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.