Why Should Ikea Listen to Designers?

For the past couple of days, designers raged against Ikea’s decision to do a subtle change of their visual identity, by choosing Verdana as their corporate typeface, and dropping their traditional typefaces (Ikea Sans, based on Futura, and Ikea Serif, based on Century Schoolbook).

ikea-verdana

The old catalogue design, vs the new one

In an interview for CAP & Design (translation here), Ikea’s Ivana Hrdlickova argues that the decision was driven by the need to have a typeface that would support also Asian character sets. Another statement, by Ikea’s spokesman Monika Gocic, claims that the typeface choice has to do with efficiency and cost-effectiveness. “Plus, it’s a simple, modern-looking typeface.”, says Gocic.

Most designers I’ve talked to about this change are stupefied. Verdana is a typeface that was created in 1996 by Matthew Carter, specifically for making small text readable on computer screens—an it does that very effectively. But its print version is a compromise—common and ugly. Here are some more reasons why I think this change was not thoroughly analyzed:

  • Why change something that works? Creating more alphabets for Futura would seem a more natural move.
  • Verdana makes Ikea look common and amateurish, like thousands of small businesses that use Verdana as their default font in print, just because it’s there, in their computer.
  • Verdana looks awful at large sizes, especially in headlines and signage.
  • Verdana is a wide typeface, leading to a waste of space in print. Since Ikea’s catalogue is the third most printed publication (after the Bible and Harry Potter), you have to wonder whether this change shouldn’t have been made with sustainability in mind.
  • I’m not sure why Verdana is effective (except for the fact it comes for free on most computers). But it’s definitely not a modern typeface.

Why all the fuss?

I know this isn’t world hunger. I know that this will pass unnoticed to most consumers. But as a designer, I feel betrayed. I’ve always seen Ikea, along with Apple and Braun, as the most important purveyors of design values to the masses. So this change is a step against their core design philosophy, and the only explanation I can find for this is that no designer was involved in the design process. If a company like Ikea can make this mistake, you have to wonder who is going to lead when it comes to design.

It’s not something irrelevant, since Time magazine addressed this as a serious issue, interviewing me and other designers who protested in this. So sign this online petition, maybe Ikea will understand the seriousness of this issue and prove their respect to design, which has brought them where they are.

Update (Aug 31)

Ikea reacted to the unexpected coverage of this in Time magazine and throughout social media:

We’re surprised. 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. Verdana is a simple, cost-effective font which works well in all media and languages.

Camilla Meiby, Ikea spokesman (quoted by Associated Press)

It’s sad that some people react negative. Still, we are very glad that people care so much. But what’s important is the message, not good looking fonts.

Ivana Hrdlickova, Ikea (quoted by Swedish Wire)

I really appreciate Ikea’s intervention and their response. It shows an open mind and I really want to thank them for joining a conversation started by people who appreciate both their role in promoting design to masses, and design itself.

However, there are certain aspects that I would argue about:

  • Indeed, the broad public is not interested. Although this change in identity rather makes Ikea look unremarkable (in visual communication), similar to tens of thousands of businessed in the world who only use Arial, Times New Roman or Verdana. This will impact on the long run on the perception.
  • Verdana does not work well in print. Ask any graphic designer that has basic typography knowledge. And it does not work well in all languages (it only has Latin, Cyrillic and Greek letterforms)
  • It’s not about good looking fonts. It’s about design, which is more about functionality and solving a problem, than just pure aesthetics. Would you argue similarly about any of your products—that it has to work, no matter how it looks? I think this undermines the whole philosophy Ikea is built around.

Ikea, you say you are glad that design/typography experts care about you. I think that’s something few brands can brag about. This whole fuss is about nothing else than caring about your design strategy—a strategy that I (and other 3000+ fellow designers who signed the above mentioned petition) hope you will revise!

Thank you!