gap logo

So what is the measure of a good logo then? How has this new design made things worse?

well first if you have to recreate your logo for a one color application, its not good. i dont know any of the other pieces of thier new branding so im not going to say this new logo is as terrible as everyone is saying. but i mean look at that thing for christs sake.

if a freshman in high school made it in word, ok, but if some branding agency charged them 10s of thousands of dollars well then its not good for either party involved because its generic and stale and has no lasting appeal

Some guy sent in the old logo, see number 21 of the entries.

there are about 4 decent entries out of 200+

no 152 is an old logo they used as well

Gay And Proud

you guys realize this is a marketing trick, and it worked perfectly. now they have thousands of links and topics on every design blog and forum in the universe.

gap just trolled you.

  On 10/8/2010 at 11:54 AM, chaosmachine said:

you guys realize this is a marketing trick, and it worked perfectly. now they have thousands of links and topics on every design blog and forum in the universe.

 

gap just trolled you.

!

Welcome to the world of psychological advertising

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtvHNfomZL8

  On 10/8/2010 at 11:54 AM, chaosmachine said:

you guys realize this is a marketing trick, and it worked perfectly. now they have thousands of links and topics on every design blog and forum in the universe.

 

gap just trolled you.

lol. please tell me you are joking.

lets say mcdonalds spends 2 years and tens of thousands of dollars to put out a new burger. when the burger comes out, everyone tastes it and realizes its made with dogshit. no one likes it at all and then mcdonalds says, ha we got you! just kidding just kidding. so um what do you think our new burger should be?

Ye that new one looks like some shit software logo.

  On 10/8/2010 at 12:56 PM, jules said:

  On 10/8/2010 at 11:54 AM, chaosmachine said:

you guys realize this is a marketing trick, and it worked perfectly. now they have thousands of links and topics on every design blog and forum in the universe.

 

gap just trolled you.

 

 

lol. please tell me you are joking.

 

lets say mcdonalds spends 2 years and tens of thousands of dollars to put out a new burger. when the burger comes out, everyone tastes it and realizes its made with dogshit. no one likes it at all and then mcdonalds says, ha we got you! just kidding just kidding. so um what do you think our new burger should be?

i don't think you quite follow what he's saying here, and the analogy to food is completely wrong. we're talking intagibles here... eyeball time.

all right... i'm gonna get all geeked out here. i recreated the logo and made a couple B&W versions as well. i also printed it, took it to the B&W Copier Scanned it and printed it out. as you can see in the scanned copy, the gradient doesn't hold up. only solution around this is to solidify the square and to ad a stroke to the "p".

and i have no idea why the scanned version came out all stretched out.

  On 10/8/2010 at 6:52 PM, Deep Fried Everything said:

  On 10/8/2010 at 12:56 PM, jules said:

  On 10/8/2010 at 11:54 AM, chaosmachine said:

you guys realize this is a marketing trick, and it worked perfectly. now they have thousands of links and topics on every design blog and forum in the universe.

 

gap just trolled you.

 

 

lol. please tell me you are joking.

 

lets say mcdonalds spends 2 years and tens of thousands of dollars to put out a new burger. when the burger comes out, everyone tastes it and realizes its made with dogshit. no one likes it at all and then mcdonalds says, ha we got you! just kidding just kidding. so um what do you think our new burger should be?

 

i don't think you quite follow what he's saying here, and the analogy to food is completely wrong. we're talking intagibles here... eyeball time.

im just sayting they didnt send out a shit logo to get designers to have contests online to make their logo better as a strategy.

  On 10/8/2010 at 7:45 PM, jules said:

im just sayting they didnt send out a shit logo to get designers to have contests online to make their logo better as a strategy.

"Thanks for the logo buzz! After 20+ yrs, it’s time for a change. We like the new one, but want to see your ideas."

http://twitter.com/#!/Gap/status/26606991562

  On 10/8/2010 at 8:00 PM, chaosmachine said:

  On 10/8/2010 at 7:45 PM, jules said:

im just sayting they didnt send out a shit logo to get designers to have contests online to make their logo better as a strategy.

 

"Thanks for the logo buzz! After 20+ yrs, it’s time for a change. We like the new one, but want to see your ideas."

 

http://twitter.com/#!/Gap/status/26606991562

thats called cover your ass, not a creative strategy. they are back-peddling faster than a midget on a unicycle. if their real goal was to crowd source, they would have something set up to do so, and they also would not have paid a major advertising agency (http://www.lairdandpartners.com/) to work on a new identity system for 2 years.

this brings to mind the pepsi logo redesign justification doc, now that was a true lol. Gibberish of the highest order.

  On 10/8/2010 at 12:46 PM, Craig Anderson said:

Welcome to the world of psychological advertising

  On 10/8/2010 at 8:44 PM, lumpenprol said:

this brings to mind the pepsi logo redesign justification doc, now that was a true lol. Gibberish of the highest order.

exactly

maan i want to buy some GAP right now

  On 10/8/2010 at 7:34 PM, asymmetrical head said:

and i have no idea why the scanned version came out all stretched out.

It's cuz your printer went when it saw the new logo.

here's my submittal for the new gap graphic:

  On 10/8/2010 at 4:01 AM, 24ourange said:

Something makes me think gap might care more about customer reaction to the aesthetics of their public icon than if the thing shows up in a fax. I'm pretty sure any graphic designer could make it safe for b&w printing within 10 seconds.

Sure they could, but that would require changing the logo, and that's typically something you never do with a brand or logotype - consistency in presentation is how an iconic brand logo is established...

  On 10/11/2010 at 5:35 PM, Joy Rex said:

  On 10/8/2010 at 4:01 AM, 24ourange said:

Something makes me think gap might care more about customer reaction to the aesthetics of their public icon than if the thing shows up in a fax. I'm pretty sure any graphic designer could make it safe for b&w printing within 10 seconds.

 

Sure they could, but that would require changing the logo, and that's typically something you never do with a brand or logotype - consistency in presentation is how an iconic brand logo is established...

you have to change your logo as a brand. the key in consistency is doing it in subtle shifts, you cant just throw everything out and start over. tropicana is a perfect example. they rebranded and minute maid oj rebranded around the same time. minute maid is gorgeous and raised no flags because it still looks like minute maid.

this whole gap thing is so out of control. they have been using "gap" in helvetica for over a year now, its just the sloppy handling of that gradient square thats caused a riot of piling on.

  On 10/11/2010 at 5:39 PM, jules said:

  On 10/11/2010 at 5:35 PM, Joy Rex said:

  On 10/8/2010 at 4:01 AM, 24ourange said:

Something makes me think gap might care more about customer reaction to the aesthetics of their public icon than if the thing shows up in a fax. I'm pretty sure any graphic designer could make it safe for b&w printing within 10 seconds.

 

Sure they could, but that would require changing the logo, and that's typically something you never do with a brand or logotype - consistency in presentation is how an iconic brand logo is established...

 

 

you have to change your logo as a brand. the key in consistency is doing it in subtle shifts, you cant just throw everything out and start over. tropicana is a perfect example. they rebranded and minute maid oj rebranded around the same time. minute maid is gorgeous and raised no flags because it still looks like minute maid.

 

this whole gap thing is so out of control. they have been using "gap" in helvetica for over a year now, its just the sloppy handling of that gradient square thats caused a riot of piling on.

Yes, changing the logo over time is certainly a way to keep the image fresh, but in Gap's case, they seemed to change it this time for the sake of doing so, rather than any successful attempt to freshen the brand image (which personally I thought was fine).