Be sure to click “Hide Mandatory Spending” to see just how little of the budget is up for discussion this year.

Via Daring Fireball

Typefaces should be the voice, along with the writing, that advertising and communications speak with. Ikea’s communications have, as long as I know of, been speaking with the voice of Ikea Sans; a functional, geometric sans serif typeface whose obviously designed nature is balanced by its friendly, uncomplicated forms. It’s a perfect voice (or metaphor) for Ikea: consciously designed, but friendly and accessible.

Verdana, the newly chosen Ikea typeface, is free and designed for web text.* Even if that name doesn’t ring a bell, you probably see it nearly every single day. Why did Ikea choose it? This is their reason:

Godic gives a reason that just doesn’t make sense, unless you believe that the best corporate identity is the cheapest one. First off, “Simple, modern-looking typeface” can be said about the majority of san serif typefaces, without any point of reference. Secondly, Ikea Sans is an Ikea-owned typeface. They can use it anywhere they want and expand on it at their whim. Unless their licensing agreement was poorly constructed (which I doubt), this decision represents something more than an bad type choice. It’s a misunderstanding of one’s own brand. They’re throwing out a core component of their identity, which helps to define their voice, based on what sounds like a pointless financial argument. That usually hints at a business-driven panic that’s causing executives and middle managers to squeeze the budget lines they don’t understand.**

The trouble is that these decisions are made without concern for what the consumers and loyal customers actually want. And when a company like Ikea starts to tinker with its brand without proper planning, you’re getting a whiff of something much worse: tinkering with the business without thinking. If they think their brand perception, as formed by their identity, doesn’t have value, they should take another look at Tropicana.

If you shop at Ikea or like Ikea, I’d be willing to bet that this isn’t the first decision they’ll make without you in mind. And that’s why you should care that Ikea has adopted Verdana.

*It was designed for and released by Microsoft, for free, as part of the “core fonts” package with Windows. Software companies release fonts for free for one reason: to make their software work and look its best in use. The core fonts were released for Microsoft’s most important web product: Internet Explorer. As such, Verdana was designed for the unique demands of text-sized type on a low-res computer displays. In fact, while it can be printed, it was not designed to perform best in print.

**Let’s ignore the fact that now they have to pay to re-typeset and produce virtually every sign and printed piece of material they have.

I recently finished up work on the album cover you see above. Composer Joe Hallman’s gogreengo has been remixed by Megan Cauley, Peter (PONY) Celment, DJ Carl Michaels/Jamie Johnson, Kono Michi (Michi Wiancko), and Paul Pinto. gogreengo is a hard album to pin down, and tends to be pretty abstract and probably isn’t for everyone, but it’s worth a listen.

Joe gathered some talented musicians to remix his work, and you can hear their stuff and meet them over phenomenal drinks at APO bar + lounge (it’s Apothecary, for those wondering). Make your way there around 5 on the 10th of September and join the fun.

I haven’t heard it all, but in doing my design research, I became fond of Kono Michi’s music. Her vocals and violin work are quite interesting.

The show itself was pretty minimal, which bummed me out a bit. House does tons of great work in type design, hand lettering, and illustration, as well as industrial design. The objects on display were pretty focused on their recent release of Neutraface Slab family. Now, don’t get me wrong: I loves me some Neutraface, and the introduction of the slab branch of its family tree is a fantastic one. But I was hoping for more variety. The photos on their site cover a significant portion of the exhibit, aside from the nice little retail space where they had books, blocks, pillows, and other cool object on offer (most of which were well out of my petty cash range).

But, really, the reason I went was to chat with people who love design and create it. And House is one of the best firms/foundries out there, particularly given their passion for their niche of vernacular typography and lettering, as well as period illustration (some would call it retro). This was certainly the best part of the show for me. Because I arrived early on, before the place began to fill, I got a chance to chat with Rich Roat of House about their upcoming and long-awaited online custom Photo-Lettering tool.

They’d set up a kiosk with a demo version of their Photo-Lettering custom typesetter (I don’t know if it has a proper name, so I’m going to call it “PLINCer” for brevity and self-amusement). I didn’t even realize what I was looking at until Rich came up to me and started to run me through the demo and talk excitedly about its capabilities. (One of the things I love most about type is the people who do it. You don’t get into type because you kind of like it. You have to love it.) Rich was clearly very eager to get this baby out there in the real world. And I can see why. If PLINCer works the way he says it will (and it appears to) it could be the first step toward a completely new way of selling digital type; one that is very much in tune with the ethos of online digital content distribution as it’s developing today.

The basic concept behind PLINCer is pretty straightforward, but Rich’s demo showed me that this is more than a novel way to sell type from the library they bought. Photo-lettering, the original use, changed the way that type was set and sold, ultimately killing metal type as the standard, just as digital type killed photo-lettering. PLINCer takes the photo-lettering mentality of purchasing a specific type setting that can be stretched and sized photographically and brings that process up to date with a web-based interface and e-commerce storefront, driven by server-side multiple master scaling technology and OpenType dynamic typesetting.

Imagine that you want to use Ed Interlock to create a logotype. With PLINCer you can log in, take advantage of the full OpenType dynamic typesetting features (which substitutes the ‘custom’ interlocking character pairings based on the overall word form and surrounding pairings), test colors, and even things like drop shadowing, highlights, and other typeface-appropriate styling, then save that specific setting for later viewing, emailing to other people, whatever. And once you’re satisfied, you can then buy that specific setting as a vector graphic for around $7. The whole typeface is $160 (as part of a set of typefaces that come packaged). This is the iTunes model for type. This changes the game, which is currently all about licensing full typefaces and often entire family packages for potentially hundreds of dollars (and sometimes more).

