The GAP logo redesign

You'll be aware that high street retailer Gap recently backed down on a redesign of their logo and reverted back to the old one. The new logo didn't go down well. There was a public outrage and the logo was denounced as many things, and not many of them good. The resulting competition (for fun) to redesign the logo is detailed on the blog below.

Gap redesign contest

My favourite is no. 75 which shows real class and would make a large corporation proud (of their 8 year old nephew who 'dabbles' a bit in Photoshop).

This reminds me of a few other controversial redesigns. Notably Quark, as detailed below:

Quark Logo redesign

and here

And again...

One of the problems here is that the lack of any market research is quite apparent. All too often there's a kind of arrogance that the six people on the management board seem to feel more qualified than the millions of customers that buy their products.
Unless it was all a ruse to drum up some needed publicity, in which case they've been hugely successful.

It's not all about the internet

One of the things that makes us different from internet based print and design companies is the fact that we're real people. We actually meet a lot of our customers face to face.

Recently we completed a job for a client who didn't have the internet. Coupled with the fact that they weren't too mobile, this was a blast from the past.

When most of our work these days deals with proofing through the email, this was a bit unusual. We visited her in her home, spoke through the details and took some photos of her job. We then hand delivered a rough proof the next day. The following day she called to say there were a couple of changes and asked if we would have to come out to see them. I spoke her through the changes over the phone and put the job into production.

We hand delivered the job and she was delighted. Delighted with the quality and design, as well as being delighted with the fact that we had lightened her load and walked her through the process step by step.

It's clear that the internet has made things easier for most people. However, there are always going to be important customers who, through one reason or another, are different. And it's the differences that make us who we are.