The marketing geniuses at The Gap seem to have fiddled around with Photoshop for a few minutes and designed a new company logo that's as bland and uninteresting as jeans and a black t-shirt. It's not ugly, but it's not memorable or creative, either. What were they thinking? 
 
 No one knows. According to AdAge, the logo change came without fanfare and the company hasn't commented on it publicly. It's probably just as well, because no one seems to like the new design. AdAge sums it up: 
 
 Of course a brand is more than a logo, but as far as logos go, Gap's is an icon. Across the internet detractors have been picking apart the new look, with the most common sentiment being that it looks like something a child created using a clip-art gallery. 
 
 Don't be ridiculous. No, today's children have much more talent and design savvy than that. 
 
 While Gap remains silent, a parody Twitter account has appeared to fill the, er, gap. Unlike the parody BP account, it doesn't have more followers than the real company—but at least it tries to give the boring lump of Helvetica some personality. 
 
 Gap Introduces New Logo, Mass Criticism Ensues [AdAge] 
 
 @gaplogo [Fake Twitter Account] 
 
 THE TROPICANA THING: 
 
 "Loyal Customer" Backlash Forces Tropicana To Abandon New Packaging 
 
 Tropicana's Failed Packaging Design Was A Real Life Poochie 

 This is a very old entry — images are small, formatting is off. Don’t Mind the Gap, or the Square 
 
 Reviewed Oct. 6, 2010 by Armin Industry / Retailers 
 
 Established in 1969 in San Francisco, Gap is one of the most popular American clothing brands — net sales of $3.8 billion in 2009 can attest to it. With 1,140 stores in the U.S. and almost 300 more abroad, Gap pushes simple and unfuzzy clothing at very reasonable prices and of very reasonable quality. Through their advertising they have established a cool, breezy, and sophisticated brand visual language that ties everything together nicely and, until now, their logo was the perfect little bow to keep it all together. Without any fanfare, Gap rolled out a new logo yesterday. When I first saw it I thought it would just be a seasonal change, but now there is little doubt it’s a new logo: the file on their website is called newlogo.png. 
 
 Like its clothes, the old logo didn’t call attention to itself and it was elegant without being pretentious. Over the last year or so, Gap has been using a lot of Helvetica in their promotions and sales materials for the Premium 1969 Jeans, and the venerable font has been upgraded to wordmark status, while the big blue square has been demoted to decoration status. 
 
 Just as some folks hate Gotham in logos, I hate Helvetica in logos. It has the unique ability to make anything look pedestrian and, in this particular case, it makes Old Navy, Gap’s low-end retail sister, look like a luxury brand by comparison. The shaded square on the corner doesn’t help at all either — I’m not one to critique something by saying it looks as if it were done in Microsoft Word but this one is just too unsophisticated to warrant anything more than that. If they got rid of the blue square and went with the Helvetica wordmark by itself I might be more open to the change, but this is not flattering on the retailer. 
 
 You can follow the Gap Logo on Twitter @GapLogo to see how it is feeling about all of this. (Fake logo Twitter accounts: just a few inches from rock bottom, people). 
 
 Thanks to Veronica Wong for first tip. 

 logo no-no 
 
 Did you hear that Gap has redesigned its logo? Probably not, as it's been pretty quiet about it. In fact, the only recent news out of Gap of late has been its donate-your-old-jeans drive and its annual kids' casting call. 
 
 But go to its homepage and there it is — or more accurately, isn't, as its classic blue-boxed logo is missing, replaced with a Helvetica Gap with a box perched behind the 'p' like a window. 
 
 Yes, after dominating the late 1990s and early 2000s, Gap has dropped its iconic logo in favor of something that looks like it cost $17 from an old Microsoft Word clipart gallery. 
 
 By now everyone knows the story of how Gap's over-expansion, soft consumer spending and changing styles conspired to drag the clothing retailer down from its once-lofty position. 
 
 But the brand itself, along with its siblings Old Navy and Banana Republic, is still strong with Gap Inc. putting up $14.2 billion in revenue last year and Q2 sales increases in 2010 (though Gap itself registered a loss). 
 
 But ditching the classic logo, recognized by everyone, in favor of whatever that new monstrosity is, demonstrates a prototypical brand panic move. With things not going in its favor, the brand decides to change the one valuable element it has going for it. 
 
 
 
 Ironically maybe, the new logo is perfect for the brand. It communicates exactly the values currently embodied by Gap: A sense of being lost and a lack of clear vision and creativity. (Update: Gap responded on its Facebook page, turning this into a crowdsourcing exercise. Seriously. Oct. 12 Update to that update: Gap has pulled the new logo.) 
 
 While Gap has been using the Helvetica font on its signage and windows for some time, going whole hog on the font by remaking its logo is a bit surprising. We'd have to assume that Gap's creative team would have seen Gary Hustwit's Helvetica documentary, about how overly ubiquitous the font has become in recent years:
– The Gap rolled out a new logo this week with little fanfare. Unfortunately for the retailer, the response hasn't been so quiet. The biggest complaints seem to revolve around the use of Helvetica (yes, that hated font) lettering, and the decision to shrink the big navy box that used to comprise its logo to a random blue square. Some spirited bashing: There is absolutely nothing remarkable about Helvetica, but it does have a remarkable effect, writes Armin for Brand New: "It makes Old Navy, Gap’s low-end retail sister, look like a luxury brand by comparison." Abe Sauer echoes the low-end sentiment on Brand Channel, saying the logo "looks like it cost $17 from an old Microsoft Word clipart gallery." But perhaps it's the perfect choice for the brand. "It communicates exactly the values currently embodied by Gap: A sense of being lost and a lack of clear vision and creativity." As for the complaints that it looks like a child designed the logo, Laura Northrup snarks on Consumerist, "Don't be ridiculous. No, today's children have much more talent and design savvy than that." And the logo debacle gets even more bizarre. Gap responded on Facebook ... weirdly ... and has tried to brush the whole thing off, saying the plan was to limit its release.