Adjö, IKEA

I have some IKEA furniture: on my budget, with so many books, there was little choice. Next time, I won't be buying their stuff, after reading this little reminder that corporations can't be trusted. IKEA may be a model employer in lovely liberal Sweden, but its behaviour in the US demonstrates that the company's default position is to revert to the mean (and I mean that in many ways).

World-beating tax-cheats Ikea have a reputation for being a great employer in Sweden; but in America, their first factory is a model sweatshop, with rock-bottom wages, mandatory overtime, abusive vacation policies, and forced reeducation meetings for employees who support forming a union.

Laborers in Swedwood plants in Sweden produce bookcases and tables similar to those manufactured in Danville. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a minimum wage of about $19 an hour and a government-mandated five weeks of paid vacation. Full-time employees in Danville start at $8 an hour with 12 vacation days -- eight of them on dates determined by the company.

What's more, as many as one-third of the workers at the Danville plant have been drawn from local temporary-staffing agencies. These workers receive even lower wages and no benefits, employees said. 

The company has drafted in a disgusting union-busting law firm to stop these greedy bastardds blackmailing the poor international corporation.

Sous les livres, l'appartement

It's been worth moving in already: I've discovered that it's entirely feasible to wake up at 8.46 a.m. (that's 1 hour and forty six minutes after my usual time) and be opening a lecture at 9 a.m. Admittedly, I wasn't at my most fragrant or collected, but it's an important discovery.

I had a go at an IKEA chest yesterday, but stopped at the hammering stage as it was midnight. Construction was conducted to the sounds of Radio 3's weird jazz stuff, which really didn't work - it was so manic and frankly unpleasant that concentration was hard, but Radio 4 was doing something boring and I've not bothered setting up the TV. Oh for my beloved Late Junction.

The Donnie Darko condiment set

Still Life With Violin and Soviet Spaceman

Some of the books and records

Records A-D

Eventually, the kitchen.

Font of all goodness

I freely admit that in some things, I'm a nerd. I'm proud to say that I love, and care about, typography.

So here's a bit of titillation, and a link to IKEAgate. Verdana indeed.

This blog, by the way, uses Georgia. I also love Gill Sans (especially Roman), and would love Johnston Sans (designed for the London Underground). Helvetica, of course, is the most progressive and lovely font outside these two (now a major motion picture). Do you have a favourite typeface?

(By the way, for the purists, I know that the title of this post is inaccurate. Fonts and typefaces aren't the same. But I was desperate for a good pun).

FireFly Letterpress from ilovetypography.com on Vimeo.