7 ms·

Gap says it will keep classic logo

• mcargian 16y ago
  Wait - so after all that they are not going to milk this into some kind of contest? They are just going to give up and walk away? "This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing" - what? Isn't that the whole point of this crazy stunt?
  • sp332 16y ago
    Most of the "crowd-sourced" reaction I heard was that they should keep their current logo.
    • lanstein 16y ago
      If you look at the contestants, you'll see why: http://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/design-better-gap-logo-community-project-54693 http://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/design-better-gap-...
      • recoiledsnake 16y ago
        The original logo's distinctive styling makes all of those look pale in comparison.
        • invisible 16y ago
          Most of the ones on the front page aren't the best (after skimming through for a while). I think it is difficult to pick a winner based on voting, but there are definitely some that are better than their original logo. Edit: There are a few nice ones within the first ~50 of this: http://blog.iso50.com/logos/gap-redesign-contest/ http://blog.iso50.com/logos/gap-redesign-contest/
        • aberkowitz 16y ago
          It doesn't matter how the other logos look. The Gap's brand recognition is so high that it would be absolutely idiotic to swap the logo with a new look.
      • gxti 16y ago
        I see one (shylion #4052, top row) that could work with a little lovin' but yeah, none of those compare in the slightest. Most of them look like people trolling for prize money -- I'm not familiar with the site but any place there is a promise of cash reward there will be vultures circling the carcass.
        • WesleyJohnson 16y ago
          NONE of them? I assume that means you've reviewed the more than 4000 that were submitted? I hate to immediately jump on the defensive, but I was a little put-off by the statement. I've used the site for a logo design that I was quite happy with and I've also submitted a few designs that no one was happy with (and for good reason, I'm a terrible designer). So while I have little experience with it, I do think it's a good resource and shouldn't be denounced so quickly. I've never owned a company and certainly have no real basis for this assumption, but still I assume that I would much rather have thousands of designers at my disposal willing to do iteration after iteration in order win a "prize" and some notoriety to do branding for my company than a single firm who I would feel like I was stuck with after any amount of investment. Now while I will submit that something of this nature will certainly bring out those "trolling for prize money", I don't agree with the mild implication that the format of the site has nothing more to offer isn't a fair assessment.
          • c3o 16y ago
            Yes, these sites seem to offer a vastly better deal to customers than traditional contracts. But there's a catch: As a consequence, the deal they offer to designers is necessarily so much worse that the only ones participating are those who can't find work elsewhere, ie amateurs. I think the Gap contest perfectly demonstrates that this isn't the type of task where a "Mechanical Turk" approach works. I've looked at the top 200 rated entries, and there's hardly a passable one among them, let alone anything even remotely inspired.
  • pak 16y ago
    They are pacifying everybody before pulling a MySpace and coming up with a logo that really expresses "creativity": GA P
• petercooper 16y ago
  New Coke.
• DevX101 16y ago
  If it ain't broke don't fix it: http://flowingdata.com/2009/08/13/pepsi-and-coca-cola-logo-design-over-the-past-hundred-years/ http://flowingdata.com/2009/08/13/pepsi-and-coca-cola-logo-d...
• whalesalad 16y ago
  Hmm... this is a separate issue altogether but what is up with the "Gap Inc." site? It has zero branding whatsoever... I'd have assumed it was a domain landing page if it wasn't for the link being posted here.
  • ronnier 16y ago
    Yes, it looks like a spam/squatting site. In addition, it always turns me off when I see sites that, when accessed by http://www.gapinc.com http://www.gapinc.com, redirect to http://www.gapinc.com/public/index.shtml http://www.gapinc.com/public/index.shtml (or something similar).
    • jrockway 16y ago
      Why? The URL is for the computer, not you.
      • StavrosK 16y ago
        You only think that because of sites like this one. URLs are very certainly for people.
      • gaelian 16y ago
        In that case, couldn't we just do away with domians and stick to IP addresses then? At least sans IP scarcity issues. :P
  • zacharypinter 16y ago
    The bottom of gap.com has an "About Gap Inc" link that goes to the site, so I'm guessing it's legit.
  • evanreyn 16y ago
    Gap Inc. is the parent company for Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and a few other brands. Its website is geared toward corporate information, rather than the brands Gap Inc. owns, which have their own retail sites.
