Follow-Up BY Armin

Follow-up: Sonae

This past April we reported on the redesign of Sonae, one of Portugal’s biggest corporations running a number of consumer products and services. The redesign, executed by Lisboa-based Ivity, was met with plenty of negative criticism from myself (I called it “annoying and unpleasant”) and our readers (racking up an impressive 88% of 1,603 votes in the “Bad” category). With a little time it seems the Sonae website has transformed into something more palatable and Ivity has provided us with a movie that explains the genesis, execution, and application of the new identity. Take a look and see if your opinion changes.

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Follow-Up BY Armin

Follow-up: Gap, Undo

It’s a double Command-Z for Gap as Marka Hansen President of Gap Brand North America announced yesterday that not only was it canceling its crowdsourcing venture but that it was reverting back to its old logo. As satisfying as it may be to see Gap acknowledge this blunder I was more excited by the prospect of their crowdsourcing, just to see how bad it would get before it got any better. Score one for the angry mob. I can’t imagine what it will be like for Gap when they try this again, if ever — it might end up being the longest lasting logo in history.

PS. In other news, yes, I’m aware of the MySpace logo redesign. Trying to get actual images from them, rather than the distorted version that’s been circulating.

Opinion BY Armin

Follow-up: Gapgate

I never expected the Gap logo to be such a lightning bolt of attention. Yes, it’s bad and yes it’s a popular brand, but to have captured the attention of the whole internet, even reaching meme levels wasn’t something I ever expected the grilled chicken of retail brands to achieve. Despite not being the first blog to jump on the news, our traffic tripled to over 115,000 pageviews on Wednesday and doubled to 84,000 yesterday. This is not to brag about traffic, but a factual representation of the mainstream interest this redesign has gotten. The aftermath of the new logo’s launch has been both hilarious and painful. Following are the most interesting developments of the last 48 hours.

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Opinion BY Armin

Follow-up: the Y

Whenever we reach over a hundred comments in a single post it’s typically an indication of not just the popularity of a given brand but also of the attachment (positive or negative) we have to the identity of that brand. Last week’s the Y discussion fit was a good representation of this with plenty of strong opinions. As a follow-up, that will either change or further cement your opinions, Siegel+Gale’s Co-President, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer, Howard Belk, has shared some additional clarifications and intentions behind their work.

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