It’s hard to be the bearer of bad news, but most of IKEA’s print and digital glam shots of picturesque rooms and products are – wait for it – fake。

雖然不想帶來(lái)壞消息，但事實(shí)是，宜家的產(chǎn)品目錄中那些展示房間布局和產(chǎn)品的美輪美奐的圖片大多都是---合成的。

That’s right. Those beautiful, “natural-looking” photos of gorgeous rooms and kitchens are mostly the work of computer magic, toggled and tweaked until they’re picture-perfect。

沒錯(cuò)，那些用來(lái)展示華麗房間和廚房的漂亮、看起來(lái)很自然的圖片大多都是電腦合成的，它們通過(guò)電腦被不停地切換、調(diào)整直到變得完美為止。

Martin Enthed, IT manager for IKEA’s in-house communications agency, spoke to CGI Society earlier this year and revealed that a whopping 75 per cent of the furniture company’s product images today are generated by computers。

宜家內(nèi)部廣告部門的IT經(jīng)理馬丁•恩賽德今年年初的時(shí)候表示宜家約有75%的產(chǎn)品圖片都是通過(guò)電腦合成的。

It’s a move that first caught the attention of photographers and graphic designers a few years back when the furniture giant announced it would scrap photoshoots in favour of computer-generated imagery (CGI)。

幾年前這個(gè)家具巨頭就曾對(duì)外公布說(shuō)公司會(huì)對(duì)照片進(jìn)行拆解，這樣只是為了生成CGI(電腦合成的圖片)，這份聲明引起了不少攝影師和圖形設(shè)計(jì)師的關(guān)注。

Enthed said IKEA began shifting gears in 2009 when company officials called in his team and said they weren’t pleased with a batch of photos and CG images。

恩賽德說(shuō)宜家于2009年開始改變產(chǎn)品圖片策略，當(dāng)時(shí)公司的高管對(duì)他的團(tuán)隊(duì)說(shuō)公司對(duì)某一批圖片和CG圖像很不滿意。

“So we looked at all the images they said weren’t good and the two of three they said were great, and the ones they didn’t like were photography and the good ones were all CG,” Enthed said. “Now we only talk about a good or bad image – not what technique created it。”

“我們查看了高管提出意見的所有圖片，發(fā)現(xiàn)其中三分之二很不錯(cuò)，而且那些高管不喜歡的都是真實(shí)拍攝的照片，而他們認(rèn)為好看的都是CG圖片，”恩賽德說(shuō)，“所以現(xiàn)在我們只管圖片好不好看，不管使用什么技術(shù)。”

It’s a not-so-secret ruse used by top companies specializing in home and furniture design, though many consumers remain oblivious。

在頂尖的家居家具設(shè)計(jì)公司里這并不算是什么秘密，只是許多顧客被蒙在鼓里罷了。

“Most kitchen, bedroom and bathroom companies now use CGI to create their marketing material and no one has realized,” said Pikcells creative director Richard Benson to Dezeen。

“在廚房、臥室和廁所產(chǎn)品等公司中，絕大多數(shù)會(huì)使用CGI圖片展示產(chǎn)品，但這沒人知道。”Pikcells 的創(chuàng)意總監(jiān)理查德•本森說(shuō)。

According to Enthed, the IKEA team plays with huge digital canvases measuring 4,000 pixels x 4,000 pixels for each image they render. Whether the image is of a Börje dining chair or of your dream Akurum/Lidingö kitchen, saving large files gives store designers the option to cover a wall with an image if they so please。

恩賽德稱他們提交給宜家團(tuán)隊(duì)的每張圖片都會(huì)在4000*4000的巨幅電子畫布上進(jìn)行修改。無(wú)論是Börje餐桌椅，還是你夢(mèng)寐以求的Akurum/Lidingö廚房。大文件的好處是店面設(shè)計(jì)師可以將整面墻覆蓋上設(shè)計(jì)圖。

The company claims the shift is another way to reduce its environmental footprint, saying constructing digital files vs. building real sets produces less waste. It also helps the home furnishing empire's pocketbooks。

宜家公司聲稱此舉是為了減少碳排放，他們表示用數(shù)字文件搭建場(chǎng)景比用實(shí)際產(chǎn)品產(chǎn)生的廢料更少，對(duì)公司的效益也很有幫助。

“It’s a clever way to save money,” IKEA head photographer Anneli Sjogren said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2012.

宜家首席攝影師安內(nèi)利•肖格倫2012年在接受《華爾街周刊》采訪時(shí)說(shuō)：“這是個(gè)省錢的好辦法。”

That year, the furniture giant announced 12 per cent of its product and concept images would be CGI-rendered, increasing to 25 per cent in 2013. Since then, that percentage of rendered images appearing in the company’s catalogue and online has tripled。

2012年時(shí)宜家曾表示其12%的產(chǎn)品圖片和概念展示圖都是CGI渲染的，到了2013年這個(gè)比例提高到了25%。從那時(shí)起宜家產(chǎn)品目錄和網(wǎng)上的圖片經(jīng)電腦合成的比例提高了兩倍。

“We don’t have to throw away kitchens in the dumpster after the photo shoot,” Sjogren explained at the time。

當(dāng)時(shí)肖格倫解釋說(shuō)：“這樣我們就不用在拍照之后把廚房扔進(jìn)垃圾箱里了。”