Exploring the future with vintage designs in AI

We sat down with workshop hosts Georgina McDonald and Alexandra Zenner of research and design lab SPACE10 as well as IKEA Design Manager Johan Ejdemo to talk about the potential of generative AI for design and the need to look back to look forward.

Textured fabrics, graphic patterns, bright colours, and natural materials fill the pages of IKEA catalogues from the 1970’s and 80’s. It’s a bold, warm aesthetic that marks everything from interior and graphic to fashion design at large of the times. And one that’s experiencing a revival in parts today, not least in the new IKEA Nytillverkad collection.

“There’s so much to be drawn from the sixties through the nineties of IKEA designs, and there’s something really transcendingly modern about the seventies and eighties in particular”, Alexandra Zenner, Creative & Planning at research and design lab SPACE10, says enthusiastically.

“Maybe it’s nostalgia!” Georgina McDonald, SPACE10 Creative & Partnerships, chimes in. She continues: “What comes with the advancement and speed of technology is the paradox of this kind of human need to slow down and look back. What is in the past? What was good then, and what is nice and familiar about it now?”

Both Alexandra and Georgina work with exploring future technologies at SPACE10. And they’re both strong believers in the importance of also celebrating the past with those very same technologies, not least when it comes to design. A generative artificial intelligence model fed with 70's and 80's IKEA catalogues is an example of that. One that was brought to a workshop - co-hosted by IKEA and SPACE10 - for design students to utilise to explore designs fit for the future, with a little help from the past.

“Technology doesn’t necessarily need to immediately change form. In images of the future, you often see largescale glass, warped buildings, drones going through them. I don’t know about others, but to me, that doesn’t seem like a cosy, grounding future that you want to live in”, says Georgina. “Putting vintage designs into a superpowered advanced technology like generative AI gives way to the past in imagining the future, which really is integral to making it inviting and familiar enough to consider.”

Integrating classic and iconic designs from the past into generative AI then makes it a tool for looking into what should be kept and replicated – and what to change. From simple things, like colour and finish, to decisive details regarding materials and construction.

The latter especially as they relate to considering the environment and climate in the design process, tackled in the workshop through a focus on challenges such as waste, energy efficiency, and air quality.

“Where it becomes interesting is if you start integrating different types of AI with this generative piece. You could have an AI that could tell you the best local materials for creating a chair in, say, Barcelona. And it would know exactly those materials and give you generations relevant not only aesthetically but also in terms of material used with the sustainability angle, and all the pillars of Democratic Design”, Alexandra muses out loud.

“Where it becomes interesting is if you start integrating different types of AI with this generative piece. You could have an AI that could tell you the best local materials for creating a chair in, say, Barcelona. And it would know exactly those materials and give you generations relevant not only aesthetically but also in terms of material used with the sustainability angle, and all the pillars of Democratic Design”, Alexandra muses out loud.

The workshop held at Milan Design Week then had participants engage with the question: what if the program wouldn’t just generate, but think in that vein, acting as a mechanical collaborator and creative partner? Potentially enabling an entirely new mode of concept development that is faster, more efficient, and provides more ideas than any human alone could generate.

A good hundred or so concept generationsfrom the lively hour-long workshop with students of different design disciplines might be a good proof point for the latter.

“At IKEA, we like to start at this end when exploring new things and technologies; opening the conversation to listen and learn from people, especially students in this case. They represent the future, so it’s nice to explore it with them”, says Johan Ejdemo, Design Manager at IKEA.

He smiles knowingly as he notes that back when he started out in design, the tools were pen, paper, and your own mind.

“There’s so much more going on today, and it’s likely that this kind of artificial intelligence will play a role in the careers of these students. We are curious about their views on it and on their own roles in the future context of design”.

Johan admits to knowing very little about AI himself. But he’s noticeably just as inspired as the student participants by the workshop introduction to AI, complete with a short film on AI created for SPACE10 by Joss Fong and Áron Filkey using AI models.

“Just having it explained a bit here was enough to be inspired. It’s such a great way to connect our past and present at IKEA with the future. It's the story we’re telling with Nytillverkad as well, as we look to the future with eighty years of design behind us”, Johan explains.