Hasta La Ideas

I’m not a fan of the Gap, this didn’t help.

Perhaps the old mark wasn’t the best but I wonder about the motivation for changing it. My best guess is that they were trying to refresh the look and struggled with losing the navy blue square altogether. This thinking, which reeks of design-by-comity, could also explain how they’ve decided to represent the brand online (see below). Overall pretty disappointing, however it’s certainly sparked discussion…

Which brings me to another question. In this gossip-riddled age, twittering our every action and facebooking our every photo, are some designers being tempted to produce work focused on sparking a short term reaction instead of creating an aesthetic with relevance and tact that can stand the test of time? Was this a less-than-inspired attempt to get people talking about a company that’s been falling off the map for years, instead of there existing a real need for a new logo? In either case it seems ill-informed, certainly a reflection of how they’re running things over at the Gap.