When IKEA announced that they were scrapping their beloved “IKEA Sans” (a customized version of Futura) for Verdana, the design community exploded - on the internet, at least. The reason behind the swap, according to an interview in Cap & Design magazine, is that Verdana allows IKEA to establish a consistent branding both internationally and across web and print.

Here’s the thing. The keystone of Ikea is accessible design; their inexpensive yet totally stylish homegoods speak to a true balance of function and form - so, I guess, in a way, I can kind of follow the misguided logic in embracing the super-functional, multi-purposeable and medium-spanning Verdana…but ultimately the decision seems short-sighted and ill-executed. Ikea didn’t just re-adjust their balance of function and form, they dropped form and crowned function.

Esteemed type designer Matthew Carter created Verdana in 1996 for Microsoft with the intention of it being an on-screen font. With wide proportions and roomy letter-spacing, Verdana is appropriate and best-served for web copy. The very qualities that make Verdana a great on-screen font are exactly what make it clunky and awkward in print. While certainly not terrible, it is a little disappointing.

IKEA, you dropped the ball on this one; you lost sight of the form/function balance makes you truly unique. Think of it this way: if I want any run-of-the-mill inexpensive sofa, I’ll go to K-Mart; if I want an inexpensive yet stylistically innovative sofa, I’ll go to IKEA. So, why ignore that fundamental difference in the Ikea typographical rebranding? It’s not that I have any particular vendetta against Verdana or allegiance to Futura, but, as our web developer Dan so eloquently put it, “[Futura] is so awesome, it’s on the moon.”