Ikea designed its own Soffa font | Hacker News Reader

Ikea designed its own Soffa font

ikea.com

47 pointsMojah15 comments

What seems most interesting about this to me is that it's a color font instead of just key. This is first color font I've installed on my computer instead of just previewing a webfont.

Color fonts have an "interesting" compatibility story https://www.colorfonts.wtf (edit: it looks like this is an OpenType-SVG font, so it works anywhere except Google, since Google is the new IE)

Any context? Why is it in with a load of sofas without explanation???

Edit: This has a bit more info. Apparently its a meme which of course everyone knew but me :)

https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2019/7/1/20677211/ikea-soffa-s...

Not just you, so thanks for the informative post.

They should have designed their own font (professional commission) instead of using Verdana.

Really cool but you have to do the ligatures and kerning yourself.

They do provide a tool you can use to do that.

The font reminds me of Habbo Hotel.

BTW, Soffa is the etymological pronunciation of English Sofa, from Arabic "ṣuffa".

It also literally is the word for sofa, in Swedish.

Is anyone else even more excited about the fact that Ikea finally redid their circa-2001 Microsoft Frontpage-styled Verdana website and it finally feels relaxing to browse their catalog online.

IKEA's use of Verdana everywhere began in 2009 – they used Futura before then (for their catalogue and in-store signage, anyway): http://idsgn.org/posts/ikea-says-goodbye-to-futura/

I like the meme but my experience in their stores is the meandering aisles with no long clear line of sight makes me think they are a fire trap. Honestly the IKEA stores in Asia i have been in are scary, and that is even at the non-crowded times of the week. I refuse to go in now except one store in which I feel safe at off-peak times. The rest feel like fire traps, designed to 'engage' the buyer with as many products for as long as possible in hope you buy a shit load of stuff you have no intention of using.

As a teenager going into a US IKEA store for the first time, I felt completely lost. As an adult going into the same store for a second time 15 years later, it's not that bad.

I feel like if there was a fire, a lot of children would die due to being lost inside the store. They are easily seperated from their parents inside the store, especially when it is busy.

I too would not take children there unless it is the least-busy time with the fewest number of customers. (As an adult, I would probably be okay, but I might delay my egress to help others which could ultimately get me killed.)

There are safety regulations that those stores must comply with in order to operate. They include fire alarms, emergency exits, fire sprinkler systems, and a long etc.

I'm aware. I was even aware of that as a teenager when I felt like it was extremely easy to get lost in the store. I'm also aware I have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting caught in an IKEA fire.

Hopefully there will never be an IKEA fire during a busy time, and we'll never know if those regulations magically made it easier to exit the extremely-confusing (especially to a child that is seperated from parents during confusion) layout.

Are you a trained firefighter? I was. Children will hide in the darnest places during a fire instead of escaping. IKEA is full of places for children to hide. Almost makes me wish I could have played hide-and-seek there as a child.

You are aware that there are shortcuts ? In our local stores (NL), they are clearly marked, so one can more easily get to the sections one is interested in, and skip those that aren't.

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