So as we noted yesterday, The Gap has an idiotic new logo.

So either because of the overwhelmingly negative online response or because the logo was some sort of weird publicity stunt, the Gap issued the following statement on their Facebook page:

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.

Um, yeah. Thanks, but you can bite me, Gap.

Another designer had the same reaction:

“As much as I’d like to just show you the greatest logo I’ve ever made for anyone (…and trust me, if Paul Rand himself saw it, he would realize he was merely the Pippen to my Jordan.) I’d like to be properly compensated for it. Because I put a lot of time and effort into it. And it’s how I earn my living.”

Go read the whole thing, and let’s continue to judge The Gap today.

38 replies on “Update: The New Gap Logo”

  1. Dear god. Not only is that the most hysterically revealing and self-destructive statement a company could make, but it’s inviting spec work from a community composed largely of shrieky college drunks and giddy retirees.

  8. This is like when Starbucks came out with a logo for their new Home Bland (or whatever) coffee and everyone jumped on it and rightly pointed out it was a very very very bad logo.

    And then they pretended they weren’t really going to change the logo.

    If you’re outsourcing your logo work to India and China, of course it’s going to suck big time.

  11. Didn’t they drop the “The” from their name a long time ago? I think they’re just called “Gap” now. Not “The Gap”.

  16. @14 – I was thinking of going even further: abbreviate it to just the lower half of a “G”. Their slogan can be something like “too lazy and cheap to do our own work since 2010”.

  18. Boy, the designers for Gap must be pissed. First, because they ended up with the tame output of what can only be design-by-executive. (“Hmmm. I like this element of this one, but this element of that one. Combine them.”) No wonder it looks like the cover of a business book.

    Second, because now they are outsourcing to an even bigger committee. That’s a pretty big fuck-you.

  20. @13, oh, that’s great. But, and I know how touchy you designer fellas are about clients messin’ with your stuff and all, but could you maybe just make the bottom part in Algerian instead of Comic Sans? And give the smiley face a little more, you know.

  22. Over and and over again, I read and see things that suggest to me that being a highly paid executive at a large corporation is an easy job because the bar seems to be set so goddamn low. I guess all the hard work is getting to the point where people pay you a lot of money to provide half-baked decisions that are obviously incorrect to anyone else.

  25. I’ve been to a Gap exactly once. I was looking at T-shirts or polo shirts or something, and a “helpful” sales chick asked if I’d like any help. I said “Yes, I like this shirt, but I’m trying to find one in blue.” She said “We don’t have it in blue, but here’s a green one! You like green, don’t you?” and tried to get me to buy the green one. It was *exactly* like those SNL Gap sketches. After that I just erased them from my radar, and I buy my t-shirts at Target. (Go Bangladesh!)

  26. Here’s the ugly truth: it just doesn’t matter. The Gap was the darling of Wall Street in the early 90’s. They had a good business model: not a lot of styles but lots of sizes and decent quality. The put a whole lot of chino on a whole lot of asses. Today, they’re a company out of ideas. This Dilbert-like logo fiasco is just a symptom of the disease. If I had stock, I’d be selling.

  27. Why companies think they have to fart around with a logo that has worked and worked well for them I don’t know. Seattle’s Best Coffee changed to the dripping blood logo. Pepsi changes their logo every other week. UPS changed from the clever package with a string to a non-descript flipped corner.

  30. I think the word Fnarf is looking for is “pop.”

    The Gap is a terribly run company. Most of their money comes from online sales while they’re brick-and-mortar stores hemorrhage cash.

    They do know how to run a good ad campaign, however. I bet this logo was done in-house, even though much of their marketing isn’t, so they either need to clear house, or leave they’re branding to an outside firm.

  32. Um, @29, the thing you’re linking to is quoted in the article.

    @23, that’s perfect! Except that, well, Algerian is a font, you know — a really BEAUTIFUL one, I think, because it comes up first on the list, and it reminds me of….tequila for some reason. Could you do the text in the Algerian FONT? I don’t know if you can do those really awesome umlauts in that or not. I can’t read Albanian but I assume that says what a great guy I am. Because I am!

  33. Yeah, I hate that bullshit! But, unfortunately it works. They will get a shitload of submissions. Not a bad addition to a portfolio. They really should make it a contest with a cash prize though.

  34. Jeez, I work in one of the Gap’s design departments- what an insult! Of course it’s a different department than mine that came up with this piece of trash, and the resulting scam. Typical.

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