Gap’s new logo: joke’s on them or joke’s on us?

Gap recently released their new logo, and if you have an eye for design eyes then you’ll probably agree it’s pretty pathetic.  The random blue square? The horrible gradient?  I couldn’t imagine that an iconic brand like The Gap would be capable of promoting this new logo.

As I read through the many of the funny tweets about the new Gap logo I’m starting to laugh at the haters and not at the logo.  Do we really think the designers at Gap came up with this design and said, “This is the new face of the Gap and it is simply amazing.”  Well actually they sort of did say that, but it is all a part of their evil little plan.  Open photoshop, type “Gap” in fancy helvetica, create a sweet little blue square in the corner, add a touch of a diagonal gradient and voila - a viral marketing campaign is born.  Then ask the community of gap consumers and professional designers to help redesign the poor, unloved logo.

Some designers are less than excited about the marketing ploy and I tend to agree - not so much that Gap wants to crowdsource a new logo, but that they are “fooling” people by this atrocious logo that they quickly slapped on the Gap.com homepage.   Come on Gap, we are smarter than that.  But with that said, I can’t wait to see the new, new logo!