Do you have a gamer in your life? We do, and it can be challenging fitting their furniture into our décor. Enter Ikea, with its new Republic of Gamers gaming collection collab, offering affordable gaming furniture and accessories designed to blend in seamlessly with your home. We chatted with Carmen Ciesielski, director of home furnishing and retail design at Ikea, to learn more. —Noa Nichol
IKEA’s new gaming collection in collab with ROG has launched; what does the range offer?
IKEA and ROG have teamed up to create a long-term collection of home furnishing products and solutions, inspiring and uniting gamers from across the world. The collection is designed to meet the needs and dreams of gamers regardless of whether they are avid e-sports fans or passionate hobbyists. Together, the long-term collaboration combines the best of our two worlds. It’s a product designed to make for the best gaming and streaming experience, while blending gaming into the home in a beautiful, slee, and integrated way.
In the past, what have been some of the issues/challenges in blending gaming furniture in with home décor and how does this new collection solve those issues?
At IKEA we are always exploring how we can improve life at home for consumers. With over 2.5 billion gamers in the world, the needs of gaming have evolved, and we also know that the average age of a gamer in Canada has increased to 39 years old, and there’s a 50/50 split of male and female players. With these insights, we’re able to understand that gamers have several wants and needs that require unique home furnishing solutions. Prior to this gaming launch, IKEA has long been a destination for home offices which extends into the gaming community. Over the years, we’ve seen an increased popularity with the gaming audience online to create unique solutions leveraging IKEA Home Office products. Notably, many consumers have loved using the classic ALEX drawers accompanied by one of our varied tabletops to create their personal at-home set-up. The new collection of gaming products builds on some of what customers love about IKEA office furniture, and we’ve focused on an exclusive line of desks, chairs, as well as a variety of accessories designed with the gamer in mind. The IKEA gaming collection solves for cable management, accessory storage and ergonomics to offer a more comfortable, organized and tidy gaming set-up.
What expertise did ROG bring to the, ahem, table?
At IKEA, we know lots about clever home furnishing solutions, but we’re new to gaming. So, when thinking about developing a long-term gaming range we turned to the professionals, of course. Together with gaming brand ROG, we’ve created products and solutions neither of us would be able to come up with on our own. Gamers often sit for hours, longer than most office workers. We want our products to offer better ergonomics and functionality at affordable prices so that gamers can become even better at what they do whether they’re competing or co-creating with friends. ROG brought deep knowledge of the gaming experience to this collaboration, where we’ve discovered a spectrum of gamers—whether you’re a hobby gamer, e-sports lover, a professional gamer. Overall, through our learning, insights and collaboration into this area we feel there’s a product within the collection all gamers can truly enjoy.
Can non-gamers enjoy these pieces, too? Are they functional in other capacities, other than gaming?
Absolutely. IKEA understands that consumers across Canada require more office solutions and with the gaming collection we’re enabling people to consider more multi-function and hybrid solutions for their workspaces. It can be an area of focus and study during the day but transform into a gaming set-up after hours. Additionally, all our product development follows a design philosophy called, Democratic Design. It’s a framework we use when we develop and evaluate products, and includes five dimensions: function, form, quality, sustainability, and low price. When there is a balance between all five, we consider that the design is democratic. This is important because form and function are considered in everything that’s designed at IKEA. Affordability and sustainability are woven in our products too. And with this multi-function collection, we’re inspiring people to enhance their workspaces and play spaces too. IKEA’s new gaming set-ups also inspire consumers who game in their leisure time to consider a more fluid, and flexible workspace.
What’s your favourite piece from the range?
There are so many to choose from but if I had to pick a favourite it’s the gaming chairs, which are designed for great comfort—and hopefully increase gaming performance. The ergonomic benefits are endless when it comes to the chairs. There’s added flexibility in the headrest, and the armrests are adjustable to relieve strain on your arms and shoulders. Also, the chair is generous in size, it has built-in lumbar support and a mesh back that ensures a good airflow.
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