It may be a grammatically mangled cliché, but it is one the Swedish furniture chain Ikea now wishes it had paid attention to: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
After 50 years of printing its consumer catalog in the distinctive Futura typeface, Ikea last month sent out a new edition of the book printed using the Verdana font.
The reaction was global, almost instanteous and negative.
Why make such a change, and take such a chance?
The furniture vendor said it wanted both its print and online catalogues to look similar, including type. So the company had two choices: change the online font or change the print font. [Sounds like Marketing had too much time on their hands!]
Since Verdana was developed by Microsoft to be very readable on a computer screen, that was Ikea’s choice for their universal font. Futura, their long-standing print catalogue font, is a more condensed typeface, and is less legible on screen, but looked great in print — and it spoke Ikea.
Ikea PR folks say they were “surprised” by the online uproar, and then attempted to downplay it as outrage merely from the font literati, but we don’t know if they are sure of that.
Indignation or no, Ikea told the AP that “Verdana is a simple, cost-effective font [that] works well in all media and languages.”
Perhaps the change is cost-effective [meaning copy blocks are interchangeable between the catalogue and the Web?], but it does speak Ikea. Verdana is bland and without distinction; It is simply utilitarian.
And so, we are not surprised, that…
- A Typophile.com writer suggests that, “It’s a sad day.”
- A European designer began an online petition to reverse the change.
- Twitter posts demand: “Ikea, stop the Verdana madness;” and
- “Words can’t describe my disgust.”
What’s the message for communicators?
Brands are composed of lots of elements that evoke emotions of loyalty, respect and admiration; they also can churn up the opposite emotions. So, change brand elements at your own risk; and if you do seek a change, do plenty of market research first.
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Branding stuff is always emotional, and everyone has an opinion. People often poo-poo the things like typefaces that we professionals agonize over. But as your Ikea example demonstrates, simple things like typeface shifts can get everyone excited.
Having said that, in my opinion Verdana is a relatively dull typeface. It might be OK for small text, but not for headlines or big things. Futura isn't particularly great either, but it is tight, simple, elegant, crisp and very Scandanavian / Swiss. Its advantage is that it stands up on billboards, posters and a lot of the marketing media that Ikea used to established itself. And I really think the days of limitations to typefaces we can use, share, print, optimize, etc., online will soon be over and eliminate arguments about whether one typeface is better for reproduction based on technology. After that it will come back down (hopefully) to aesthetics and professionals who know how to design and not technicians, desktop publishers, bloggers or other such "experts".
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I find it interesting, since Verdana is not a standard, "pre-packaged" typeface…rather, it must be purchased as an add-on software application. I now because we had a project designed with this typeface. We have had to come up with compatibile, user-available typefaces to make the adaptation less prohibitive for those we want to use it correctly…but it can be a pain. Too bad they felt the need to change.