I guess I’m a little late to the party with this post, but for those of you who don’t follow various graphic design happenings, IKEA, everyone’s favorite purveyors of mass produced Scandinavian furniture, has decided to make the switch from their classic Futura typeface to Verdana. WHAT!? HULK SMASH!! Ok so maybe your reaction to this news wasn’t one of absolute fury, but the change has caused a minor brouhaha among the graphic design community over the past couple weeks (and yes, I have been looking for a place to use brouhaha for a while). Users over at Typophile, Brand New, and IDSGN have been venting for some time, and there’s even an online petition against IKEA’s use of Verdana that’s nearly six thousand signatures strong already. So what’s all the commotion about?
Well as you can see in the image above, the change is a pretty dramatic shift in aesthetics from Ikea Sans (a customized version of Futura that they’ve been using for the past 50 years) to the more industrial Verdana typeface. For those of you unfamiliar with Verdana, it was created by Matthew Carter back in the mid-90’s for Microsoft with the specific intent for it to be more legible on a computer screen and at smaller sizes. Since then, it’s been used almost exclusively online, and was one of Microsoft’s original “Web-safe” fonts — along with Arial, Times New Roman, and Georgia — way back in the nascent stages of the web (you may also recognize it as the primary font of choice here at onThebackwall). Futura on the other hand, was created by Paul Renner in the 1920’s and has the unique distinction of being the only typeface on the Moon (and thus the only one that can handle its 5… thousand… dimensions). Other major applications of the typeface include Absolut Vodka, Domino’s Pizza, Red Bull, Costco, and various Wes Anderson films. In short, they’re both wildly popular albeit for very different reasons.
On IKEA’s side of things, they’ve been pretty firm with their decision (AP, Aug 30th):
“We’re surprised,” said Ikea spokeswoman Camilla Meiby. “But I think it’s mainly experts who have expressed their views, people who are interested in fonts. I don’t think the broad public is that interested.”
Which, umm, it’s a designer’s job to be interested in this type of thing, so ya, that makes sense. According to another interview with an IKEA spokesperson, the switch would allow them to use the same font in all countries (specifically in Asian countries, where characters are supported by Verdana) and provide a cohesive image for the company online and as well as in print.
A before and after shot:
When compared side-by-side, it’s a pretty noticeable difference, trading a warm familiarity with something a little more modern and clean. Whether that’s good or bad I think is entirely based on personal preference, but let’s be honest, how many non-designers do you think will even notice the change? I’m willing to bet very few. That’s not meant to minimize the effect of the switch, which is clearly quite a large alteration in terms of graphic design for a company as globally recognizable as IKEA. However, if your intent is to simplify and to create as neutral of a message as possible, I’d say Verdana is a pretty good fit. It seems as though most of the backlash from the design community isn’t based on a perceived misguided intent, but rather on a subjective distaste for Verdana and the homogeneity it has come to stand for in the field of graphic design.
Take a look at the 2010 IKEA catalog. The most noticeable aspect to me isn’t the font change but rather the direction IKEA has slowly been headed: toward a designer version of Wal-Mart. A cursory flip through the catalog reveals an obvious attempt at OMG-LOW-PRICES with the frequent use of a “New Lower Price” icon, highlighted price tags, “SUPER DEALS” (in all caps), and the epic-ly cheesy “slashed price” graphic that I don’t remember being quite so prevalent in the past. Don’t get me wrong, I love cheap (especially in this economy), functional, simple furniture as much as the next person, but it’s clear to me that this is as far as IKEA is attempting to go these days. It’s not high design. It’s not custom made. It’s practical. It’s commercial. It’s everywhere. It’s I-just-got-out-of-college-and-need-something-cheap-to-put-my-computer-on. It’s Verdana.
Put all of this together and it seems to me that the new font is not the primary change here but rather the result of a fundamental change, and in that context, I honestly don’t mind it. Perhaps in this day and age of IKEA, Futura was the out-of-place typeface? Sure you can argue that Verdana is over used, not designed for print (it’s not like Futura was designed for the web either), and not the most inspiring choice, but is all the hate really warranted? It’s like an architect who dismisses a Gehry building without actually experiencing it in its context (I could probably be included here). Most of the time the bias is probably legitimate and informed, but every now and then, it just works.
I’m not saying they didn’t lose something by ditching Futura, but I do think that the switch makes sense. As designers perhaps we should direct our ire towards IKEA’s actual designs and construction, rather than our dated perception of IKEA? Because let’s face it, the Futura-based IKEA did not match up well with most of the products they’re churning out these days.
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