In both marketing and interior design, few things are more limiting than space. Whether that be fitting a novel’s worth of content into a quarter-page ad or transforming a studio apartment from a jail cell into a home, one’s eyes are almost always bigger than their stomach in terms of creativity and imagination. Ikea was faced with this exact dilemma when figuring out how to effectively convey its brand message within a 9-meter billboard. Instead of settling for a quick-hitting headline, they decided to triple their ad space – without tripling the size of their media budget. How, you ask? There was no black magic or witchcraft involved (sorry Rust), just a little visual trickery. The board features three headlines, each written in a different color (cyan, magenta, yellow), illuminated by three colored lamps (red, green, blue). When green bulbs illuminate the billboard, the magenta headline is present, red bulbs highlight the cyan text and the blue lights reveal yellow text. This simple tactic effectively turned their one billboard into three. With this billboard, Ikea put its own methodology to practice in marketing the brand. Beyond the message itself, the way with which it was conveyed embodied everything their products represent – making the most of limited space. Now if only they could do the same with my home (using that word real loosely here). Wishful thinking I suppose.