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The big font news lately is home furnishing company IKEA’s decision to change from their customized Futura font, IKEA Sans, to Verdana. Let’s pretend that IKEA didn’t just change from a font that could only be found in one place (they don’t call it IKEA Sans without a reason) to a font that can be found just about anywhere, but they changed to a font that doesn’t look particularly awesome in the first place. But really, the big deal is that they changed their font from something unique to the IKEA brand to a font that just can’t brand due to its widespread use. So why would IKEA change fonts? IKEA Sans is ideal for print media, Verdana for the web. I’m sure if IKEA could, they would only use their IKEA Sans font for both web and print media, sacrificing some online readability for branding. The problem with that is in order to view a font on screen, a person has to have the font installed on their computer, meaning that IKEA’s unique font would be changed to a default system font if a user’s computer didn’t have the font installed. And since the IKEA Sans is a specific font used exclusively by the company, almost no one visiting their site would have the font installed. All of a sudden, IKEA loses control over their product’s image. By limiting the font to Verdana, IKEA advertisements will stay consistent across web and print displays. And while there should definitely be consistency between web and print mediums, is font conformity the way to do it? Why not use the same type of images or general style layout? IKEA Sans is a simple font that stands out, which is the impression I have of IKEA’s furniture (not necessarily because of their font choice, but it’s a way that the company’s branding sends out a consistent message). With Verdana, IKEA just gets a simple font, but none of the uniqueness of IKEA Sans. It will be interesting to see if IKEA reverts back to the old font in future years, or if they decide that gaining web and print conformity is worth the risk of losing 50 years of branding. Either way, the most overlooked part of this story is that IKEA’s decision to go with a web-focused font may mean a reduction in their catalog’s print run. They are, after all, the third most printed publication in the world. |