Mind the gap.
A few days ago we commented on the obvious debranding of domain industry giants, Moniker and SnapNames.
By leaving their previous familiar logos behind, the Oversee.net companies apparently renounced their past and are looking forward to a more slender, less graphic-intensive future.
Meanwhile, popular clothes line and store Gap has also changed its familiar, elegantly slim logo into something that seems to have been drawn in Microsoft Word.
Done in Helvetica font with an unimaginative blue square added to the upper right corner, the new Gap logo reeks of thoughtless simplicity and obvious debranding.
The Gap fans are understandably furious over this change and they have been voicing their opinion on the Gap page on facebook:
WHY?!? the old GAP was classic. Gap with a cube? i admittedly base where i shop on the logo, & i will not shop at Gap with a cube. Dani Christopher
Are you guys serious? Is this like some kind of dimwitted attempt at a “new coke” publicity stunt? I’m a designer, and to be honest, I’m not sure if I can forgive this. Not only have you de-valued your brand, but you have also insulted an entire profession, an entire lifestyle. Honestly, I’m curious as to who designed this logo? Did they make it in Microsoft word? Steve Balisteri
Your old logo is SO MUCH BETTER than this new piece of shit. Fire your creative team—immediately! Valerie Clark
Oh boy…the joys and perils of crowdsourced designs.
The new logo is a bunch of crap. what were they thinking?
lol I visited the site before I read your thread. I had thoughts about if I was even on the right website. How are they going to blend that ugly logo into all clothing line?
Or it could be just another public stunt.
Its not Gap its, “boxed” out of creativity or maybe they pay penny’s for it.
Paul C. – It’s definitely crap.
Gnanes – The Gap president, Marka Hansen’s compensation for 2009 was $3.8 million dollars!
Mano – Corporate greed and stupidity.
I’m just dumbfounded at the number of companies that are throwing the baby out with the bathwater so to speak. Oversee (Moniker/Snapnames) and the more publicly known The Gap, are just a few of the growing wave of firms that are trying to cleanse themselves of their past “monikers” in order to reinvent themselves by using simplistic and sterile fonts/layouts for their logos/websites. What’s even scarier is that the look/feel of the new logos is eerily common across different types of businesses – domain sites looking like apparel sites… neither one coming close to living up to their potential or the expectation we all have of them. Talk about taking a step down…