Not much to comment on about the actual new logo, except for the fact it is very generic, uninspired and pretty averagely executed. Though I don't disagree with the use of Helvetica in principle (it is a classic font and will always be brilliant, despite being overused) American Apparel did the 'black Helvetica' logo first, and much better too. The square couldn't have been positioned in a much worse place and the gradient is pretty horrible and unnecessary.
However whereas Tropicana's effort lasted around a month before they quickly backpeddled, only a few days after unveiling the new branding Gap have backtracked and even called upon designers via Facebook to have a go themselves at creating a new logo.
Unfortunately this has made the vitriol around the internet towards Gap even more intense, as most designers feel it is cheapening the profession and the value of design work. A particularly good example of this is a blog post by this designer, who has claimed to have created a perfect new logo for Gap, but is expecting a promise of payment if it is chosen (probably a joke, but his post makes a lot of good points).
Though Gap must be enjoying the attention they're getting right now, failures like this can surely only harm the brand in the long term (Tropicana reported significant drops in profit following their unpopular rebrand). There was nothing particularly wrong with Gap's old logo, and despite being in use for over 20 years, it doesn't really strike me as desperately needing a redesign. I'll be interested however to see what happens next, and what branding Gap opts for, whether they end up picking one of their crowdsourced solutions, go back to the previous logo, or keep their unpopular new branding.
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