Kodama series, by Damaris y Marc Design, 2006.
It is often said that plagiarism is the best form of compliment. Having been on the receiving end of that kind of behaviour, I can say that even if that were true, it’s a small consolation.
Designboom reported yesterday that Swedish furniture giant Ikea has copied a table design by Barcelona based team Damaris y Marc, who designed the Kodama collection of tables and storage units in 2006, combining a simple minimalist square box with Louis XV style ‘pied de biche’ legs. Ikea now offers various pieces based on that formal model, and credits Ola Wihlborg and Wiebke Braasch as the designers of the collection and of the virtually identical Trollsta side table.
There is probably little the Spanish design duo can do about this, given the labyrinthine nature of intellectual property law. But we can perhaps fall back on the small consolation prize, and realise that if anything proves that Spanish design has come of age, this might be it.
IKEA Trollsta side table
BCNDesign 