The Stories Behind Some Of The Most Controversial Brand Logos
A logo has the gargantuan task of conveying the values of a brand and a business in a small, simple design that will take pride of place on every product and piece of correspondence. Whether it is the simplicity of the Nike Swoosh, the double-pointed arrow of British Rail or the FedEx logo with the hidden arrow, logograms are the core at which an entire brand is built around. However, this can sometimes backfire, as is the case with some of the more controversial brand logos or logo redesigns.
Gap’s 2010 Redesign
Clothing company Gap was struggling in the 2000s, particularly in the wake of a global financial crisis. As a result, they decided in 2010 to replace their longstanding navy box in favour of something more sans-serif.
The design, which was estimated to cost $100m was meant to, with its more modern, chunky font and gradient box, represent a look to the future, but due to the sudden nature of the change as well as the logo looking better suited for a logistics firm, it lasted less than a week before reverting to a more familiar design.
London 2022 Olympics
The London Olympic games were a rather triumphant event that created a legacy of sporting achievement in the UK. However, leading up to the event there were worries it would become a disaster, and one of the reasons why was the universally derided logo.
In its defence, the concept of having the different countries that constitute Great Britain (England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland respectively) make up the 2012 logo was not a terrible idea, nor was the striking graffiti minimalism of the design or the modern lower case font.
The problem is there are too many elements put together that do not connect well at all, requiring a degree in graphic design to decipher what the logo is even supposed to represent. Despite the claims and mockery, it is, in fact, a victim of over design.
Bacardi
As we have seen with Gap’s redesign, as well as brands such as Tropicana, Mountain Dew and Pepsi, a common issue is attempting to modernise a brand for the sake of redesigning it, often losing much of the identity that comes with a long-running brand.
Interestingly, Bacardi’s 2014 redesign had the opposite problem, swapping the iconic stylised bat logo and serif typeface for a chunky sans-serif font but oddly a more realistic bat design that has more in common with the brand’s 19th-century roots, which in combination makes for an odd logo.
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