Stingy owner (Ingvar Kamprad), stingy solution :D.

_

Sandro

Here are some images to show before and after:

>For me it’s a sad day. What are your thoughts on this matter?

At least they are tracking it.

Cheers!

Well, even if I'm no big fan of Verdana, I don't hate it. It's a well designed font for texts on monitors. But for a full out print catalogue, signs, print ads etc?

ravel: He he! :D

Font for monitor use should stay on monitors, generally speaking. It has its purpose and this applying to whole wide spectrum of use for print is pretty disputable.
_

Sandro

I got the new catalog last night and I was quite surprised at the change. It didn’t occur to me that they were actually using Verdana, I thought it had to at least be a custom knockoff. Futura looked much better.

For those of you who read German, same discussion here.

I wonder if they are going to start selling furniture at Wal-Mart now too...

Verdana is the new Univers too ;-)

http://fontfeed.com/archives/typographic-relaunch-for-audi/

>I thought it had to at least be a custom knockoff.

It's the real thing. The agency working on the re-design checked in with us on this.

I really like Verdana...as a screen face...for body text.

No so much as a display face.

...they want to be able to give the same visual impression both in print and the web

At least they didn't pick Helvetica.
However, they are undermining the uniqueness of their brand, and given the emergence of "@fontface", this solution to print/media divergence may soon be obsolete.

No so much as a display face.

That’s what made me think it had to be custom work. I just couldn’t imagine a serious catalog design employing a screen text face for printed display work. I really think that this is a nasty case of a business being cheap. Ikea is one of the world’s largest and most successful corporations; the only reason the founder’s family are not among the world’s wealthiest billionaires is that Sweden’s progressive taxation encouraged them to transfer ownership to a charity. For Ikea commissioning a complete international Futura family with optical styles would still be a drop in the bucket. For a company that constantly touts it’s own staff designers to go this route is pretty pathetic.

It's natural for members of this forum to want to see companies employ type designers to make custom fonts, rather than the bundled stuff they get for free. I actually referred the agency on to Ascender with a suggestion that they work on custom styles. But can we be critical of a company wanting to save money, and pass on those savings to their customers? That seems like the IKEA way.

But can we be critical of a company wanting to save money, and pass on those savings to their customers?

There’s a difference between financial pragmatism and just being cheap. The value of the Ikea brand has got to be tremendous, and they’ve spent decades and billions of dollars getting there. Changing to Verdana has given Ikea’s catalogs a very different feel—Verdana at large sizes simply does not have the warmth and cheer of Futura, a reaction that seems important in selling furniture to young people with tight budgets. I would argue that making such a dramatic change to the visual identity of such a valuable brand has potential costs that are much higher than the cost of extending Futura to cover more languages. If Ikea has to do one big ad campaign in the US and Europe to reinforce the new identity they might spend more than they would have to extend Futura.

>Changing to Verdana has given Ikea’s catalogs a very different feel—Verdana at large sizes simply does not have the warmth and cheer of Futura, a reaction that seems important in selling furniture to young people with tight budgets.

I'd have hoped they would have done some kind of study on that. But if not I'll be interested to see if their downward sales spiral is ever associated with the font change, and they change back, or change up. A grand experiment, to be sure.

James: … the only reason the founder’s family are not among the world’s wealthiest billionaires is that Sweden’s progressive taxation encouraged them to transfer ownership to a charity.

The founder has moved to Switserland years ago, to one of these cantons where taxation is based on the value of your house and not on your income. Plus the brand has been put into a separate company that is also based in the land of chocolate and friendly bankers. The individual branches of IKEA have to pay for the use of the brand, which is just an inventive way to skim profits.

Mr IK has some other quirks: he was quite enamored by Hitler and Nazism, but that is not unique amongst Swedes. As a country Sweden profited immensely from trafficking in WW2 and trading natural resources and industrial products with the Nazi-regime.

And then there is the policy of this company that chokes suppliers for the lowest possible prices and everything that results from that: pseudo-slavery, exploitation of natural resources in ecologically weak environments, etcetera.

NOT a nice company. Too bad that they are giving Verdana a bad rep.
. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

Thanks for the information, Bert.

Savings? So it’s Simons fault— LETS GET HIM!!!

