My favorite Swedish furniture retail chain Ikea (did you pick up your back to school items?) has just changed its well known futura font to verdana. But why the sudden typeface change? An Ikea spokeswoman said that the change allows Ikea to use the same font in all countries and with many alphabets therefore making it "more efficient and cost-effective." With customers noticing the change in the new 2010 catalog, thousands took to Twitter to air their frustrations with many saying that they feel betrayed because Ikea is emulating other big box corporations which have ugly, basic fonts.
To keep reading, and to see the font differences closer up, just read more.
What's interesting to note is that Verdana was never intended to be used in print, as Microsoft created it as an easily readable font for the web. What do you think? Do you think Ikea's integrity as a design company is being questioned with this new font change? Do you like the change? Personally, Ikea in Verdana is going to take some getting used to — Futura just suits Ikea and its style. Oh, and if you want to check out the 2010 catalog, you can access it in its entirety online here.
Dress for Less
Kookai
Aminaka Wilmont
Wow. All that over a font change?
1Seriously? I could hardly tell the difference. I surely wouldn't have even noticed it it was not brought to my attention. Geez, some people just let silly stuff get to them.
2people have way too much time on their hands...
3Ugh, Verdana?! That's barely a step above Arial. Ikea supposed to be a company whose main selling point is good design. This should be reflected in their printed materials as well. Futura is such a nice, fresh font. It was even the first on the moon: http://blog.howdesign.com/2009/08/25/FirstFontOnTheMoon.aspx
4It is just a font people ... sheesh. I think that it's a great idea that they are trying to be more efficient. It's really a stupid thing to get upset about!
5I am glad to see that not only graphic designers are upset.
6Verdana is a screen font, not meant for print design.
Good type design and typography is an art.
some of the people in this world are completely ridiculous.
7Who cares about a font change? It's just a new style and having a uniform look around the world is important to a comapny such as Ikea. The change makes complete sense and is such a non-issue. It's not like that changes to a serif font instead. Now THAT would have been an issue! Hahahaha JK
8Wow over a font change? Pathetic.
9I think it definitely says something about Ikea that their big, genius plan to drum up free press and controversy is to change their font. They know their clientele!
10" thousands took to Twitter to air their frustrations with many saying that they feel betrayed because Ikea is emulating other big box corporations which have ugly"
Those thousands = idiots
As simple as that.
11In plain simple words...some people are straight out just stupid. Font....really? I'd rather have IKEA change their font for cost efficiencies rather than cut people their jobs! The people commenting on Twitter are obviously not finance, corporate, or SANE people. And if they are ...maybe some over-extreme art directors or advertising creatives who breathe, eat and sleep "branding," but even then....still really stupid...to make a fuss during our current economic state. Be thankful there are companies out there thinking of alternative ways to save money...instead of just trimming the payroll.
12I think people that Twitter all day honestly don't have a life. If you are Twittering almost every moment of your boring day, then you need to get interesting or just go to work. And if you are at work then you need to get busy my friend.
And I didn't see anything wrong with the *Before* photo up there.
13Outraging over what!? Get a life and well, just boycott ikea if you don't like them.
14Seriously WOW, people need to find something a little more important then a font change to get all worked up over.
15I think it's funny that so many people have the opinion that it's not "cool" to get upset over a font change. The whole "pathetic" comments are pretty hilarious.
First of all, if you were in the graphic design field (or any field closely related), you'd probably think this was a bad change, too. And you'd be able to tell the difference between the two looks within a second. Veranda is an eyesore, and it was never meant to be a typeface used for print.
Second of all, the people who are really the most "up at arms" work for type foundries or design firms. In other words, they make their living by providing quality fonts for a fee. Of course they're going to be outraged when IKEA made the change to a ubiquitous, FREE font that shouldn't even be printed--it's sending the wrong message when a huge company known for their great design senses trades their trademark custom font for some unfitting free font that anyone can use. It's a move toward putting boutique foundries out of business.
Look, we all have our own industries or interests, and you're probably pissed off about something I might not care at all about. But that's no need to call someone pathetic. Instead, maybe try to see this as a "bigger picture" issue: in a global economic crisis, people want to make sure their products are still considered valuable so that they can continue to feed their families. Dealio?
16is this seriously an issue?? i can hardly tell the difference. who cares??? i echo the comments above - WOW.
17Ew. Miffed at the comments that anyone who cares about this is a loser who tweets what they had for breakfast.
Verdana is a knock off font created by Microsoft (along with arial and others) because Microsoft was too cheap to pay for Helvetica.
Personally I'm more interested in this font change than I am in which actors have made out with each other recently.
18It's indeed a bad choice, but if it is to reduce costs I guess it makes sense. People will rather have less aesthetic pleasing catalogs than reduced quality in the products or services, I'm sure.
19Okay. It's a bad design choice to go from Futura to Verdana. If they want their catalog to look sh*tty it's up to them. At the end of the day, they are paying for all those catalogs being produced. It's a bad design move, but I think people need to just let it go. If anything, feel sorry for the designers who probably had to lay it out in that horrible font and had no choice.
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