Slog
News & ArtsWednesday, October 6, 2010
Design Let's All Judge the New Gap Logo!
Posted by David Schmader on Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 12:50 PM
I'll start! It's boring, and the most interesting component—the blue square—is stupid.
11
Totally dumb. They should've gone retro, back to their '70s logo, that would have looked more hip.
15
Oh, I have to go on. It's like the blandest pair of khakis they sell got transformed into a logo. Like they told the designer "We want you to evoke casual Friday at a midwestern bank.
17
Yeah, retro would have been a lot better. That looks like a logo for a consultancy, or an insurance company, but less dynamic. Bought my son a flannel shirt there last winter. Within a month, every single button had cracked off. And their jeans fit for shit.
23
It looks like Gap has become an online financial institution. They don't have much style direction anymore. They used to be known for their basics but then American Apparel came along and outdid them (even though American Apparel is facing a rough patch right now) and I don't see how copying American Apparel's Helvetica Neue wave is going to stop inciting that comparison. They're now knocking-off a brand that knocked them off? Meta?
27
No, if they really wanted to empower the word "Gap" they should have incorporated a picture of cameltoe.
28
My cynical theory from deep inside the trenches of advertising:
1) Gap focus-grouped its brand to come up with an "emotional map" of key words like "effortless," "reliable," "unpretentious" and "true blue"
2) Then it RFP'd six design firms to submit 37 logos each based on these meaningless words
3) After 1,942 internal meetings gathering the input of buyers, account directors and vice presidents of finance, they narrowed the choices down to their favorite elements of 16 different logos and asked two of the firms to create some hybrid logos incorporating these elements
4) Four days before the scheduled launch of their new brand, they decided the new hybrid logos weren't going where they were hoping, so they panicked and called in a favor from their old agency ... the one they were hoping to fire after the new logo was chosen
5) The call came in at 3:47 pm on a Friday, and all the art directors at the old agency were forced to cancel their weekend plans to come up with a shit-ton more logo ideas by 9:00 am Monday
6) Gap sat on these new ideas for 17 days while they had an internal reorg
7) The new vice president of camisoles, trying to justify his existence, came up with the current logo at his dining room table on a Thursday night and presented to the board of directors the very next morning
8) This dining-room-table story will be told in the annual report and at shareholder meetings as proof that Gap shakes things up and doesn't do stuff like other big companies
(Gap corporate brand guys: Am I close?)
1) Gap focus-grouped its brand to come up with an "emotional map" of key words like "effortless," "reliable," "unpretentious" and "true blue"
2) Then it RFP'd six design firms to submit 37 logos each based on these meaningless words
3) After 1,942 internal meetings gathering the input of buyers, account directors and vice presidents of finance, they narrowed the choices down to their favorite elements of 16 different logos and asked two of the firms to create some hybrid logos incorporating these elements
4) Four days before the scheduled launch of their new brand, they decided the new hybrid logos weren't going where they were hoping, so they panicked and called in a favor from their old agency ... the one they were hoping to fire after the new logo was chosen
5) The call came in at 3:47 pm on a Friday, and all the art directors at the old agency were forced to cancel their weekend plans to come up with a shit-ton more logo ideas by 9:00 am Monday
6) Gap sat on these new ideas for 17 days while they had an internal reorg
7) The new vice president of camisoles, trying to justify his existence, came up with the current logo at his dining room table on a Thursday night and presented to the board of directors the very next morning
8) This dining-room-table story will be told in the annual report and at shareholder meetings as proof that Gap shakes things up and doesn't do stuff like other big companies
(Gap corporate brand guys: Am I close?)
29
Looks like an exec at the Gap found out how much an agency cost, and decided to pull out his copy of Paint Shop Pro instead.
32
@25 - It's Helvetica. A classic, and a standard for logos. I like Helvetica, but this is still a terrible logo.
34
Oh, yeah, Christ. I can totally see this embroidered on the breast pocket of a beige polo shirt and worn two sizes too large by each and every person at a team-building exercise.
35
@28 Oh my god! It's like you were there. The only thing that you got wrong is #7. It was the VP of camisoles NIECE, who's a freshman in "ART SCHOOL" that knocked this off on her iPhone in 15 minutes. She got paid in khakis.
What they used to say about advertising is soooo true of branding: half the money spent is wasted, you just can't tell which half.
What they used to say about advertising is soooo true of branding: half the money spent is wasted, you just can't tell which half.
37
Can I recommend the excellent documentary 'Helvetica' to everyone? I had never realised quite how ubiquitous this typeface is until I watched that film.
40
I just realized this is a paper in Seattle. No wonder this new logo is so interesting to all of you.
41
MacCrocodile and rob! are tied to win the comment thread, i think.
is this real? launched already, gonna put it on the stores, done deal? or is this something that the marketing folks were kicking around and got leaked? cuz the marketing guys at my company wouldn't seriously pitch this to a project owner, and the marketing guys at my company suck.
is this real? launched already, gonna put it on the stores, done deal? or is this something that the marketing folks were kicking around and got leaked? cuz the marketing guys at my company wouldn't seriously pitch this to a project owner, and the marketing guys at my company suck.