;op

Kidding. But why didn’t they just extend the Ikea Sans further? They already own it. Instead go through another process to license and customize Verdana for the whole corporation?

Verdana is wrong on so many levels. UGH! Its less readable, prone to more clotting on the press or looking clotted and forget about elegance. Myriad, Avneir, even Lucida or Vera would look much better. And if your think about standard Windows fonts shouldn’t Tahoma been the main choice as Verdana is the extended version of Tahoma?

Sorry Nick, Helvetica would have looked great. Tho Akzidenz would have been better.

I’m highly disappointed with the new change. But hey, maybe they’ll release their old stuff.

Bert, I agree with some the of the criticisms lodged against IKEA, however Ingvar Kamprad has gone on the record saying that regret being involved with the Nazi movement and that he cut off all ties in 1950’s:
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/15415/swedish-goulash-and-sofas-whet...

I hate Nazism with a passion, but if Volkswagen made actually reliable cars I would buy one.

Mikey :-/

As another little point here:
Image if Volkswagen decided to switch out VW Futura for Verdana... that would put the VW brand in crapper wouldn’t it?
Somethings need to remain the same if you’re not going to make them better.

Mike :-)

>Image if Volkswagen decided to switch out VW Futura for Verdana

I think I made that point earlier. Here's the new Audi logo VW just rolled out...

http://wot.motortrend.com/6546262/marketing/audi-unveils-updated-logo-fo...

And the earlier link to the branding font...

http://fontfeed.com/archives/typographic-relaunch-for-audi/

If really being cheap was there intention, why change at all? Surely, the cheapest way was to do nothing different and never hire the rebranding firm.
I really like Verdana for what it was meant for. It needs so much handwork to be used as a print display face that it is counterproductive. They would have been better off to have hired Matthew to make a corporate version for them that looks respectable as a corporate display face.

ChrisL

Could be that they are phasing out the print catalogue (this year surpassing the Bible in print run…) and aim for a web presence only. Makes sense in a way: more trees for Billy’s, less for paper …

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

Changing to Verdana has given Ikea’s catalogs a very different feel—Verdana at large sizes simply does not have the warmth and cheer of Futura, a reaction that seems important in selling furniture to young people with tight budgets.

On the other hand, the web-immersed among those young people might feel subliminally quite at home in a store filled with Verdana.

On the other hand, the web-immersed among those young people might feel subliminally quite at home in a store filled with Verdana.

Interesting!

Yes, Craig. Spot on.

Seeing Verdana in print makes me cringe for some reason. This seems to be a poor descision at a glance.

I had thought someone had lost the font, honestly! Like they sent the catalog to the printer and didn't package the font... Until I went inside my local IKEA and saw Verdana on displays, pamphlets... I wonder if it will be replacing the Futura on the famous IKEA instruction manuals...

And for what it's worth, IKEA was using its own Futura, discussed in this thread www.typophile.com/node/18852

I tend to think that the reasoning that Verdana doesn't look good in print is far more subjective rather than objective. I think that as it is used more in print it will grow on designers. Is this a classic case of referring to a font as "grotesque"?

>far more subjective rather than objective

That comes back to my suggestion that maybe IKEA (or the agency) did some kind of research (focus groups etc.,) that did not involve a disproportionate number of graphic designers, web engineers and type designers.

I'm far too close to the font to judge how well it works.

I am not saying it can't work but you need a lot of tracking and kerning to make it respectable as a display face. Is all that labor worth it?

ChrisL

Ikea don't used a customised Futura and Century before this switch? I have heard this somewhere, 2-3 years ago? Not sure.

What's tracking and kerning again?

Cheers!

I think the reason is sad.

I tend to think that the reasoning that Verdana doesn’t look good in print is far more subjective rather than objective.

I think that it works just fine in print at text sizes. At larger sizes some of the features that make it work well small start to look really horsey, such as the terminals of C, G, J, Q, and S. When it gets blown up and used vertically that kind of stuff just looks weird.

I tend to think that the reasoning that Verdana doesn’t look good in print is far more subjective rather than objective.

Rubbish.
It's a screen font, not graceful at display size, and lacking in subtlety.
It's like using an agate font for headlines.

"What’s tracking and kerning again?"

