家具制造商宜家通过卖简易拼装的平板家具发家致富。
但是这家瑞典公司的平板哲学已经贯穿整个企业——很多精致的厨房只不过是电脑绘图技术的杰作。
宜家开始避免去拍真正的厨房——那只不过是在浪费钱——他们现在用像AutoCAD或者Photoshop这样的3D成像软件来“打造”梦幻般的厨房。
别管真假，有些图从电器到抽屉和附属用品——全部都由3D设计软件制作。
在华盛顿日报的采访中，该公司称它们网站上12%的用图以及324页的产品目录都是去年在电脑上完成的，并且他们的目标是将这个份额提到25%。
这样一来公司不仅可以不用花钱去设计，建造和装饰实物，还可以用数码技术设计迎合不同市场需求的图片，比如改变地板或者架子的结构样式使得它们在不同的国家都行得通。
宜家摄影方面负责人Anneli Sjogre称：“这个办法可以帮我们省钱——我们可以不用在拍完照片把整个厨房里的东西扔进垃圾桶。”
“在真实的厨房里，你会受到四面墙壁的限制。”
“厨房需要在一到两周内建成然后在下个星期拍卧室之前拆掉...一切必须有规律的进行。”
你们管什么叫锅？电脑连器皿都可以设计。
在谈到这家公司如何轻而易举的给电脑制作的厨房润色时，她说：“现在我们要在日本卖这个厨房。他们跟北欧人一样，喜欢的颜色要比美洲人浅。我们还会在橱柜上用同样的罗勒植物，在3D的世界里，植物永不枯萎。”
Sjogre并没有说明这样会省多少钱，但是华尔街日报报道称，尽管该公司进行了大规模的扩张但是他们在过去十年里平均每年都会把价格下调2%到3%。
宜家每年发行的产品目录有2亿零8百万册——华尔街日报称这个数量是圣经每年理想发行量的两倍。这些目录会销往43个国家，共有62个版本。
这家成立于1943年的公司会花上10个月设计自己的产品目录，并且至今为止都在依靠一家占地9万4千平方英尺拥有285名员工的大型摄影工作室来帮助销售自己的商品。
有时候，就算是个“真”货，也看不出来跟“假”货有什么区别。
Furniture maker Ikea has made its reputation - and fortune - by flat-packing easy-to-assemble products.
But the Swedish firm's flatpacking philosophy seems to extend throughout the company - with many of the glossy kitchen images you see in its catalogue existing only in the imagination of a computer graphics designer.
The company now shuns your typical kitchen-shoot - calling it a waste of money - instead using 3D software modelling tools like AutoCAD and Photoshop to recreate idyllic kitchen spaces.
Real or fake? This entire Ikea image - from appliances to shelves and accessories - exists nowhere except in the imagination of a 3D designer
Real or fake? This entire Ikea image - from appliances to shelves and accessories - exists nowhere except in the imagination of a 3D designer
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the company said that 12 per cent of the images used on the company's website and 324-page catalogue are designed entirely on a PC.
Next year, the company aims to increase this to 25 per cent.
This not only saves the company money by meaning it does not need to design, build and decorate entire sets for the sake of one picture, but also means that they can digitally manipulate the images for different markets, such as changing the flooring or shelving if it will be more suitable in a different country.
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Ikea's head of photography Anneli Sjogre said: 'It's a clever way to save money - we don't have to throw away kitchens in the Dumpster after the photo shoot.
'With real photography you're constrained by the four walls.
'A kitchen has to be built in a week or two and then torn down the following week to make room for a bedroom shoot…everything has to run like clockwork.'
Referring to how the company can easily touch up a computer-generated kitchen over a studio kitchen, she said: 'Now let's say we want to sell that kitchen in Japan. Japanese people, like Scandinavians, like lighter hues of wood than Americans.
'And we can still use the same basil plant on the counter. In 3-D, the basil plant never wilts.'
Sjogre did not break down how much it saves through this method, but the WSJ reports that the company has managed to reduce prices by two to three per cent per year in the last decade despite aggressive expansion.
The company publishes 208million catalogues per year - which the WSJ notes is more than twice the number of Bibles expected to be published this year. In total, there will be 62 versions of the catalogue spread across 43 countries.
The company, founded in 1943, spends ten months designing its catalogue, and has relied so far on one of the largest photography studios - covering 94,000 square feet and containing 285 employees - in order to sell its wares.
