I had dinner at Ikea Food (second floor, the whole Ikea complex is near Jarir Plaza) on Thursday and I was surprised to see Verdana all over the food section. (I wish I brought my camera phone then.) It kind of bugged me while I was having my vegetarian lasagna, but it kinda looked okay upfront, not afar. Futura though is still used on the other parts of the store but it's probably because the 2009 lookbook for Ikea is still on its way out. (I can't wait for the 2010 collection!)
I loved Ikea's version of Futura and, with the recent report that it's changing its heart over the use of the typeface, I'm sure I'm going to miss it a lot. It might be a cost effective move for them to use Verdana worldwide, yes, but I feel they should've made their own version of it. Or they should have stuck with Futura. Them using Verdana makes me feel like I'm going into a plain thrift store where, in fact, it used to be a glorified, well-designed thrift store.
Typography Fans Say Ikea Should Stick to Furniture by Edward Rothstein in NY Times
We tend to think of text as semantically invisible, the letters being mere tools used clearly to display words, which convey the true meanings. But no one who actually wants you to pay attention to those meanings risks thinking that way: advertisers, logo designers, magazine and book publishers and catalog creators spend millions on fonts because they know the medium has a message.
Saturday, September 5
