After 50 years of the iconic Futura typeface, IKEA has made a switch to… Verdana?
The 2010 IKEA catalog, now arriving at doorsteps around the world, reveals the company’s choice to change all typography to the Microsoft font that every web designer has grown to hate (you can already hear the cries). Verdana, specifically designed for on-screen readability, first shipped with Internet Explorer 3 in 1996. Being one of the better looking ‘Core fonts for the web’—a limited selection which also includes Arial, Comic Sans, and Times New Roman—Verdana has become one of the most widely used fonts on the web (but rarely ever used in print).
The font will replace IKEA Sans (a customized version of Futura by Robin Nicholas), and IKEA Serif (based on Century Schoolbook). In an interview with the Swedish design magazine Cap & Design, IKEA’s Ivana Hrdlickova says the main reason for the switch was to allow the company to use the same typeface in all countries (current IKEA typefaces do not contain Asian characters, for example). Being that Verdana was designed for the web, it also allows the company’s image to remain consistent online and in print.
Before
After
Follow this link:
IKEA’s New Font
