Hi Vox friends! Just stopping by this holiday season to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Guess what! I graduated yesterday! And I got tiramisu and diamonds. And it snowed (weak, melted from the sun today).
Just wanted to say hello and send some smiles your way... take care <3
I am sitting in bed in my sun-lit Manhattan apartment next to my sleeping boyfriend, working on the design for a literary magazine.
This post discusses IKEA's move to use Verdana, a typeface mainly used for its notable legibility on web pages, but also closely associated with Microsoft. In-between paragraphs are images of IKEA which I have captured for the past four years (serving mainly as a documentation of the transition and a last look at IKEA before Verdana).
First, let's know about Verdana's origins (but this, you can Google it yourself).
Second, let's think of where we usually see Verdana being used. After the age of home-made websites read in Times New Roman, along with animated GIFs, 'Sign My Guestbook', MIDI background music and scrolling titles, Verdana came about as the primary typeface of the body text on web pages. One website that sums up what the web looked like in the year 2003 is Myspace (and it still does).
Thankfully Helvetica came to clear things up and became the prominent typeface for the past 4 years. Despite that, Helvetica has been given an unfair treatment, especially by whom I would call militant revivalists and pseudo design practitioners, but that's a totally different story altogether.
Although Verdana is quickly being phased out online, many message boards and online forums today still use this typeface (like lowyat and macrumors, which isn't much of an issue). Very rare do we get to see Verdana in real life, except on printed announcements made on the spur of the moment (like notice boards you'd find in schools).
But all of a sudden, without warning, surprisingly and so on, IKEA is adopting Verdana as a part of its identity, replacing Futura (or a variation of it), which they have been using for decades. Naturally, my reaction was "WTF?!". This was when I downloaded the US edition of the catalogue, released way earlier in August. I noticed the usage of Verdana but subconsciously dismissed it, thinking that it's just some electronic formatting error or something technically similar to that.
Then I noticed many design blogs making a lot of noise about IKEA's latest typographical paradigm shift. Some unsuccessfully defended that it is IKEA's effort to be 'truly accessible', but most protested that it is 'one step backward' and 'a backlash to the utilitarian chic which IKEA has been advocating' (not real quotes; just a summary of the majority of the comments).
This has got me thinking to myself not just why IKEA switch to Verdana, but also the motive behind this degrading decision, what sort of justification IKEA would state for their move, the connection between using Verdana and the 'expected' rise in sales (which company would want to make a move that decrease sales, eh?), and what beauty does IKEA see in Verdana which Futura does not have?
I mean, let's face it. Verdana is not a good-looker in print. Other than that, I won't comment onto the complex details; I'll leave that to the experts. Would it make sense if I were to speculate that Verdana is just some one-off thing and it's back to Futura next year? Probably not. It's not just the catalogue that is being morphed into some Verdana junkyard, but also the store signages and website. However I haven't seen Verdana on its product packaging, but we can expect that soon.
If you can recall, IKEA was using another typeface, a serifed one (which I can vaguely remember seeing it printed on its product packaging and instructional booklets [in off-white recycled paper]) 13 years ago (this was around the same time I first knew of IKEA through their billboard of a cow-print sofa with a copy that says "Home is where IKEA is", located on the Federal Highway somewhere near Angkasapuri).
One way I can think of to refer to this particular typeface is in the picture above, which is a small tray which the restaurant had back in 2006, the one similar to the numbers printed on the DEKAD alarm clock. I am not sure if it had any significance to anyone when IKEA stopped using that typeface. If you are familiar with this, do share it.
So how do I talk about IKEA's switch to Verdana without getting emotional? Not possible. Instead of checking out the lovely new items and room designs and admiring Swedish-looking families in the kitchen, featured in the catalogue like how it should be every year, this year's has got me shaking my head all the way through.
I could go on and on about the horror of Verdana + Microsoft, making very bitter remarks and then conclude that life must go on. But I am not even a typography specialist; if I see a typeface that looks good and has no disturbing connotations with renowned ugly brands like Microsoft, I'll support it. And Verdana is no way one of them.
And while being on topic, I would like to touch on the local IKEA's effort to include the Malay language in their signage, advertisements and promotional items. It's about time IKEA gave recognition to the national language. To this date, all local IKEA catalogues are published in the English language, but I hope there would be a Malay version soon. IKEA is quickly gaining attention from the Malay middle-class (who uses Malay as their first language) market who are getting familiar with the IKEA culture of buying furniture and accessories as frequent as buying groceries. From my own observation, the Malay that is being used in IKEA are mostly English-isms and direct translations. I hope they will improve on this.
Actually, there are many other things I'd like to bring up about IKEA today, like the wonderfulness of the new IKEA PS line, people who don't clean up their tables, a man who spent an hour wrapping his purchases at the wrapping tables before sending it through air mail, and a space age-looking booster seat, but I'm putting the full stop here.
How do you feel about IKEA's switch to Verdana?
Malam ini seperti malam2 sebelumnya selalu berkutat dengan pekerjaan, aku bosan dan letih aku letih berdiri rasanya aku ingin lari mencari kedamaian di hati.