The laborious act of retrofitting a typeface to do a job for which it was not intended--or maybe a typographic trainwreck :-)

ChrisL

I got it the other day and was a bit confused. I used to love their catalogs, now not so much. Page 192 is my favorite...

Page 192… fantastic – in my copy it has white text on yellow, pretty hard to read.
I miss their Futura.

I have a client who insists on using Verdana for everything (their logo is based on it, too). I'm not enjoying it in small newspaper print ads.

Ikea wants same visual impression in print/web so why not Verdana on screen and Frutiger in print? Carter designed Verdana clearly inspired by Frutiger face, but Frutiger has not wide character as Verdana...

...Carter designed Verdana clearly inspired by Frutiger...

Really ’cause I see it as a competitive design with Lucida.

It's sad of course, particularly for me, as I have been using Century Schoolbook for many years now in all possible ways -- sadly my blog at Typepad doesn't support it.

Though coming to think of it, it makes my other publications less Ikea-like without having to change anything...

"Rubbish. It’s a screen font, not graceful at display size, and lacking in subtlety."

It's lacking iron and fiber too.

I know where you haters are coming from. I still cringe at the thought that people used Chicago as a display face before more fonts became available for the masses to abuse. I'm loving this use of Verdana though. Who knew that using such a plain looking typeface as Verdana could be so subversive? You grandpas have me feeling like I can shave twenty years off my age just by using Verdana for a tradeshow header.

Why do you think this is subversive? It is subversive for people who understand typography, and who will discuss it; end-user, customer will hardly even notice. For most of end-users it is just letters.

_

Sandro

"For most of end-users it is just letters."

Then why change from the original or why not everything in the world in Arial?

ChrisL

in my opinion, Verdana at this size is visually disruptive.

to reiterate what Nick said above, this seems like a 10-years-old solution to the problem of fonts on the web. not only does @fontface look promising but, I'd argue that the public at large is well adjusted to seeing a unique face in web text.

>Really ’cause I see it as a competitive design with Lucida.

I think you're one generation off. Although Lucida existed (and was bundled with various Microsoft products) well before Verdana was created, I don't think anyone was using it as a UI font. Verdana was conceived as a UI font, and with bitmaps created first (before having the outlines wrapper around them and then hinted to produce the desired bitmap patterns) it owes more to say Chicago, than Lucida. In fact at ATypI I showed some of the preliminary Verdana bitmaps which were very Chicago-like.

For those getting hung up on the “it’s a web font” complaint, I really think you should get out more. There’s a whole world beyond the computer screen! Do you complain when you see Frutiger used in print “That’s an airport signage font!” or Gotham used on a sign, “that’s a magazine font!”? ;-)

@James:

Just as an aside, the founder of Ikea is the 5th richest person in the world. I don't think Sweden's tax system has hurt him much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad

But yes, you'd think one of the biggest and most successful companies on the planet could afford a better typeface. ;)

I wonder what Carter thinks about this...

To me, Verdana just screams "default." I love it at small sizes on screen (and maybe even in print), but if it's any larger or used in other applications it just makes me think of terrible PowerPoint presentations.

Still blowing up on Twitter...

Ouch! My apologies to Matthew Carter, but Verdana is no display font. Anyone using it above 18 point should have their eyes examined.

@James

"the warmth and cheer of Futura"

I would never have associated one of the most geometric of all typefaces with either of those terms, but okay :)

There is one additional part to the Verdana/Tahoma family: Nina. But again, designed for an even smaller monitor than a computer!

@modulist
Why apologize to Carter? He knows very well that Verdana isn't a display font, he's a freakin' genius when it comes to type. If he were standing here in front of us, he'd probably question IKEA also :p

Verdana Fail!

Verdana ships in flat packages and the customer has to assemble it. Makes perfect sense for Ikea.

- - -
“the warmth and cheer of Futura”

I would never have associated one of the most geometric of all typefaces with either of those terms, but okay :)
- - -

but that's the beauty of Futura! rather than pure geometry, it references the underlying classical skeleton. stretched to the bold weight and used large (as in Ikea's more attractive past) it's a perfect fit for Ikea's contemporary modernist focus.

...Carter designed Verdana clearly inspired by Frutiger...

