With Sweden as a country partner for Business of Design Week (BODW) this year, it makes sense that one of the country’s most well-known brands is in attendance. Speaking as Head of Design for IKEA, Marcus Engman is lively, bright, interesting and entertaining to listen to. Meeting in person, he points out that he is not a designer, but Head of Design, with a background in home furnishing and marketing communications. So, what makes him perfect for his role? “I am an extremely curious person, looking for new things and investigating all the time. And I am quite social,” he says. According to Engman, it’s his past that makes him feel grounded in what he does and he argues that is necessary for true creativity and innovation. “You have to feel that you’re on safe ground – it’s one of the reasons why Sweden is a creative country. We have a welfare system and we live in quite a safe society. You feel safe to explore. That is typically Swedish,” he explains. Discussing the idea that design thinking is about solving everyday problems, Engman says: “We always start with that in mind, it’s natural. We are all curiosity-driven problem solvers, curious about needs and new techniques in production. All designers should be – if you aren’t curious, how can you learn? When learning stops, nothing interesting can be produced. A curious person will have good dinner conversation because they are interested in you. It’s the same for a company.” During his speech, Engman tells the BODW audience that IKEA has a rich culture, built up over 70 years. “When in doubt, begin,” he advises them. As an international company offering costeffective options, IKEA has always looked for similarities among countries and cultures, and worked in high volumes. “To solve the problems of the majority, you have to look for the big problems – that’s nothing new to us. On the other hand, you have to look at the majority as many individuals,” Engman explains. The consumer has changed a lot in the last 70 years. Globalisation, the development of affordable travel, and how visually savvy people now has changed the market. “Tastes are more dynamic and more similar. Urbanisation is the biggest trend – cities are more influential and the people living in them are becoming more alike, with the same problems, such as density,” Engman says. “I travel a lot and it’s sad that everywhere you go, you see the same things – but individuals are looking for uniqueness.” While appealing to different cultural backgrounds may affect style, function remains untouched. But mass production has limitations and sustainability cannot be taken for granted. “A big thing for us to solve is how to make mass production work for individualisation,” Engman says. “We also ask: how can we help people live sustainably? That is a major worldwide change, so we have to be innovative. We are reinforcing the idea of products aging gracefully and lasting longer.” Engman is shifting back to what he calls honesty in materials – getting rid of damaging lacquer and laminates on wood or coating metals with plastic. Other items might reference IKEA’s past “half-baked designs”, where the customer can add their own unique finish, such as paint. And in the next couple of years, IKEA will introduce an individualised print-on-demand option. “Sustainability is top of our agenda,” Engman says. “Not just in production but in our selling and logistics. More than that, there is the question of how we design things to enable people to lead more sustainable lives? That is real change.” As a large company, education is another responsibility that IKEA bears in mind. “We drive change, so we have a responsibility to work with universities to share our knowledge. This is happening more and more in Sweden – we have also been at the forefront of the IT revolution and I think we see the results from sharing,” Engman says. Young designers often graduate lacking production knowledge and, according to Engman, this is because they lack the time to learn about it in a fast-developing world. It also means they don’t have a good handle on what’s possible. “I sit on the board in some schools in Sweden and IKEA co-operate with universities like Lund University, as an ongoing project. It is something we can do more of in the future, it keeps things fresh – I believe in using the collective brain,” he says. With two billion people passing through IKEA each year, Engman feels his responsibility – to the customers, to students, and to the planet itself. Marcus Engman speaking about IKEAs new Social Gaming app Lattjo, and some other impressive new examples of #Swedenlivingdesign in #bodw2014 — Adam Sarac (@daamsaarc) December 4, 2014
