Fall into the New Gap Logo

Do you remember that old theme song that Gap used to use on every commercial when their stores looked really cheesy and they sold only jeans and sweats but really jeans?  The song was Fall into the Gap….it sucked!  I hated the commercials and I hated the store.  Check out this Gap commercial. When I saw their makeover years later I couldn’t believe it. LeChateau did the same thing and it was able to up their prices significantly – it used to be cheesy too.  Seriously. I remember this stuff.  My long term memory is amazing.

The Gap made a great step forward into the 1990s with their new look. I was proud of them even though I hate their clothes and they are way overpriced.  One thing I don’t hate though was their new logo that was introduced quite recently and which they have scrapped already!  Read…. http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/gap-logo.htm
They got a lot of negative feedback on it.  Personally I liked the new one way better than the old one, just like the re-design of their stores and image.

The article I hooked you up to is from a neuroscience mag – it matches science with something or other….reality?  It listed reasons why the new logo didn’t appeal to people based on cognitive research. For example one reason was that the lack of contrast in colour in the new logo didn’t have as much visual appeal for people and the little blue square that overlapped the P was in a bad place … the eye apparently ignores anything that is overlapped in colour.  Who knew?

People who cannot accept change make their own lives so difficult.  Certainly these are not people I’d consider to be trend spotters, let alone trend setters.

I think the new logo had a more modern, abstract appeal with the little blue square overlapping the P.  It was crisp, simple and minimalist.  My idea of a cool logo.  I didn’t get why people dissed it so much. Change is a good thing. Often it’s a trailblazer move for other organizations. I don’t remember who updated their look first, Gap, LeChateau or Smart Set, and there were a few more high end-ish stores, but whoever it was paved the way for more makeovers in other retail stores.

It would have been interesting to see if stores in competition with the Gap would have changed their logos had the Gap’s new logo been successful.  Ah well.  Guess we’ll never know.

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