I don't think he works that way.
He designs to the brief.

mmmmmmmmmm Verdana! who needs @font-face? Verdana + Georgia = typographic bliss. the world only needs 2 fonts (for Latin anyway). >^D
Although i might have preferred the slightly narrower Tahoma...

I wonder how does Matthew Carter feel about this...?

Right on, James. Verdana's numerals in display size just look amateurish. I think Calibri would have been a much better choice.

I'm still shocked. Outdoor ads have made it everywhere, and the new 2009 catalogue is set in Verdana.

I put up a petition to Ikea. Maybe if enough designers sign it, they'll have the decency to listen, and revert to Ikea Sans & Serif or at least get a decent print typeface.

Sign the petition here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/IKEAVERD/petition.html

Ikea, you suck.
Bring Ikea Sans back, or take something else.

Kind regards,
Martijn van Berkel

Dang. A petition. This is getting serious.

Verdana. Ugh.

Wow.

Verdana... so graceful as a display font.

Futura was much better for them.

We really need something like the Razzies for graphic design.

It had to have taken some serious consideration, though I am sure we can all agree the end result and the reasoning for such a change on one hand can make sense, the web friendly excuse I personally cannot overlook if I wanted to. Brand is brand no matter where it may be. This idea that they would like the typeface to be consistent both on and off the web just opens the doors for other companies to destroy a good thing. Let's not loose sight of the experience. The internet is not all of it with Ikea. Not even close. Think the product. The experience matters most at POS. Why change to run consistent with a web friendly face? Is furniture digital now?

[ If it ain't broke,... ]

Santos Vega
Graphic Design / Illustration
www.santosvega.com
305/766/9244
santosvega21@hotmail.com

Ravel asked, “Why do you think this is subversive? It is subversive for people who understand typography, and who will discuss it; end-user, customer will hardly even notice. For most of end-users it is just letters.”

Customers not noticing or caring while designers are all in a twitter is exactly why I think it’s subversive. It’s just like when a client demands the use of Times New Roman and you use Palatino and they never notice, but love your work.

I’m very amused by this uproar. I’m speculating that most of the people in a twittfit would have never noticed it was Verdana being used if it weren’t pointed out to them. Yet they are voicing strong opinions. (I’m excluding the well versed old-schoolers like Nick and Chris who I firmly believe have a good grasp of their reasoning beyond it merely being a screen font, and probably don’t twitter either.)

For me there is great irony here. Simon has this one pegged. When the print font is used on the web no one bats an eye. Where is the outrage when someone uses Futura or Univers on the web or use any of the other fonts developed before screen displays? They weren’t intended for use on a screen. And then how many other text fonts have been used as a display face in recent history with no one caring?

Yes IKEA could’ve and should’ve used another face. But I’m glad they made this move to provide me hours of entertainment.

Nice to see typophile back up!

The font is really the least of their problems…

http://www.google.com/news/search?ned=us&hl=en&q=Ikea

...death-trap blinds, an Israeli boycott and Chinese folks using their store as a hotel.

And then there’s this…

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/01/steve_jobs_joins_ikea/

;-)

Where is the outrage when someone uses Futura or Univers on the web or use any of the other fonts developed before screen displays?

I've been "outraged" for years that Georgia doesn't have a display size for the web, and that Verdana doesn't have Light weights for the web. The readability of display size was something that was overlooked in the design of web technology, and yet that technology readily permits display size, with the type looking extremely horsey. Times is the best "web" face for display size, because the serifs have some sharpness.

I use to work for a global online company. Any design and marketing materials we produce ended up using Arial/Verdana because of the same reasons. We had to produce in 12 languages under one universal template.

I would guess that it's a very high up upper management decision to cut costs/time for the process and an easier way to follow up outsourced projects to other designers or local offices.

I don't really care what font they use really... not sure why all the fuss and emotional attachment to this brand. To me IKEA is a huge commercial (less on the creative) practical entity.

Verdana is widely seen and in our culture more than we like it to, overused and is in everyone's homes (internet browsers/OS system). So in spirit, Verdana is much like Ikea.

An international company catering to just Europe alone has to deal with over twenty different languages, many of which have their own specific character sets. If you take into account that you also have to support Russian and Greek, that alone rules out a lot of fonts you can choose from.

