By now you’ve been inundated with the upheaval of the attempted redesign of the Gap logo, which ignored almost every concept of good design and good taste.
Yes, the graphic change was ugly. Everyone in the design community is talking about how the company completely dumbed-down the logo until it had no soul. And the uproar it caused. Near riot-like conditions on the Web, if you can actually have a riot on the Web. The new logo caused such an uproar that 1,000 would-be better designers submitted more than 4,600 logo designs just to say, “I can do better.”
But I’m not going to criticize the design of this logo. Plenty of people have had a chance to do that. I’m curious about Gap’s intentions with it. Did the company create a buzz in order get free publicity? Would Gap Inc. intentionally design a bad logo to create hype?
We know the logo itself didn’t take a long time to design. And because of the backlash caused by its release, it was only updated in a couple of places on the Gap.com website. No store signage, new promo shirts or company collateral was produced, as far as we know. So, the company hadn’t spent money on a rebranding effort yet — at least, not the kind of money most large companies spend when rebranding themselves.
Then, Gap pulled the new logo. As an apology, I suspect. Can you smell that Dominos pizza? Smells like a way to build fan loyalty, doesn’t it? After all, pointing out its flaws has worked for Dominos.
A great way to build fan loyalty would have been for Gap to ask fans to submit their own logo designs. What? There’s already a “Redesign Our Logo” campaign in the works? Yes, that’s just what they’re asking fans and followers to do:
“Thanks for everyone’s input on the new logo,” Gap posted on its Facebook page. “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 [that] 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.”
So, the people in charge at Gap Inc. are way ahead of the rest of us who merely market through the proper communication channels. In fact, they might be on to a whole concept in marketing.
The Gap has taken all the proper steps. Time will tell if the new logo debacle was a rebranding misstep or groundbreaking marketing.
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