Dear IKEA: Verdana is not a font. It's a mistake.

Some of you are speculating about the reason for the change. Here it is from the source:

In an interview with the Swedish design magazine Cap & Design, IKEA’s Ivana Hrdlickova says the main reason for the switch was to allow the company to use the same typeface in all countries (current IKEA typefaces do not contain Asian characters, for example). Being that Verdana was designed for the web, it also allows the company’s image to remain consistent online and in print.

Just a stab in the dark, but there could be several reasons to try a font like Verdana:

1) Cheap licensing fees. The best typefaces cost plenty of money to use. There is a recession going on but.. c'mon.. you know?

2) It is a challenge to set and make professional use of a shitty typeface. Perhaps this was a ballsy exercise in flaunting an anti-elitist sort of position by using a "proletarian" font. Who knows?

I used to get into friendly, though heated, debates with a friend who would accuse me of being an academic typographer. As a defense, I challenged him to make good use of a junky font like Times New Roman to determine who actually had skill and who was a stylistic fashion whore.

Maybe this is some such attempt by the designers, I don't know? I kinda have a hard time believing that the print designer(s) for Ikea of all places simply made a bonehead error by using a screen font for print.

Just my 3 million bajillion cents. Side note: if anyone has a magical potion that helps to make a succinct point, I'd like to have a teaspoon or so :D

How odd - his font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Nimbus Sans,Verdana,sans-serif"

Maybe it's a strategic change, meant to make itself more affordable; its previous font, Futura, is a bit fancy. If IKEA wants to go to the masses, it has already, it might help to dumb down its image and appeal to the coupon-magazine crowd.