The alternative is having to deal with different typefaces for different languages, but that is a pain and doesn't solve the real problem at hand. The fact is, there is a huge lack of fonts that support a large set of international character sets.

So faced with similar problem I imagined Ikea had, I did some research into this not so long ago and came to the conclusion that Microsoft is the only one that consistantly supports all the different character sets in their fonts. Another plus is that they are also adapted to screen viewing. The only downside is that per typeface, they only provide four fonts: regular, italic, bold and bold italic.

The most usuable typeface I found for Europe was Myriad Pro which does offer a wider range of weights. But if you have to deal with Arabic or Asian languages, you can also rule this one out.

So if you want to go global and remain consistant everywhere, the Microsoft typefaces are the only viable choice at the moment. I can understand it is a mammoth undertaking, but I just wish they would affor a larger set of weights and that also the other foundries would follow suit.

WOw hey don't have the money to ask a typographer to design a custom face ?

Thats pretty much patehtic !

Strangely evolutionary approach - a different typeface over the same images. I don't see what Verdana gives that Futura didn't, aside from [something different]. The kerning issue is a problem, as is the already mentioned warmth at display size (or lack thereof).

I like Futura.

Excellent points Nick. Maybe all of the uproar will prompt IKEA to commission a project to expand the font, or create a custom solution. I would say maybe it will prompt Microsoft to do so, but then there's that reality vs. fantasy thing.

As it is implemented, this seems to me to be a classic example of letting the form follow the function. Using Verdana is a highly functional and instant solution to their situation. Other than Helvetica I don't think there is another choice.

As to the thought that of course IKEA has the money to commission a custom face, I'm sure they do but the people that make those decisions within the company don't sit around sipping coffee talking about what font they are going to use for promotional material and ads. In fact that begs the question, how much revenue will they potentially lose by using the low/no cost solution versus the added costs of an expensive custom font or the continued use of different fonts for multiple regions? Other than typophiles does anyone else notice or care?

...Microsoft is the only one that consistantly supports all the different character sets in their fonts.

However, a number of foundries (not Adobe, Microsoft and Apple, which aren't foundries) have recently released "Euro" fonts that support Latin, Greek and Cyrillic encoding. My effort: The Modern Suite. Admittedly, foundry fonts are unlikely to be hinted for PC screens, but this is an aesthetic issue that may be compared against the print shortcomings of the "web" fonts.

I don't think this is the real issue for Ikea, which seems to be that in the holy trinity of product criteria, Price and Convenience have trumped Quality. That's a legitimate decision for Ikea; I'm suggesting it may weaken the brand--not for reasons of typographic aesthetics per se; in that sense, "Quality" means the quality of being distinctive.

> Nice to see Typophile back up!

This is what happens when a site that is (a) reliant on Flash and (b) barely tended to in the first place gets MeFried and Fireballed on the same day (among other links).

—
Joe Clark
http://joeclark.org/

I took these pictures before I realized it was Verdana. And that Futura catalogue in the pictures was really one of the reasons I wanted to become a graphic designer.
Flickr Set

I was a bit shocked a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at their catalogue but I just thought the local designer screwed up here in Toronto. It didn't even cross my mind that someone would advise the company to make a change like this.

The "web" reason given for the change doesn't even hold. Go to their website and look at how many times Verdana is used as an anti-alias image (doesn't it kill the whole purpose of using a web font?). But I don't blame the web designers because who in the world wants a dull html website that looks like 1995?

The "consistency" reason given isn't working any better. I think we all agree the IKEA brand was pretty consistent at least up until the "change". But it is now during that transition that the inconsistency will occur. Graphic devices and headlines designed using IKEA Sans are still in use in print and on the web. Wasn't it the job of the design firm that suggested the "change" to redesign all these little logos?

I feel this is almost unethical on the part of the design firm. I don't think they added any value with the changes they made. It wasn't even a rebranding; they obviously wanted to maintain the image of the company (I don't know how to describe it but it's basically the IKEA image). The layout of the catalogue is maintained (white backdrop for the most part, big black headlines, bold vs regular in the item descriptions and body text. So the only thing the design firm has done here is take one successful element out.