42
Well, it doesn't exactly look like amateur work, as most of the details are dialed in. (Notice that the top of the square lines up with the top of the G, and the top and right edges of the square are the same distance from the p. And the font is kerned correctly.) But it's too ugly to look professional. The blue square behind the Helvetica p is just an eye irritant. And the graduated blue fill makes it look like they could see it was wrong there and they tried to soften the effect with a 90s cliche.
43
Wow, black Helvetica Bold on a white background. Edgy and different!
The square is presumably meant to be a hip, ironic reference to the company's "squareness." Right?
The square is presumably meant to be a hip, ironic reference to the company's "squareness." Right?
44
There's a great recent interview with Massimo Vignelli on Design Observer wherein he talks about the crime of badly re-designed logos. The reason this one is bad is that it incorporates unnecessary and nebulous decoration. It doesn't matter if the blue square lines up with the top of the G (which, to nerd out with @42, is not the capital X-height) if we can't figure out why it's there in the first place. At best, it says "transition" (most likely in the marketing department). Or maybe it's a pocket?
The somewhat bummer thing (and I mean that – we do all have to look at this stuff everywhere) is that the Gap has stepped up its photography so much in recent years, and this is a step in the opposite direction.
The somewhat bummer thing (and I mean that – we do all have to look at this stuff everywhere) is that the Gap has stepped up its photography so much in recent years, and this is a step in the opposite direction.
45
@44: I think the blue square is supposed to be a reference to the old gap logo, which was white letters inside a blue square. Not that it doesn't look stupid in the new one, especially with the hokey 90s-style gradient.
48
@47 - Do you watch America's Next Top Model? Yeah, uh, me neither... but on this season's makeover episode, they actually sent a girl in to have her diastema widened. They shaved off little bits of her teeth!
Seriously, though, this new logo is a witch.
Seriously, though, this new logo is a witch.
49
It is boring, but frankly, I left The Gap about fifteen years ago when they turned their attention from cute, well-made sportswear to what I call the "teen-aged junkie look." Yeah, I know time marches on and The Gap has to appeal to a new generation.
The Gap has had some rather severe financial woes in recent years that they didn't have when they were making clothes for me. I used to go drop a few hundred dollars there two or three times a year back in the day. They lost that when they abandoned me and those like me.
And Banana Republic is no substitute. Sorry, Gap. It's way too expensive in comparison to what you used to be. Ninety dollar shirts and little black dresses that look like slips are $375? No way.
So, go ahead and come out with a new logo, if you think that's going to help, but since you decided to leave behind those who made you, don't expect us to shop there, dearie. The generation gap, indeed.
The Gap has had some rather severe financial woes in recent years that they didn't have when they were making clothes for me. I used to go drop a few hundred dollars there two or three times a year back in the day. They lost that when they abandoned me and those like me.
And Banana Republic is no substitute. Sorry, Gap. It's way too expensive in comparison to what you used to be. Ninety dollar shirts and little black dresses that look like slips are $375? No way.
So, go ahead and come out with a new logo, if you think that's going to help, but since you decided to leave behind those who made you, don't expect us to shop there, dearie. The generation gap, indeed.
51
As an early 90s college graduate with no other options (remember the first Bush recession?) I took a job as an assistant manager at a Gap in Atlanta. The whole company story "Haight-Ashbury, record store that sold jeans, generation gap" thing was drilled into us. I hated that job, and I still kinda hate the Gap, but jesus...there is so much stuff to draw on there, rather than come up with a "what's the definition of boring?" logo. It's like they didn't even try.
58
i think i "get it" and strangely this makes me feel like a total loser. i'm so embarrassed. OK. the blue square is a SCREEN - like it's a phone. See? the gap has it's own little phone in its ear and that makes it very *now*. it's listening to you. oh god i'm gonna go crawl on a hole. don't hate me.
60
It's not Arial, it's not Helvetica, and it just looks like some really shitty grotesque knockoff that came on one of those "1000 fonts for $9.00" type CD's.
It looks like somebody didn't even have Illustrator or Photoshop on their computer, so they knocked this out in Microsoft Powerpoint.
It looks like somebody didn't even have Illustrator or Photoshop on their computer, so they knocked this out in Microsoft Powerpoint.
64
If only someone had a microphone in that board room. This is what they would have heard: http://www.kittellian.com/2010/10/new-ga…
65
As a designer. I'd like to take you behind the scenes on what might have unfolded in the Gap boardroom: http://www.kittellian.com/2010/10/new-ga…
68
It looks like something an intern at Microsoft put together for the first slide in a Powerpoint presentation for a .NET conference.
69
@58: Are you an art history major? Because your uncanny ability to make up shit is *awesome.*
I mean that in a nice way, as I am a certified shit-make-upper. *wave*
I mean that in a nice way, as I am a certified shit-make-upper. *wave*
70
@69 thanks, sigh. ya make shit up and it's just shit till somebody 'preciates it. then you feel all happy inside. *wave* right back.
74
I'm really curious to know who designed this logo. I kindda feel bad for that person/company now.. (or should i?) The logo is bad. Period. No question about that. The question is: how was that designer(/company) able to convince Gap's executives that THAT was THE logo? How?
75
I'm really curious to know who designed this logo. I kindda feel bad for that person/company now.. (or should i?) The logo is bad. Period. No question about that. The question is: how was that designer(/company) able to convince Gap's executives that THAT was THE logo? How?
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