Ikea’s “VerdanaGate”
Last week an old college friend sent me a link to a Time Magazine Article she felt I would particularly be interested in. She was 100% correct. I am heavily interested in corporate branding, and I have a clear geek powered love of fonts.While I got my 2010 Ikea Catalog, I hadn’t even had a chance to open it up, but I ran quickly to grab it as soon as I finished the article. I felt I was crazy for being angered by Ikea’s decision to drop their visual voice, the font that they use on all of their promotional items, all of their ads, all of their catalogs, and I am sure many many places, to use the boring, overused and under-professional font Verdana.
I have always had a hate relationship with that font, I think it’s boring, oddly spaced, and just looks very blah. I was shocked that a company that is focused on the trendy look took a huge step back by doing this. Their PR spokeswoman claims that it is more cost effective to use this as it is adaptable to more languages, which really if you are a giant company like Ikea, you should be able to have your font converted to any language you would like. Many people have commented that this just sounds like the “cheap way out.”
I was surprised that this change even made it to an article in Time Magazine, as if I would be one of the few crazy people who this really bothered, but much to my surprise this lit up the online social world. Within days there were thousands of Tweets out against the change, and there is even a new petition online to stop Ikea from using Verdana which at the moment I type is just shy of 4,000 signatures! Even my go-to blog on corporate branding and design BrandNew, better late than never, finally had a post up where one commenter suggests “Why Not Comic Sans,” which in the design world is one of the most frowned upon element.
I realize this is pretty small in the spectrum of the world, and all other things I COULD be focusing my attention on, but I have to say… BAD MOVE Ikea…BAD.
Links:
Time Magazine Article
Online Petition Against Ikea’s Verdana Use
BrandNew’s Coverage
2 Comments
I just think that the “old way” gave it a unique personalized and very well recognized identity and to change from that to a standard free font everyone uses and is really BLAH was a bummer!
I’m glad to see that you’re so passionate about something. I would agree that the 2009 catalog is more visually appealling, but more so because of the less cluttered layout.