IKEA | The Epic Swedish Fontroversy

After 50 years of using Futura, Ikea switched to the ubiquitous typeface Verdana. The Ikea catalogue is the third most printed book in the world, behind the Bible and Harry Potter.

IKEA abandoned its elegant typeface Futura in favor of the modern Verdana, and the switch had caused consternation not only among type geeks, but real people. Suddenly there was a font war.

People began talking about their love of one typeface and distrust of another. The arguments showcased the classic battleground of font warfare: new type, old type; a pure intention versus an Evil Empire; a supremely beautiful typeface battling against a supremely functional one.

The New York Times joked that it was “perhaps the biggest controversy to ever come out of Sweden.” Wikipedia wasted no time in accepting a new page called Verdanagate. It became the hot topic — a fontroversy — in Graphic Tweets. The passion some people displayed when it came to type seemed tribal, like the passion of sports fans.

The two fonts in question had much to do with this. Futura has a quirkiness to it that Verdana does not, with a pedigree linked to political art movements of the 1920s. Verdana, on the other hand, despite being a superb font, is linked to something modern and commonly reviled: Microsoft.

Verdana was created with the Web in mind; Microsoft designer Matthew Carter constructed the type for Internet Explorer and it’s now one of the most often-used fonts in the world.

Futura, on the other hand,  has a long and distinguished heritage. It was created by the German designer Paul Renner in the 1920s. Futura was Stanley Kubrick’s favorite typeface, used in the titles and advertising of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” It was the first font to land on the moon, on a plaque left there in 1969. Ikea has been using a refined version of the font for half a century, and has even commissioned the typeface to be drawn out in more weights and languages specifically for its brand. In fact, it’s called “Ikea Sans.”

The change allows the company to use a uniform font in all countries and to use the same font in print and on the Web. Yet it can’t be denied: Ikea is trading away a font with a tradition of modernist design, having elaborate associations, for one that has only one major association: with the computer screen. This is so offensive to many because it seems like a slap at the principles of design by a company that has been hailed for its adherence to them.