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Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

weblog.muledesign.com

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Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#31

Post by lwhi »

jimboyoungblood wrote: post #10
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #4

Posts like this seem like the designer equivalent of the music labels spending years complaining about how sharing music is wrong and trying to put the "evil" back in Pandora's box, while millions of people merrily continue to download music off bittorrent anyway. The reality of the internet is that people can easily solicit work on spec from thousands of designers, and they will get good stuff in return. Will it be…

To be fair to the music labels, they at least have copyright law on their side. This is more like how professional journalists whine about bloggers.

I don't agree. I think it's probably more similar to a professional journalist complaining about another professional journalist.

Or are you suggesting gap crowdsourced their identity requirements .. ?

Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#32

Post by timmaah »

mcargian wrote: post #21
mikeryan wrote: post #8

A bit of background on this. Gap just updated their logo, its getting pretty heavily slammed by the design community (I too think its god awful) More here: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/october/new-gap... BTW the author's twitter feed, @Mike_FTW is one of the funnier feeds to follow.

Looks like they are getting a good response and more mindshare then they should for a logo. Perhaps this will be the new "new coke/old coke" case study of the future but "now with more crowdsourcing (tm)".

I was thinking the same thing. GAP put out a crappy new logo on purpose (They aren't using it anywhere) knowing it would create buzz. Roll that buzz into a crowdsource contest. And in the end stick with your orig logo.

Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#33

Post by nsfmc »

So, what i think is missing is this link that explains exactly what this dude is writing about:

  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. [1]
So, in this context, i think the rant makes a bit more sense. Equally funny is iso50's description of this as "a tropicana,"[2] which is a zing i never thought i'd hear.

But, i want to throw out there that this impulse to violently reject or passionately protect logos has an analog in language. "All living languages are always changing"[3] and same goes for logos and brand identities. Much like language or fashion, logos evolve and whatever.

And for everyone that's all "oh that's shite, i could do better," I invite you to really try your hand at this sort of thing with actual real life constraints and (gasp!) real life clients. There's all sorts of design work you can do without a client, but it takes a special type to actually, you know, design for somebody else and more hopefully, design with someone else.

[1]: http://www.facebook.com/gap/posts/159977040694165 [2]: http://blog.iso50.com/2010/10/06/gap-redesign-contest/ [3]: http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-fields-change.cfm

edit formatting goofs always get me

Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#34

Post by lwhi »

matrix wrote: post #20
mikeryan wrote: post #8

A bit of background on this. Gap just updated their logo, its getting pretty heavily slammed by the design community (I too think its god awful) More here: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/october/new-gap... BTW the author's twitter feed, @Mike_FTW is one of the funnier feeds to follow.

Anyone know what the business case for this change was? What was wrong with the old logo? I'm having a hard time understanding what the thinking was here.

Main purpose must be repositioning of the brand - their largest competition is American Apparel. Place the new logo between the old gap logo and the AA logo, the thread linking all three will be pretty obvious.

Wouldn't surprise me if a buy out was on the cards.

Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#35

Post by jimboyoungblood »

lwhi wrote: post #31
jimboyoungblood wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair to the music labels, they at least have copyright law on their side. This is more like how professional journalists whine about bloggers.

I don't agree. I think it's probably more similar to a professional journalist complaining about another professional journalist. Or are you suggesting gap crowdsourced their identity requirements .. ?

The original post is a rebuttal to this:

http://www.idsgn.org/posts/gap-turns-to-crowdsourcing/

Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#36

Post by jrwoodruff »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #16

I researched your customers. Talked to a variety of them, in fact. Asked them not only about The Gap, but about their own lives. Their needs. Anxieties. Their thoughts on the future. I took all that into account. I also interviewed employees in a few of your stores. (They’re quite dedicated, you know.) I asked them how they felt about the company and about their interactions with customers. Because customer service m…

I thought this was going to be an article bashing designers, I kept waiting for the punch line. I understand what he's saying, but it comes across very pretentious. And I say that as a designer.

Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#37

Post by sv123 »

jimboyoungblood wrote: post #10
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #4

Posts like this seem like the designer equivalent of the music labels spending years complaining about how sharing music is wrong and trying to put the "evil" back in Pandora's box, while millions of people merrily continue to download music off bittorrent anyway. The reality of the internet is that people can easily solicit work on spec from thousands of designers, and they will get good stuff in return. Will it be…

To be fair to the music labels, they at least have copyright law on their side. This is more like how professional journalists whine about bloggers.

or professional photographers whining about microstock.

Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#38

Post by jbenz »

alanh wrote: post #30
acangiano wrote: post #18

99designs entries: http://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/design-better-gap-...

Perhaps 2% of the logos there could be taken at all seriously. The one which makes the A in GAP look like a pair of jeans is at least clever. But wow is there a lot of garbage there. Thanks for sharing the link!

There have been a ton of other designs submitted to ISO50. Some aren't too bad: http://blog.iso50.com/2010/10/06/gap-redesign-contest/

Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#39

Post by Mc_Big_G »

I’ve redesigned your logo. It’s behind the post-it above. It’s unbelievably good. Fantastic, even. I’m convinced it’s what you need.

aaaaaaand it turns out to be crap. Your policy of 3 (or whatever) "redesigns" turns out to give me 3 more crap designs and then, according to the contract, I have to pay you anyway. I spent $5,000 like that. Never again.

Re: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.

#40

Post by hugh3 »

matrix wrote: post #20
mikeryan wrote: post #8

A bit of background on this. Gap just updated their logo, its getting pretty heavily slammed by the design community (I too think its god awful) More here: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/october/new-gap... BTW the author's twitter feed, @Mike_FTW is one of the funnier feeds to follow.

Anyone know what the business case for this change was? What was wrong with the old logo? I'm having a hard time understanding what the thinking was here.

Looking at the old logo, I'd say it looks like it's aimed at a fifty-something demographic -- I don't blame them for wanting something that looks "younger".

But the new logo is a mess, and looks like something you'd come up with in Powerpoint in five seconds without changing the defaults. There's nothing wrong ideas-wise with san-serif "gap" over shaded blue square, but it comes out looking bad.

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