Flatpack Empire Series 1 1of3

IKEA is not like any other company – the Swedish furniture retailer is driven by a powerful philosophy, to ‘create a better everyday life for the many people’, and with 900 million customers a year, this series goes behind the scenes to find the secret to its global success.

Part 1:
In this first episode, we see how IKEA are starting to open up their design headquarters to outside influences. Tom Dixon – the ‘enfant terrible’ of British design, has been invited to collaborate on a new bed-sofa – but with deadlines looming and the world’s furniture press watching, neither he nor IKEA fully agree what the product should be. We follow the production of the famous catalogue, where Sara Blomquist is in charge of devising the ‘perfect’ front-cover image. Can she unite different voices in the company and create an image that will be seen by millions of people around the world?