A wise designer I worked with once said, “Nobody should be able to type your logo.” I wonder what he thinks of the the hubbub surrounding the new Gap logo.
Watching the drama is kind of fun. If you’ve been in a cave or undisclosed location that lacks internet access the Gap redesigned its logo and there has been much hand wringing and outrage by anyone remotely close the the marketing/advertising/design community (See AdAge or Agency Spy or The Consumerist).
Within a day of revealing the new logo, there’s already two different create your own Gap logo generators (here and here), and a contest to redesign the logo. Now it’s being hinted at that this who gradated nightmare is social media experiment/crowdsource sort of thing. Speaking of social media, you can follow the new logo and old logo on Twitter.
Though Gap PR claims it’s not a stunt. They say they are open to ideas. It’s that crowd-sourcing bit that inspired a thoughtful post from Mule Design about the value of design. Which is a nice reminder to all of us in industries where what we do can often be taken for granted to value our work.
Are you following the logo drama? It’s one of those kinds of things I can’t look away from. I wonder what it is about this logo that has evoked such a strong reaction from people. Is it really because it’s ugly? It has to be more than that. If the internet got this hopped up over every ugly logo we’d have no time to watch lipdub videos or tend to our farms.
There’s a lesson in here about brand loyalty and how people react to change in the constantly changing internet environment. I’m just not quite sure what that is yet.