Maybe an added value was the cost of design on the long term? And Nick you said "Price and Convenience have trumped Quality" but I was under the impression that they can distribute their proprietary font to their service providers at no cost. Or am I wrong? How is Verdana cheaper?

sii said: "For those getting hung up on the “it’s a web font” complaint, I really think you should get out more. There’s a whole world beyond the computer screen! Do you complain when you see Frutiger used in print “That’s an airport signage font!” or Gotham used on a sign, “that’s a magazine font!”? ;-)"

Bad comparison. Frutiger and Gotham were never developed for use in a medium totally out of spec with print methods, so it is not comparable with using a screen font in printed matter. Verdana was developed for Microsoft with the intent of being readable at small sizes on a computer screen. Not print. Or signage. A computer screen. I am sure if MS told Carter to keep print in mind when designing Verdana, the results would have been a masterful typographic fusion of web and print compatibility.

In regard to Gotham being used on a sign, it was a typeface that was inspired by signage to begin with. : )

What I don't get, is if IKEA wanted to have a smooth transition between mediums, they should have opted for Frutiger in their print materials, which is a very comparable counterpart to Verdana.

PEOPLE WHO CAN'T DESIGN CRY THE LOUDEST NORMAL ON THIS WEBSITE.
CATER IS ALRIGHT TYPEDESIGNER, NEVER CRYING ON THIS SITE. GOOD ON HIM.

almar> ...am sure if MS told Carter to keep print in mind when designing Verdana, the results would have been a masterful typographic fusion of web and print compatibility.

Really!? Can you specify that more clearly? I say, it's impossible in a 'standard' 4 style family. I m p o s s i b l e. E.G. a single bold, relative to a single Regular, is a problem to make correct for both print and web.

I think Verdana Regular is made for, and excellent at, small sizes independent of output resolution.
Clearly, small print and small screen fonts share some requirements, do they not?

>...they should have opted for Frutiger ...

What about the web then? Do you know how much it'd cost to license Frutiger for web-serving to the public?

Cheers

What about the web then? Do you know how much it’d cost to license Frutiger for web-serving to the public?

Cheaper to have someone create Segoe, right? : )

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

dberlow said "Really!? Can you specify that more clearly? I say, it’s impossible in a ’standard’ 4 style family. I m p o s s i b l e. E.G. a single bold, relative to a single Regular, is a problem to make correct for both print and web."

Perhaps not fully web and print compatible (as you alluded to) but certainly more than it is now. And whose to say that he may not have taken the road of developing a larger set of fonts under the Verdana family to accommodate both mediums?

I think Verdana Regular is made for, and excellent at, small sizes independent of output resolution.
Clearly, small print and small screen fonts share some requirements, do they not?

Certainly they do. But then display sizes, as used in IKEA's catalog, do not share the same requirements that smaller sizes do. Therein lies the core of the problem with IKEA's decision to use Verdana, unless they intend on using nothing but small print in their collateral.

What about the web then? Do you know how much it’d cost to license Frutiger for web-serving to the public?

I suggested Frutiger as Verdana's print alternative, being they have certain similarities (vague or otherwise) in their letter forms. Not necessarily in place of Verdana on the web. Just a good pairing so that their brand's visual language is still in tact across the web and print, without resorting to using a screen font for larger sized executions.

Time picks up the story and name-checks typophile. Sweet!

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1919127,00.html

Raumschiff words will forever be immortalized in Time magazine!

Business week... Haley retorted, "Ikea will look like any company that uses Verdana. It will look like any newsletter or menu from a deli around the corner. It doesn't differentiate them."

Slate... "Ikea is Verdana"

Furniture Today... "Who gives a crap???Get a life..." (comment)

I'm noticing this trend that's been going on where the general public has started to discover that there's more to fonts than just finding them on the menu. That's ... good or bad, depending.

What concerns me is the concept that Verdana could easily become labeled as a BAD FONT in all of this.

Verdana is NOT a bad font. It is a font that is overexposed (which culturally tends to cause problems. Reference: Phil Collins, circa 1985) - but Verdana does have some wonderful Matthew Carter-esque details that makes it a beautiful type family.

The font isn't bad.

IKEA thinking it's a suitable replacement for their custom version of Futura.

That's bad.

steve mehallo
http://tinyurl.com/mehallofonts
http://mehallo.com/blog