• fictorial 16y ago
  This must have been a stunt.
  • ronnier 16y ago
    I thought the same, but if it was a stunt would they go as far as replacing their logo on http://www.gap.com http://www.gap.com
    • Vivtek 16y ago
      There's no actual expense if the only change was to replace the logo on gap.com. Reads like "stunt" to me, too.
• Cmccann7 16y ago
  Logo #FAIL
• devmonk 16y ago
  Questions: - How much money was wasted? - Did tons of newly printed tags on clothes need to be manually removed and retagged? - Who was responsible for the creation of the new logo and who made the decision to use it?
  • llimllib 16y ago
    - was this just a publicity stunt?
  • jcdreads 16y ago
    Have no doubt that by the time one of these rebrandings is announced many truckloads of stuff has been printed. The hippie in me absolutely weeps.
• aresant 16y ago
  There has yet to be a single item of collateral: a delivery truck, store signage, or even one miserable bag that’s showed up with the new logo. Meanwhile we’re talking about GAP on Hacker News, it’s held a spot in the top 10 in Google Trends since it showed up http://www.google.com/trends http://www.google.com/trends, and they rallied a bunch of customers who remembered how much they like GAP just like it is. The cynic in me says brilliant PR stunt.
  • callmeed 16y ago
    I feel the same but I also can't help but wonder—what if would have totally backfired and people loved it?
    • blahedo 16y ago
      Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
  • coryl 16y ago
    Err, not quite sure its a PR stunt. The people mocking, critiquing, and blogging about GAP's horrible logo probably aren't their customers. It got attention because the logo they chose was just plain awful and laughable. I doubt they wanted this to happen.
    • nodata 16y ago
      Weren't their customers. Isn't that the whole point? Worst case they get lots of gap jeans purchased ironically.
  • rriepe 16y ago
    To this day, there are people who believe that New Coke was a PR stunt. Often viewed as one of the biggest brand disasters in history, the New Coke quagmire actually had a great effect on Coke: It made people realize how much they loved the stuff. It's one of the reasons they're on top today. I don't quite agree with the statement "There's no such thing as bad publicity." But I do feel that branding fortune favors the bold, even if they're doing something foolish like this silly logo.
• deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
• usaar333 16y ago
  Link to logos?
• jtbigwoo 16y ago
  I have a completely unfounded theory about the Gap. :) Through the last fifteen years their pattern has been two to four great years followed by two disappointing years. They'll do well for several years with basic khakis, denim, t-shirts, polos, etc. Then they'll try to stretch into trendier, more daring fashions and have a couple poor years before going back to basics. I get the feeling that the kind of people who go to work at Gap, Inc. love fashion and style and are sort-of bothered by the stodgy products they sell. They really want to be Gucci or Ralph Lauren, but their customer base won't let them. In the same way, I wonder if the stodgy logo chafed against their idea of a hip, fashionable company image.
  • Alex3917 16y ago
    "They really want to be Gucci or Ralph Lauren, but their customer base won't let them." The second part matches my high school experience. As someone who grew up in Connecticut, I didn't even own a pair of blue jeans between 6th grade and college. And the first part definitely makes sense as well.
  • jonhendry 16y ago
    "They really want to be Gucci or Ralph Lauren" Um, no. That's Banana Republic's job. Same company. Old Navy is the cheap stuff, BR is the high end, Gap is in the middle.
    • jtbigwoo 16y ago
      I mean that the buyers, designers, etc. that are attracted to a career at a stylish company like the Gap are, paradoxically, not particularly interested in selling the same old staples year in and year out.
• makeramen 16y ago
  thank god(s).
• smiler 16y ago
  Gap are a strange company. I personally love their cut of jeans so always buy mine from them. I'm in the UK and until this year, they did not have an online store for the UK. I can't believe how long it has taken them to do this
• three14 16y ago
  I always assumed that the logo they put on the website was a stunt to lead into a crowd-sourcing competition, but the crowd-sourcing part was real. It's got all that Web 2.0 goodness. The logo they showed with the box with the gradient could hardly have been worse, so it's hard to take seriously, but the crowd-sourcing idea feels like a "me-too" take on following in the footsteps of Skittles or Old Spice, trying to show they're living in the present. I think they then saw backlash to the crowd-sourcing idea as well, and then realized it was safer to quit while they're ahead.