I could go on and on about this new system, but I’ll spare myself the four additional hours of writing and just say this: if PLINCer succeeds (it’ll like also have a subscription option, by the way), the model it establishes could ripple out to every major foundry and retailer of type. I bet that designers and clients would be waaaay more open to exploring new type when the cost can be kept so low. So, you can see why this was a highlight of the night.

Unfortunately, I was short two wingmen (Alisa and Blackbird, who would’ve made the event totally awesome), so I didn’t hang around too long. But it was worth it to get a look at what House has cooking. For more info on PLINC, check out snappy-new-design-blog idsgn’s feature as well.

UPDATE: Looks like it will simply be called “Photo Lettering”. Keep an eye on this space.

From their site:

“For everyone who’s ever wished Clarendons had italics, everyone whose favorite slab serif is shy a few weights, and everyone who’s ever needed a slab serif to thrive in text: we designed Sentinel for you.”

Sign. Me. Up.

While I don’t use Clarendon all that often, largely due to its limitations, it’s among the first typefaces that stuck in my mind as a student. Its strong slab serifs and sturdy curves have always resonated with my design sensibilities and aesthetic preferences. That H&F-J were the ones who decided to remedy this makes my designer heart sing.

Sentinel differs from Clarendon in a number of ways, but besides the expanded family, the first difference I noticed was the lack of bracketed serifs. I’m betting this feature had to go to give them enough flexibility and crispness for text weights. I think it’ll give Sentinel a correspondingly brisk, fresh feel in spite of its historical origins. Of course, this means that Sentinel will also lack some of the warmth that I associate with Clarendon. I relish all those stocky joins and curves. The stroke modulations and bulbous terminals on the a, c, g and 2 (to name a few), as well as the cupped tail (foot?) on the leg of the R, all draw me in to Clarendon and give it a richness that, even if it carries its own problems, endear it to me.

But, Sentinel certainly doesn’t do away with this character. I suspect (since I don’t have a license) that Sentinel’s design has enough Clarendon provenance to avoid the loss of all that unique character. And since it can perform far more duties in both display and text, I’d be willing to bet that any loss will be long forgotten as one explores its new possibilities. That crisp new suit that Sentinel’s wearing looks like just the thing to bring those Egyptian/Century styles into today’s layouts with impact and integrity. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of Sentinel in the coming months. Maybe it’ll even stave off all that oft-inappropriate use of the glorious Archer that I keep seeing.

Possible Linotype/ Hoefler & Frere-Jones collaboration? Buy-out imminent? Unsubstantiated rumor or prescient techno-fortune-telling?

YOU DECIDE.

What I would like to point out is what you see if you visit www.syfy.com:

Why in the name of the sweet baby Jesus would you want your audience to read this branding nonsense and business strategy? Just take me to the site! So that I may partake of your content! This is akin to selling soda by describing to the consumers how, if they buy it, your shareholders will profit from the consumers’ complicity in reinforcing their brand strategy of stratifying them into targeted market segments.

WHO CARES?

Not their audience, for sure. This sort of business pornography nonsense is not only boring, it also breaks the illusion of the brand. It’s as though they’re reveling in their decision to shed the pretense of caring about their core audience and wanting to celebrate that fact with them. We’ll see how this works out for them.

Good.

It was a shoddy rebrand that ditched common sense and brand equity for a meaningless sub-brand update/unification project. You can see a side-by-side at Brand New here and here. I’m just happy they had the sense and fortitude to dump it. I wonder if what really made them do it was flagging sales figures or, more likely, an overwhelmingly negative response. Though we’ll likely never know. It makes them look so much more magnanimous to say they’re responding to consumer outpouring of love for the brand.

The New York Times wants to present this as Pepsi’s New Coke. I wouldn’t go that far, as this is just ill-advised tinkering with the packaging, not meddling with the recipe for a flagship product. However the Tropicana debacle serves as a pretty succinct image for Arnell’s redesign of Pepsi’s major beverage brands, which has been pretty lackluster overall. It’s coming off more like a series of student projects than a real national rebranding (from what I can tell the soon-to-be-revived look is still around in places like the UK). Unlike Coca-Cola’s subtle refinements of their packaging, Pepsi’s redesigns seem to scrap nearly all of the brand equity that any of their existing brands had. The only one that works for me is Gatorade:

The orange lightning bolt is the strongest visual element of the brand besides the actual liquid itself in those orange-topped bottles. I think their approach to this product line works very well and strengthens its core attributes, unlike Tropicana… and Pepsi… and Sierra Mist (which screams student project more than any of them). Mountain Dew… I’m sorry… Mtn Dew is the only other rebrand I don’t hate, and that one’s already been done by EMS.

Add to this mess the circulation of the now-infamous vapid and self-aggrandizing Arnell Pepsi concept document which, even as a joke, makes them look like money-wasting fools. The whole thing just feels half-baked. Will this make a dent in Pepsico’s beverage sales? I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure it will hurt their brand, which will likely translate into a sales hit down the road. However, I’m eager to see how the whole thing plays out.

And to see if Tropicana will be the only brand they roll back. I’m putting in my bet for a Pepsi rebrand that rolls the identity back toward the classic Pepsi wave. Pepsi “Classic” anyone?

I don’t remember the name of this kooky faux-African woodcut font (anyone?), but Taco Salad (kindly identified by Stewf) is the exact wrong typeface for this kind of thing. I typically see it attached to kid’s programs and ads for low-rent Caribbean packages. I’m having a hard time figuring out who thought this would communicate “scary” or “not featuring muppets”.