Ikea, Verdana just isn't your type

"I could hardly believe it was true!" "Madness!", "It's a sad day", "Words can't describe my disgust". These were some of the reactions registered on blogs, websites and in newspapers when the 2010 online catalogue for Ikea arrived in people's inboxes two weeks ago. The reason? The 60 year old furniture retailer had dared to change the font it used in its marketing. It used to be a customised version of Futura. Now it's Verdana. To design devotees, this was sacrilege.

"Verdana seems to have been chosen by Ikea by default," fumed the design writer Simon Garfield in The Guardian newspaper. For those with only a passing interest in design or Swedish bookcases, it was hard to fathom what all the fuss was about. According to Andy Cowles, Editorial Development Director at IPC, the company that publishes NME and Marie Claire among other titles, the furore was a matter of design principle. Many believed the new font represented a "dumbing down" of the Swedish furniture retail brand's sleek design position.

"People regard it as a dropping of standards or a backward step," he says. "Verdana is a non-font. What Ikea has decided to do is use a typeface that isn't a typeface. There is no meaning in the font, it is pure functionality." According to Cowles, Futura, Ikea's previous font, was freighted with all kinds of meaning. Conceived 82 years ago by the German designer Paul Renner "it was a part of a movement that thought everyone should have access to good-quality design. It's similar to the font used in the London Underground," he says.

By contrast Verdana, designed by Mathew Carter in 1993 for Microsoft, is built for use on computers. Like Arial and Georgia, almost all computers come with Verdana in their software. (Any web designs that feature other fonts will not be "read" by computers that don't have those fonts in their software. So if you design in Baskerville, but a computer displaying your site doesn't have that font, it will automatically use Verdana, or similar computer font instead.)

"Verdana offers the maximum legibility in the worst situation," explains Cowles. "In variable browsers, at variable sizes, on different monitors. When I redesigned Instyle.co.uk, I used Arial for similar reasons. Everyone has that on their computers. So I had the best chance it would look the same. If I'd used Helvetica - it's a better-looking font - I wouldn't be sure everyone had it." Cowles does not see a problem in a brand such as Ikea using a font such as Verdana. "Ikea is a highly functional retailer, so its choice of Verdana is entirely appropriate," he adds.

Given the limited amount of fonts on most computers - about six is normal - does this signal, as Garfield suggests, a move towards an even more homogenised culture? Are we effectively looking at the death of the font? Ikea certainly doesn't seem worried. "Changing to Verdana is more efficient and cost-effective," the company's spokeswoman Monika Gocic shrugged recently. Cowles resists the idea that fonts are on their way out.

"Fonts still matter," he says. "Typography has levels of power. In the 1970s if you used Helvetica it signalled that you supported the Vietnam War." Thanks to its ubiquity and its use by governments and corporations, Helvetica acquired a reputation in some quarters for being the font of the establishment and conformism. "Typography can be the blackest of the black arts," he says, "but it doesn't work online."

Richard Sunderland, the managing director of Heavenly, a branding agency that includes Sainsbury's, Sony and The Royal Society among its clients, says Ikea's change of font is to be welcomed. Indeed, change is vital for a brand like Ikea if it is to survive. "Branding is organic," he says. "It's dynamic not static, a journey not a destination. Brands change to reflect different trends in consumerism as well as competitive market forces. When Ikea first launched it was really different and fresh. but now that category is more sophisticated. These days a brand like Susan Boyle can be built in 24 hours and be famous around the world, so consumers are constantly expecting brands to be more dynamic and interesting than they used to be. Ikea has got all that jazz to contend with."

Or perhaps things are much simpler than that. As Cowles admits, in the end there is only one choice when it comes to fonts. It's the choice he offers all editors when he is about to redesign their magazine or website. "Which kind of font do you prefer," he asks, "plain or fancy?" * Andy Pemberton