Worst Logo Redesigns

Worst Company Logo Changes

What happens when an iconic brand redesigns its logo? Bad things, usually. The Daily Beast took a look at some of the worst logo changes.

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Worst Logo Redes... What happens when an iconic brand redesigns its logo? Bad things, usually. The Daily Beast took a look at some of the worst logo changes.
GAP Never mind. Less than a week after the clothing giant remade its iconic clean, structured logo that had adorned jeans and hoodies for more than 20 years, it has already shelved the new one. Designed by Trey Laird and his firm Laird and Partners, who have served as GAP's creative directors for many years, the new logo was intended to be “a more contemporary, modern expression.” The font was changed, the all-caps ditched, and the blue box shrunk to a corner. After getting loads of grief from customers and their online community, what was old is new again. However, the company left open the possibility of the logo changing or evolving in the future. Let's just hope no one freaks out when the blue block temporarily goes red for the holiday season. (Photo Credit: Alan Diaz / Associated Press)
iTunes September ushered in a revamped logo for iTunes, a product that reigns king in design. After Steve Jobs announced updates to the iPod, he introduced users to the neon blue bubble with a double-clef music note in the middle. The new iTunes10 logo is supposed to emphasize the new social media capabilities of the music storage program. Jobs ditched the compact disc—so 1990s—and replaced the new logo, but not without a few complaints from advertisers and users. (Photo Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press)
Seattle's Best In keeping with the zeitgeist, coffee company Seattle's Best introduced a new logo in May 2010 that dispenses with antiquated notions like aesthetic appeal—and literacy—in favor of a sleeker, more to-the-point design. Judging by the reaction of coffee fans, one wonders if the new look was an act of sabotage by the coffee house's erstwhile, and now owner, Starbucks. The logo reminded Seattle Weekly writer Caleb Hannan of a cross between Target and Red Cross blood drives, “Which is the opposite of appetizing,” he wrote. “Unless you're a vampire in the market for cheap floor lamps.” This new iteration looks like the label you'd see on a food pill in the cafeteria of a spaceship en route to planet Bland.
MTV When MTV got a new logo in February, lopping off the bottom of the icon and with it the words “music television,” it was less a reinvention of self and more a recognition that the channel had completely betrayed its original purpose. The music videos that once filled hours on MTV had long since reduced to a trickle. Their place on the channel has been supplanted by reality television, triumphantly at first with the Real World, which in the 1990s pushed social boundaries while pioneering the genre, and these days with the vapid whimper that is Jersey Shore. In the new logo, stills from various MTV programs fill the empty space inside the once-iconic “M.”
Animal Planet Although the television channel's slogan reads “surprisingly human,” what was done to the logo for Animal Planet was inhumane, to say the least. On February 3, 2008, the animal-centric channel's literal (and cute) logo of an elephant and a globe was replaced by a new design by London-based firm Dunning Eley Jones, and it's basically a jumbled mess. Why is the ‘M"so big and pointed sideways? Is it supposed to represent an animal of some sort? Regardless, it looks very mechanical and, ironically, quite unnatural.
Ikea We hate the Swedish furniture store's instructions, and we hated it just as much for switching fonts. After 50 years using the Futura font for its annual furniture catalog, IKEA moved to Verdana, sending typography fans and web designers into a tizzy. Verdana is regarded as “cheap” amongst typographists because it's a product of Microsoft Word. Web designers know that Verdana “has become one of the most widely used fonts on the web (but rarely ever used in print),” . IKEA says they were trying to accommodate for the furniture names, which now contain Asian characters. Regardless, it still leaves font-enthusiasts in tears when the mostly widely anticipated summer catalogue is sans-serif.
Tropicana Tropicana president Neil Campbell admits that he "underestimated" the deep emotional bond” of the brand's original logo when the juice giant switched from everyone's favorite straw-stabbing-an-orange logo to a sleek design incorporating a glass of orange juice and a sideways "Tropicana" label. Last February Pepsi Co worked with New York-based Arnell Group to create the new carton's design. But almost two months later, Campbell was apologizing to the “fraction of a percent of the people who buy the product.” Bloggers and OJ fanatics alike were calling the new packaging “ugly” and demanded the company go back to Sterling Brands'original logo. Orange you glad it's back?
Best Buy The old logo of the specialty consumer electronics retailer, a yellow price tag, was clever in its simplicity; it was also representative of a brand that stresses low cost and convenience over all else. However, the new Best Buy logo, launched in October 2008, is more elegant, sleeker, and corporate. Although the new logo represents the company's apparent desire to appeal to a more high-end market segment—and perhaps to avoid any confusion with the now-bankrupt Blockbuster - it's a definite downgrade.
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