Tapi malam ini aku melihat mobil mu, hanya dengan melihat mobil mu aku merasa bahagia oh indahnya cinta, walau ini hanya aku saja.
Dia dambaan hati ku, aku memohon untuk mendapatkan hatinya kepada yg kuasa, oh Tuhan manis nya ciptaan mu yg satu ini. Bolehkah aku meminta dia untuk ku?
Aku cinta dia, tapi bagaimana dengan dia? Aku rasa dia tidak mengetahui nya ya Tuhan berikan lah yg terbaik unt kami aku mohon petunjuk mu
Malam ini seperti malam2 sebelumnya selalu berkutat dengan pekerjaan, aku bosan dan letih aku letih berdiri rasanya aku ingin lari mencari kedamaian di hati.
Tapi malam ini aku melihat mobil mu, hanya dengan melihat mobil mu aku merasa bahagia oh indahnya cinta, walau ini hanya aku saja.
Dia dambaan hati ku, aku memohon untuk mendapatkan hatinya kepada yg kuasa, oh Tuhan manis nya ciptaan mu yg satu ini. Bolehkah aku meminta dia untuk ku?
Aku cinta dia, tapi bagaimana dengan dia? Aku rasa dia tidak mengetahui nya ya Tuhan berikan lah yg terbaik unt kami aku mohon petunjuk mu
Malam ini seperti malam2 sebelumnya selalu berkutat dengan pekerjaan, aku bosan dan letih aku letih berdiri rasanya aku ingin lari mencari kedamaian di hati.
Tapi malam ini aku melihat mobil mu, hanya dengan melihat mobil mu aku merasa bahagia oh indahnya cinta, walau ini hanya aku saja.
Dia dambaan hati ku, aku memohon untuk mendapatkan hatinya kepada yg kuasa, oh Tuhan manis nya ciptaan mu yg satu ini. Bolehkah aku meminta dia untuk ku?
Aku cinta dia, tapi bagaimana dengan dia? Aku rasa dia tidak mengetahui nya ya Tuhan berikan lah yg terbaik unt kami aku mohon petunjuk mu
Malam ini seperti malam2 sebelumnya selalu berkutat dengan pekerjaan, aku bosan dan letih aku letih berdiri rasanya aku ingin lari mencari kedamaian di hati.
Tapi malam ini aku melihat mobil mu, hanya dengan melihat mobil mu aku merasa bahagia oh indahnya cinta, walau ini hanya aku saja.
Dia dambaan hati ku, aku memohon untuk mendapatkan hatinya kepada yg kuasa, oh Tuhan manis nya ciptaan mu yg satu ini. Bolehkah aku meminta dia untuk ku?
Aku cinta dia, tapi bagaimana dengan dia? Aku rasa dia tidak mengetahui nya ya Tuhan berikan lah yg terbaik unt kami aku mohon petunjuk mu
I found the house which was used as Meera's residence in the 1995 film Ringgit Kasorrga, which I have written about early this year.
Oh I'm feeling blue right now, when you feel your brain can't take over your feeling what you gonna do?
I can't control it now... what's wrong with me??
I can't use my logically right now, I want to call but I feel so shy I hope I can handle it.
Yesterday feel fine but not today maybe coz today is my period, or I just feel empty well I don't know...
When I ask my heart what would happen suddenly it became so blur, but I believe what I feel, this is the 1st time I feel so fine and so in to right direction whew..*I wish this is right*
When the times for pray come I always pray for him, just want everything is good on him that's all that I can do for now.
Make sure that he is alright and always being healthy, I'm don't want pushing my feeling to hard coz I know it's gonna take a lot of my energy so right now I'm trying to be calm.
Yeah maybe you can call me I'm not in to it but it's not right, maybe because my big pride or my big ego or I'm a shy person, or I'm a coward?? well I think all of that have make collaboration :) in my heart ohh what a shame ...
I even don't have a big brave to fight for some one that I crush on, in my feeling I feel like I crush to the right person :P but why can't I fight for it? ohhh coz I'm a coward :((
It's gambling for me to get him or not, if the feeling is mutual thats so cool but how about if he reject me??? what should I do? I'm so afraid to be rejected one, if he is reject me I feel the sky will be so dark, the air lost the oxygen, and the water change the color .....
I hope is not right, wish God help me to find out what the best things for me, I'm sailing too far but I can't find the right island for me ....but I believe God will give me the island that I dreaming on, the island who will take me when he see me ...and it's gonna be soon I believe that :)) God have his way
Huh I'm still angry right now, but don't know what to do, even right now my mom get so angry too, the things more complicated right now I hate it, just because one person everything's become so unpredictable, everything going mess even my emotion.
Just because my BIG FOOL AUNTIE everything become mess, I hate her because of it, my fool father, and silly sister huh
Actually I dont want to involve with this mess, but I feel sorry for my nephew poor him, his parents is so dumb and have BAD attitude :(( weks
Who the hell are they ??
What they want ??
FUCK them all...
FUCK OFF
Stay a way from my life and my family you are parasite
