Design as a Conversation

Design is a conversation. A conversation between the designer and it’s audience. It is the

conversation that communicates change.

Last week, the popular clothing company, Gap, unveiled a new logo design. The new logo would be described as more “contemporary and modern” than the original logo. But when Gap unveiled this new logo, many customers were not so thrilled about the change.

On social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, many people criticized the new logo design. Commenting on why Gap would do such a thing, destroying it’s own image by replacing it’s iconic blue box logo with something that was thought to be very unappealing and poorly designed by many. Some would even say that the logo looked like a 5^th grader had designed it.

With today’s evolving social media, the upset against Gap’s logo triggered thousands of tweets and Facebook status updates, even a fake Twitter account gathering many followers protested against the new design. After reading all of the feedback, Gap had followed up and responded, “Ok. We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’ve learned a lot from the feedback, we only want what’s best for the brand and our customers. So instead of crowd sourcing, we’re bringing back the Blue Box tonight.” After less than a week, Gap had swapped back to the old logo.

This backlash against the new logo is a clear example of a designer’s conversation with audience. Gap created a design and released it to the public. The public listened and responded with feedback. Gap responded to the feedback with change. This communication between designer and audience is the most effective way to solve problems within the design world. Especially with our advancing technology and social networking, we are now able to communicate and respond much more quickly and efficiently than before. Our design world is ever changing.


Credits: http://mashable.com/2010/10/11/gap-logo/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/12/gap-gets-rid-of-new-logo_n_759131.html
http://www.whitebirchbrewing.com
http://www.farmersmarketowencounty.com