Serious Holes In The Gap

This past week, Gap unveiled a new logo to express their look toward the future. Needless to say, it's terrible. Take a look:

The blue box seems to have been put in the wash and shrunk in the process....like Gap Jeans.

This logo is, like I said, terrible. TER-RIB-LAY. Here's why. The font in this new logo is Helvetica, which has been voted both the easiest-to-read font as well as one of the most dull. It's uninspired, and the blue box in the corner makes it look like the ad agency hired a 13 year old to design it. Wait...13 year olds would be more creative than this. They would have been better going back to their original logo:

After seeing this new logo monstrosity, I then began to realize that this logo looked familiar....too familiar...it looked like another clothing store's logo which was just as uninspired and terrible as this one. After about 5 minutes of searching, I found it:

American Apparel's logo is just like Gap's.... except there's no blue square. Anybody looking in from the outside would assume that one company owned the other. I was then even angrier with Gap, because they got rid of a logo which which they were closely identified.

Brand identification is a tough thing to mess with; changing a familiar piece of a company's identity can turn its fans away, so the change must be subtle, gradual, and non-threatening. In 2009, Tropicana redesigned their orange juice cartons to look more modern, but the change didn't go over well at all. Think about that for a second; AN ORANGE. JUICE. CARTON. Not a logo, but the carton. People identify with what is safe and what is familiar.

When Drew Carey took over as host of The Price is Right in 2007, his first stayed true to Barker's well-oiled operation; other than a refresh of the theme songs and changing the colors of the set, everything from the models to the music cues stayed the same. Now in its 4th season, Barker's last season and Carey's 4th are like night and day; most of the Barker era music cues, as well as a few pricing games have been retired, with new ones taking their place. The show has lifted its Barker-mandated ban on foreign cars, they held a model search last season, and the show has traveled across the country to find contestants who normally couldn't afford the money or time to make it out to Los Angeles. Many of these changes were in the works once Drew took over, but were made gradually as to not lose their loyal fanbase. Ratings are starting to climb again, and The Price is Right is still a crown jewel in the CBS Daytime lineup.

Hey- people know what they want. All companies have to do is listen to the people.

EDIT: On October 11, Gap announced that they are going back to the familiar blue square logo after a massive public outcry. See what I mean?