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| Gap Inc. has learned a painstaking yet valuable logo redesigning lesson this year. Shortly, after redesigning its 20-year-old trademark logo, Gap reverted back to its classic logo…AGAIN. The new logo was rumored to be made by Laird & Partners but was only featured on Gap’s official website for initial publicity.
But that was as far as the new logo design could go. The logo faced a fierce reaction over the internet and was criticized to the extent that it had to be reverted. |
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Which factors created the ‘gaps’:
A majority of factors were behind the failure of the Gap logo redesign. Aside from the fact that the new logo could not impress a sizable audience, its design elements created logo disaster. The elements did not adequately correspond to the image of the Gap brand. Following are the factors leading to the demise of the Gap redesign logo:
- • To begin with, the blue box with a gradient placed on the edge of ‘GAP’ letters was seen as amateur and naive. Feedback suggests that the general audience consider it as a logo designed on MS PowerPoint.
- • Another factor was the bad choice of fonts. Using Helvetica fonts was a shocking move for a fashion brand of GAP’s standing. Moreover, feedback suggests that the font seems to be pixilated.
- • Finally, using lower case proved to be a disastrous move after 20 years of brand legacy of GAP being in upper case.
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Lessons to learn from GAP logo redesign:
Whether good or bad redesigned logos, there are always lessons to learn from the endeavor. There are several lessons that can be learned from GAP logo redesign disaster.
- • Never redesign your logo only because ‘YOU’ feel like it.
- • Always take customers on board before making any changes to your logo, especially when it’s of a sizable brand value.
- • Thorough market and consumer research is imperative before making a brand identity overhaul.
- • If your brand equity is stable, there is no point in adopting a fresh identity.
- • If you are not much confident about your new identity, then internet is not the right place to launch it.
- • And last but not least… sometimes ‘OLD IS GOLD’. Stick to what your customers like seeing.
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Gap’s Future Plans – An Alert for Designers:
The President of Gap hinted on holding a logo design contest for their new logo, but ultimately postponed the idea for future, saying: |
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“We’ve learned a lot in this process,” Hansen stated. “And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing. There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way.”
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Your Verdict:
Where do you think Gap went wrong in its effort to redesign its logo?
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October 20th, 2010 at 12:16 am
i think GAP is trying to make a something that would make people laugh – lol
October 20th, 2010 at 12:34 am
Looks like there’s a big GAP in gaps’ business planning process, and if they continue this way, then they’re definitely gonna’ have a hard time!
October 20th, 2010 at 3:21 am
I second you that always take customer on board before changing logo. Look what pepsi has also done with their logo.
October 20th, 2010 at 3:46 am
It Really Looks Attractive after Redesign. i can say you made it more professional then what it was
October 25th, 2010 at 6:32 am
[...] a design persepective, there are many lessons that can be learnt, but also from a Social Media perspective, there are similar lessons to be [...]
February 3rd, 2012 at 2:27 pm
new logo is awful. appropriate for a heavy industry like chemicals, hardware, etc. it’s juvenile and aggressive rather than young(fresh) and assertive. i wouldn’t want it stamped on my butt.