Wednesday, October 13, 2010

GAP new logo fails to Stick

GAP made a valiant effort to update its logo.

More modern type-face - Check
Keep Iconic Blue box...er..somehow - Check
Used Crowd sourcing to make sure it was well received - Kind of

Look changing a logo is chock full of danger and it is usually done for all of the wrong reasons: mostly a new CMO was hired and they wanted their stamp on the brand...It is especially tough when people have invested in the brand, they feel they helped build it or it has deeper meaning to them.

Here is a gallery of others that have tried from today's Daily Beast bit.ly/944GH7 .

There are times when I think it is not only appropriate, but should be carefully considered: think BP - they have considered going back to the Amoco brand in certain regions. If Enron had survived and other brands in crisis that want a clean break or are trying to break from previous customer thoughts about the brand.

I survived two major logo changes at a previous company, book were to modernize - both were handled wheel by making the changes evolutionary vs revolutionary.

And the GAP, well they punted after feedback was pretty negative - the design firm was embarrassed and felt they had to defend themselves and enough money was wasted to buy all of us dinner.

Me, I don't think that it was a bad design at all, certainly not in the realm of the horrid Pepsi redesign or the new United Airlines "Hey, lets not hurt Continentals feelings!" logo!

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