Production · Post · Creative
In partnership with Knock Knock / Good Relations
IKEA
Four sets, built to launch IKEA’s new retail concept.
Production · Post · Creative
In partnership with Knock Knock / Good Relations
Four sets, built to launch IKEA’s new retail concept.
01 The brief
Ingka Group — IKEA's parent company — were launching Livat, a new concept for their retail destinations. Not just a place to shop, but somewhere to work, eat, meet and spend time. The brief was to bring that idea to life across four short films, one for each of the four pillars, before the end of October. It was September.
The project came via Knock Knock, a creative production company who had an existing relationship with Good Relations, the agency handling Ingka. The timeline was tight enough that Knock Knock needed a team who could move fast and take the weight of production without much hand-holding. We took it on.
02 What we did
Three concepts went to the client. One on location at their Kingston centre — ruled out on timing. One built around fantastical puppetry, inspired by the work of Annie Brooks — liked, but the schedule made it too risky. The third was a studio build: four distinct set environments, each representing one of the Livat pillars, shot separately and delivered as individual films.
That was the one they chose. Then, a week before the shoot, with the studio booked and crew confirmed, the brief changed. Furniture that had been promised wasn't coming. Props needed sourcing at short notice. A family with children was suddenly required. The furniture IKEA did eventually supply arrived the day before the shoot — flat-packed, naturally. We traded on the goodwill of the studio and an overtime fee to stay until 1am the night before building it ourselves.
On the day, four sets — an office, a boutique changing room, a café and a shopping concourse dressed with large planters and natural materials — were shot with a full crew across a single production day. The cast saved us. The two leads in particular had something about them that made every scene feel lived-in rather than performed — the kind of people who make a director look better than they deserve to on a difficult day.
03 The result
Four films delivered on time, on budget, for one of the world's most recognisable retail brands. Good Relations were pleased. Ingka were satisfied. The production was not without its challenges.
Most aren't. But you learn more from the difficult ones than the straightforward ones — about logistics, about managing upwards, about what a good crew and a great cast can rescue when everything else is moving around them. We still have the rubber tree we bought for the set. It's doing well.