It used to be common in Sweden to see stickers by the mail slot that read "No advertisement, please! But gladly the IKEA catalogue." They stopped distributing the printed catalogue long before 2021, but I've kept the sticker.
I always think it is a nice fact that over 70% of all images (maybe even 90% today) in the latest catalogues are 3D renders.
This gives IKEA the ability to change things (plants, wallpapers, and so on) depending on different cultures without having to completely change a studio.
Edit: a YT video from 3 years ago about the workflow: https://youtu.be/bJFlslL1wFI Textures are prepared in Photoshop, models made and textured in 3DsMax, rendered with V-Ray.
So many of the designs are timeless classics, but the older pictures make them look dated. It's the look-and-feel of the room, decor, colour balance, lightning, picture quality that make the pieces in the pictures look dated, as if they "belong in the past".
If you place these exact pieces in an otherwise modernly decorated room (colour balance of walls/ceilings/lightning), and photograph with modern style - they instead look classy and timeless.
It's rare that people can isolate which sensory impressions make them react in a certain way emotionally. Here it's clearly not the designs, but the styling/lightning/photos.
The room ins the 80's looks like modern rooms. The decades before looks more alien/old, so it seems like furniture stopped changing much about 40 years ago.
To me it is interesting seeing how progress was fast and then slowed down at different points in different fields. Like, how far back do you have to go before you start noticing that these things aren't new? For webpage design you see how it was really different 20 years ago, but not that different 10 years ago, game graphics mostly peaked 5-10 years ago depending on genre (people still happily buy and play gta5 that is 8 years old without cringing at its graphics) etc.
Wish I could buy the furniture of 40 years ago instead of the stuff they make now.
Edit: maybe not, just had a look at their 1981 catalogue...
I am surprised to see that my beloved Poäng armchair (mine has served me well for 20 years now, with a new upholstery every 6 years) is already present on the cover of the 1977 catalogue: https://ikeacatalogues.ikea.com/77436/1102677/pages/4a7b75dd...
The part for sitting seems to have been made out of metal back then, in my version, it is the same plywood material as the frame.
IKEA catalogues, products and how they're rendered vary regionally, hard to capture it all with just English Catalogues. I have new IKEA products page from China/US/Germany bookmarked to see satisfy my Ikea enthusiasm. Interestly, hometurf Sweden doesn't get a lot of new products.
Why, why did the Kramfors sofa get killed off? It was a $400 sofa that rivaled $3000 sofas from other manufacturers and nothing in the market comes close these days.
I don't know if it is that way for the rest of the world, but here in Scandinavia those are extremely iconic of what living rooms looked like by decade.
Looks like my house stopped in the 80's :D
Bring them back!
And 2002 marked the end of an era where a white native Swede was allowed on the cover.
I definitely think it's a mistake that IKEA stopped printing their catalogues last year. The offline experience is totally different from online. Online I tend to do direct searches for things I already decided I want, but the IKEA catalog is perfect for casual browsing and getting new ideas for stuff I would've never bought otherwise.
It might come off as a cost saving short term, but I doubt in the end the catalogues did not bring in enough money anymore.