Image credit: IKEA
IKEA has introduced a digital camera made almost entirely of cardboard to help promote its new line of green home furnishings. The camera will soon be available in stores, and will encourage customers to share pictures of their favorite IKEA pieces through a forthcoming website.
With the new camera, the company aims to promote the eco-friendly focus of its 2012 Post Scriptum collection, which focuses on retro designs created with forward-thinking sustainability.
The unique green camera, known as KNÄPPA, was made by Swedish designer Jesper Kouthoofd of Teenage Engineering. It was designed to avoid the recycling difficulties of modern electronics by being constructed almost completely out of cardboard. The camera can hold up to 40 photos, runs on two AAA batteries, and plugs into any computer via a built-in USB connector. At this point its unclear how much the camera will be sold for at IKEA outlets.
In the video below Kouthoofd jokingly discusses some of the camera’s more sophisticated features including zoom (by physically moving the camera forward) and image stabilization, which can be achieved by resting it on a chair.
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IKEA’s new PS collection contains 46 products created by 19 designers, who have drawn on more than 60 years of IKEA history to create the new line. The collection contains all kinds of items including chairs, lamps, and bowls. Designers focused on sustainability by using environmentally friendly materials like bamboo, linen, and recycled plastics to make their creations.
“Looking forward requires embracing today’s ideas, materials and technologies to reduce environmental impact,” the company said in a brochure promoting the new collection. “These advances in materials and technologies help create a better and more sustainable life at home for the many people — today and tomorrow.”
IKEA will soon launch an accompanying website called PS At Home where customers can share IKEA-centric images they’ve taken with their cardboard cameras. The company’s photo sharing website is expected to go live when the collection launches at the beginning of next month.
