{"id":29662,"date":"2009-09-11T01:27:45","date_gmt":"2009-09-11T00:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/?p=29662"},"modified":"2020-08-13T11:47:17","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T10:47:17","slug":"a-font-causes-an-uproar-for-ikea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/a-font-causes-an-uproar-for-ikea\/","title":{"rendered":"A Font Causes an Uproar for IKEA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few weeks, IKEA<\/a> has been challenged from multiple directions over its new logo — specifically, the font change in its new logo design.\u00a0 Remember the old IKEA logo that used the serif Futura font (check it out below)?<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

\"ikea
<\/div>\n


<\/p>\n

Now take a look at the new IKEA logo with the sans-serif Verdana font (check it out below).<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

\"ikea_logo_new\"
<\/div>\n


<\/p>\n

Apparently, this font change has caused an uproar with 3,000 consumers signing a position against the new logo and USA Today<\/a><\/em> and the New York Times<\/em> writing about it.\u00a0 Is this font change really so bad?<\/p>\n

Here are my thoughts:<\/p>\n

First, the Futura font in the old logo did look very outdated, I can’t argue with that.\u00a0 But does the new logo solve that problem?\u00a0 Designers attack the logo saying Verdana was created to be used in small point sizes (and it’s easy to read in online text), not on massive signage (read more designer reactions here<\/a>).\u00a0 I can see why that was the intention of the font as even the larger size of the logo shown above with the tight kerning of the last three letters (but not the first — how strange) is a bit ‘cluttered’.<\/p>\n

The biggest concern among designers related to the new IKEA logo is the lack of creativity.\u00a0 I’ll admit, when I first looked at the new logo, the first thought that popped into my mind was, “they might as well have just used Arial or Helvetica.”\u00a0 And that’s coming from a person who prefers simple logos to complex logos.<\/p>\n

So what’s the message conveyed by the new IKEA logo?\u00a0 If you ask designers, the message is “our furniture is cheap and so is our logo.”\u00a0 Do you agree?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past few weeks, IKEA has been challenged from multiple directions over its new logo — specifically, the font change in its new logo design.\u00a0 Remember the old IKEA logo that used the serif Futura font (check it out below)? Now take a look at the new IKEA logo with the sans-serif Verdana font […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[8254,5913,5912],"class_list":{"0":"post-29662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-brand","7":"tag-brand","8":"tag-font","9":"tag-ikea","10":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nA Font Causes an Uproar for IKEA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"3,000 people sign a position saying no to Verdana.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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