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[International]
Considerations and the creation of IKEA’s new soft toy doll.
Since 1999, designer Annie Huldén has practically made a zoo of soft toys for IKEA: elephants, foxes, monkeys, penguins, hippos, beavers, giraffes, kangaroos and even dragons. This year, Annie takes on a new kind of soft toy animal - the human. Beginning in August, three soft toy dolls will be available at IKEA. Called LEKKAMRAT or ‘playmate,’ the fabric dolls come with a basic set of clothes, are gender neutral, have movable arms and legs and can be tossed in the washing machine. Two seasonal sets of additional clothing, designed by Annie Huldén and Sanna Dahlman, are sold separately. Annie Huldén, Designer:
"I’ve done many soft toy animals, but it’s something completely different to do a human being." 
At the start of the project, for example, the idea was to make the dolls look as realistic as possible. With the entire doll being textile-only, including the eyes and mouth, simpler detailing became the optimum choice. Annie also paid much attention to the facial features themselves. In her research, she looked for strong physical characteristics of each ethnicity, while in her sketches she ensured no caricaturesque depictions. As the sketches evolved, Annie also realized she wanted the dolls to have common features. Gender, too, was a consideration with LEKKAMRAT. The decision between IKEA and Annie was to make the dolls gender neutral. “The children will give them a gender,” she said. “It’s nice if one doll is a girl and for another child it’s a boy.” Annie gave the example of her daughter, who had a ‘very pink’ baby doll - ‘Everything was pink’ - but called him Olle. “I think that will happen with these dolls, too,” Annie said.
In addition to how the dolls would appear, Annie addressed other properties like size, weight and filling. After she received a sample from the supplier based on her original sketches and descriptions, she created another round of sketches to specify changes to each doll. And she’d cut the samples, too. “I put the scissors in them and cut and sew and try to show them (the supplier) what I like and don’t like,” she said. “I often have to change how they put the filling in, which is the case this time too.” As a certain children’s tale goes, you may say the dolls are sized ‘just right’ to be carried around in little hands and tucked in a DUKTIG doll’s bed for a good night’s sleep. Their polyester fiber filling keeps them lightweight, so it’s easier for them to tag along, too.
Most importantly, Annie hoped the dolls would be fun playmates. Annie Huldén, Designer:
"I want to make the play as nice as possible. I wanted to make these dolls say to the children, ‘Take care of me’." In addition to how the dolls would appear, Annie addressed other properties like size, weight and filling. After she received a sample from the supplier based on her original sketches and descriptions, she created another round of sketches to specify changes to each doll. And she’d cut the samples, too. “I put the scissors in them and cut and sew and try to show them (the supplier) what I like and don’t like,” she said. “I often have to change how they put the filling in, which is the case this time too.” As a certain children’s tale goes, you may say the dolls are sized ‘just right’ to be carried around in little hands and tucked in a DUKTIG doll’s bed for a good night’s sleep. Their polyester fiber filling keeps them lightweight, so it’s easier for them to tag along, too.
Most importantly, Annie hoped the dolls would be fun playmates. Annie Huldén, Designer:
Having illustrated more than 18 children’s books and created dozens of products for Children’s IKEA, Annie’s LEKKAMRAT soft toy dolls are bound to find their way into homes across the globe. “I think we are quite childish, both of us, my colleague Sanna and I. We quite easily find the way you play with things. I feel it. ‘Ahh. This could be fun.’”
Annie Huldén is a graduate of the University of Gothenburg’s HDK School of Design and Crafts. She has been working as an illustrator and designer since finishing her product designer education in 1998. A great number of her projects are completed with design partner Sanna Dahlman.
Annie Huldén is a graduate of the University of Gothenburg’s HDK School of Design and Crafts. She has been working as an illustrator and designer since finishing her product designer education in 1998. A great number of her projects are completed with design partner Sanna Dahlman.
100 million.
Estimated number of children the IKEA social projects in partnership with UNICEF, UNDP and Save the Children will have benefited by the end of 2015.
