I think one of the biggest crimes Ikea commited in the last decade (apart from marketing itself as an open minded company, but backing down in front of Russian anti-gay laws and women rights in Saudi Arabia) was to make objects available to a vast amount of people and calling them design. And the horrible truth is: people believed it and now it is nearly impossible to find a decent home or a public place with not at least one Ikea product in it. In consequence any home looks random and the same and the attempt of individualizing Ikea products sometimes even makes it worse. It feels like putting a Fairtrade organic sauce over an Aldi chicken. Thankfully Berlin is full of alternatives and has an amazing amount of young talented designers with a lot of potential. Unfortunately, good ideas not always run with enough of production budget. That is why the two Berlin-based creatives Julia Depis and Judith Trifonoff created Newniq as an incredible solution. More about this new design market innovation after the jump.
The idea behind Newniq is pretty simple but quite awesome. Young designers can present prototypes or even already finished products on Newniq and search for potential buyers. If enough people have decided to buy the individual item the designer gets the budget to create the limited design piece on a small scale.
Here are some examples of the designs which are searching for new clients. Look on their website to find more items and to support young local designers and free yourself from the Ikea damnation. Also if you are a young designer aply to get featured in Newniq. Maybe your project will be the newest bestseller. For all of you who are looking for some special presents (like a dildo shaped in form of a war missile) : Here you can shop and support young designers.
