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IKEA and Teenage Engineering Tune Into the Same Frequency

02.26.18 | By
IKEA and Teenage Engineering Tune Into the Same Frequency

You’re going to have to wait a year from now, but IKEA has made their intentions clear for 2019: that’s when they officially get into the business of “facilitating your party”. What does that exactly mean? According to the furniture giant’s Instagram and Vimeo accounts, the FREKVENS (“frequency”) line will “furnish” your festivities with a line of portable and wireless speakers and LED lighting some time in February 2019.

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The FREKVENS collection is a collaborative effort with the colorfully strange music gear synth lovers over at Teenage Engineering, a Swedish company dedicated to immensely fun interactive and exploratory music machines. Here’s an example of what they’re all about:

The resulting collection of portable (and likely wireless) audio speakers and LED light boxes clearly evokes the spirit of those colorfully creative mod years of the 1960s, where audio systems like the Brionvega RR 126 designed by architects Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni ruled audiophile aspirations for the living room, while revolutionary small portable music players like the Grundig Phono Boy designed by Mario Bellini reshaped the industrial design of sound for the “music anywhere” lifestyle that’s become the status quo today.

“We are just starting to shape the collection; it’s a work in progress. Together we constantly get new ideas to solutions and products that we want to keep on exploring,” says Michael Nikolic, Creative Leader at IKEA of Sweden.

“In FREKVENS, we want to make products that everybody can grasp and handle,” says Teenage Engineering CEO Jesper Kouthoofd. “Even those who are not so tech-savvy should swiftly be able to understand and use the products. And that, I guess, has been the biggest challenge, to find the right balance between technology and user friendliness.”

The  entirety of the FREKVENS collection hasn’t been revealed yet, but according to IKEA will eventually include products such as an “electronic choir, vinyl player, party lighting” and other accessories – an entire collection intended to facilitate the youthful proclivity for “spontaneous” partying. Hopefully, beyond your guest list, no assembly required.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.