Gap’s new(?) logo

Gap recently unveiled its new logo, a suicidal jump into a pool of Helvetica logos.

L-R: Gap’s old and new logos

CEO Marka Hansen writes in the Huffington Post that this design was chosen as “it’s more contemporary and current. It honors our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward”.

Sorry, logos in Helvetica are not current. Anyone with some sense would realise that the typeface carries its own heritage. I agree that new logos, renaming and rebranding excercises often take a while to get accepted (sometimes) — everyone remembers the reactions to the 2010 London Olympics logo. But I simply do not understand at all why Gap would choose this as their new avatar. I ought to state here that I don’t hate Helvetica, just as I don’t hate Comic Sans either. They are meant to be used in certain contexts and work very well in those cases. Choice of type apart, slapping on the blue box in the corner is just plain lazy on the part of the designer. For all the “clients don’t know what they want, they ought to be educated about design” nonsense that most designers throw around, the designer of this logo (reported to be Laird & Partners )ought to be shot.

Following the wave of negative feedback from the public, Gap has resorted to the next worst thing they could possibly do- crowd sourcing. Gap’s facebook page carries this wall post:

Thanks for everyone’s input on the new logo! We’ve had the same logo for 20+ years, and this is just one of the things we’re changing. We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we’re asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we’d like to see other ideas. Stay tuned for details in the next few days on this crowd sourcing project.

Paid designer’s work backlashes, so let’s go get some free options from the people who want better. Such a wonderful gameplan. Ever heard of a design process or atleast testing a logo before publicly announcing it?

TWO thumbs down for you Gap.
In the meantime, here are some amusing reactions to the Gap rebranding.

Craplogo: Your own gap logo. Customised.

Gapify: If other brands Gapified themselves.