Hasta La Ideas

Since the birth of the GUI, interface designers have incorporated metaphors to make our computers easier to use. We trade “files,” store them in “folders” and “drag” them to the “trash” when we’re done with them.

Last year Budapest-based ad agency Laboratory Ideas quietly took this to a commercial level, teaming up with Ikea to release their popular Expedit shelving unit as a virtual filing system. The idea is that you download a virtual Expedit (currently available here, from Ikea Hungary) and begin populating it with your files.

It’s kind of a wonder this trend hasn’t caught on, if not with actual companies, at least with movement-obsessed designers. While I doubt the market for an Ethan Allen desktop would be large, you’d think by now we’d at least see desktops in styles like Mid-Century Modern, Bauhaus, Victorian for the steampunk set, et cetera. At the very least, Vipp ought to put out a trash can.

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