IKEA has officially changed their customized Futura typeface, IKEA Sans, to Verdana, a font designed for Microsoft for screen viewing.
For those who haven’t heard, there has been a lot of outrage for this move by many IKEA- and type-lovers. The reason for this change is to synchronize the online and printed look for IKEA. As a member of the marketing team, I understand the need to create a unified identity. But as a designer, when you have a customized Futura typeface that has been working for you all these years, you just don’t abandon it and replace it with a default just so you can have everything look similar. No layman notices anyway and the ones that do notice really appreciate the aura that IKEA Sans sends out.
What are your thoughts for this hideous face-drop?
Read more from other indignant designers.
After a recent visit to Ikea, I must say that I didn’t notice a thing. No one does. The place is too jammed packed with people. Parents chasing their little ones; young couples trying out every sofa in sight; baby strollers becoming fire hazards. All I wanted to do was go in and get out. Ikea’s draw has lessened.
Come to think of it, they probably didn’t change anything in-stores. Design in Hong Kong isn’t valued enough to reprint all the signs in the store just so it fits the corporate identity. Design just isn’t as mainstream even though everyone talks about it. But I digress, I’ll talk about that issue, elsewhere.