project.
The project can be defined as designhistory in a broad sense, but has opened up new angles far from being strictly designhistorical. The study analyzes material with outlooks to, for example, politics and economics, and the issues can be considered as interdisciplinary. The project will be presented in a book by Bloomsbury Academic Publishing in autumn 2014 (see below). In the anonymous review commissioned by the publisher it is argued that:
"The book is of significant value to research in the field. Whereas IKEA's extraordinary success has garnered a lot of attention in the management literature, its massive impact on contemporary design culture worldwide has gone vitually unnoticed in the design history/culture/studies literature. The book will be the first to address this lacuna....The rationale for this book is beyond questioning. The power and impact that comes with the dominant position of IKEA in many markets simply beg for academic attention and scrutiny. But what really makes it interesting is the focus on the symbolic and ideological impact of the company."
The project's international connection
Ikea is a global brand with stores worldwide, and both the topic and the project is interesting from an international perspective. During the researchprocess, parts of the project have been presented at international conferences:
2010 "Craft for the massmarket: mission impossible?", paper presented at Design and craft: a history of convergences and divergences. 7th Conference of the International Committee of Design History and Design Studies (ICDHS), 20-22 september, Bryssel.
2011 "Democracy on Sale", paper presented at Design Principles and Practices, 2-4 februari, Sapienza University, Rom.
2011 "Beyond Blond", paper presented at Design Activism and Social Change, Design History Society Annual Conference, 7-10 september, Barcelona.
2012 "Sweden designed by Ikea", paper presented at Culture Politics and Cultural Policies, VII International Conference on Cultural Policy Research, Barcelona.
2012 "Sweden designed by Ikea", 8th Conference of the International Committee for Design History & Design Studies (ICDHS), Sao Paolo.
2014 In January, the project was presented at the Swedish Consulate in Istanbul for over ten representatives from universities in Turkey.

Research informative efforts outside the scientific community
I write regularly in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and has presented the project and related issues in a number of articles. (See List of Publications). In addition, I have participated in panel discussions at museums and galleries open to the public, and also participated in the Swedish Radio and Swedish Television.

2011 "Design och ondska", panelsamtal, Röhsska museet, Göteborg.
2012 "Vikten av designhistoria", Design Hall, Formmuseets vänner, Stockholm.
2012 "Hem", panelsamtal, Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm.
2009 Interview, Sveriges radio, "Kulturradion".
2009 Interview, Sveriges radio, "Nya vågen".
2010 Interview Sveriges television "Morgonnyheter".
2012 Interview about contemporary Swedish Design, Sveriges radio, "Sahlberg".
2013 Interview about Ikea, Sveriges radio Kronoberg.

Since 2012 I am member of the government's advisory Council for the National Museum/Prince Eugen Waldermarsudde where the member's primary mission is to represent a civic influence and exercising the general transparency. The member is also assumed to contribute with their own skills.
The project's two main publications and a discussion of these:
The project is presented in a book published by Bloomsbury Academic Publishing in autumn 2014. Synopsis of the book went through three peer reviews. The final version of the script has received a very positive review, which I enclose. Since this is an international publishing house, the Swedish research results will be disseminated internationally and hopefully also to a wider readership.

A second publication is the my chapter "Swedish form and Ikea" included in Kjell Östberg and Jenny Andersson (eds.): Sveriges Historia 1965-2012, Norstedts, Stockholm, 2013.

Publications

Publications connected to the project.
Sara Kristoffersson: Design by IKEA: A Cultural History, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, publiceras 2014
http://www.amazon.com/Design-IKEA-A-Cultural-History/dp/0857858130
Sara Kristoffersson and Christina Zetterlund: “A Historiography of Scandinavian Design” in Kjetil Fallan (ed.): Scandinavian Design. Alternative Histories, Bergs Publishers, 2012.
Sara Kristoffersson: “Better rough and ready than clean and mean”, Uglycute, Marabouparken, Stockholm, Spring 2012.
Sara Kristoffersson: “Sweden Designed by Ikea”, Design Frontiers: Territories, Concepts, Technologies, Editora Edgard Blucher, Sao Paolo, 2012.
Sara Kristoffersson: ”Svensk form och Ikea” i Kjell Östberg och Jenny Andersson (red.):Sveriges Historia 1965-2012,  Norstedts, Stockholm, 2013.
Kristoffersson, Sara: ”Designlandet Sverige fattigt på forskning” (Under strecket), Svenska Dagbladet, 2010-11-03.
Sara Kristoffersson: “Craft for the Mass Market: Mission Impossible?” Javier Gimeno-Martinez and Fredie Floré, (eds.) Design and craft: a history of convergences and divergences, Contactforum, Brussels, 2010.
Kristoffersson, Sara: ”Inredning är mer än ett snyggt yttre” (Under strecket), Svenska Dagbladet, 2011-11-29.
Sara Kristoffersson: “Swedish Design History”, Journal of Design History, Vol. 24, Number 2, 2011.
Sara Kristoffersson: ”Kamprad persona”, Hjärnstorm, Nr 110, 2012.
Sara Kristoffersson: ”När reklam blev den piggaste konstformen” (Under strecket), Svenska Dagbladet, 2012-11-16.
Sara Kristoffersson: ”Varumärkets magi intar våra sinnen” (Under strecket), Svenska Dagbladet, 2012-06-16.
Sara Kristoffersson: ”Sverigeresan: Identitetsbygget. Konsumtion och nybrutalism”, Arkitektur, Nr 4, 2012.