The Most Hated Logo Re-Designs

Some things are better left alone.

Jun 15, 2013
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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Image via Complex Original

Sometimes, a brand's identity needs a facelift—they went bankrupt, they're trying to appeal to another audience, or they look outdated. That's when a re-design comes in. Unfortunately, not all re-designs are created equal, and some are so awful that they set a brand back a couple years. Usually the designers or agencies are either over or under-thinking it, when they should take the time to find a balance.

Many of these re-designs have happened in the last 20 years and were met with extreme backlash. You might even be familiar with a few of them already. Check out The Most Hated Logo Re-designs and learn from a few mistakes in design and judgement.

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15. USA Today

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15. USA Today

Year original logo introduced: 1982

Year logo re-designed: 2012

USA Today is one of the most-circulated publications in the country, its iconic blue banner once a favorite of hotel guests and old people alike. But that all changed in 2012 when they fashioned their logo into a system that tried to communicate more than simply the paper's brand. It was simple: Futura text with a big circle on the top of the page. The circle would be modified daily to signal the content of a story within the pages, sort of like a picture book. Many readers found this new system insulting to their intelligence, many designers found it off-brand for the paper, and even Stephen Colbert found it slightly preposterous, ridiculing the new system on his show.

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14. Animal Planet

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14. Animal Planet

Year original logo introduced: 1996

Year logo re-designed: 2008

It was simple. Animal Planet's old logo had an animal, and it had the planet. What else do you need? It was clean and sophisticated and told the whole story. We still aren't sure what this ragtag collection of letters with a sideways M is supposed to communicate.

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13. Walmart

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13. Walmart

Year original logo introduced: 1992

Year logo re-designed: 2008

The massive corporation, who often takes criticisms for unfair labor standards and detrimental environmental practices, seemed be trying to dump an imperialist connotation by losing the bold blue star and gaining a radiant sunburst. This new logo looks more like something that belongs on the packaging of a humidifier than on the outside walls of one of the biggest retailers in the world. Off message, off putting—keep it off sight.

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12. iTunes

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12. iTunes

Year original logo introduced: 2001

Year logo re-designed: 2010

Why some companies choose to take their iconic icons (see what we did there?) and simply drop the cultural clout of an established logo is beyond us. So when Apple took their clean, effective design for their ubiquitous music player iTunes and refashioned it into a flat blue bubble, a lot of Apple enthusiasts were notably upset. Maybe it was a message that the company, dabbling into music retailing more and more, was coming for the deathblow of CD manufacturers.

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11. DC Comics

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11. DC Comics

Year original logo introduced: 1937

Year logo re-designed: 2012

Do not mess with a comic book fan's basics. Though DC, one of the pillars of the comic publishing industry, had recently re-branded in 2005 after nearly 30 years with their classic logo, they chose to go yet another direction in early 2012. To align the comics arm of DC with the ever-expanding role of movies and video frames in the comic book universe, DC made this peel-away logo standard across its corporate structure. The change was not taken lightly. As one person put it: "As a comics fan I think this is a terrible logo. As a designer I think this is a terrible logo."

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10. Windows 8

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10. Windows 8

Year original logo introduced: 1995

Year logo re-designed: 2012

The Microsoft Windows brand has always carried a lot of weight in its recognition, even through the carious iterations of the operating system and their representative insignia. So when the logo for their new OS arrived-by way of hackers dumping a leak, no less-macro designers and Microsoft devotees were ready for another step toward innovation. What they got was a lopsided, simple, jarringly bright logo that failed to inspire.

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9. Whitney Museum

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9. Whitney Museum

Year original logo introduced: 1930

Year logo re-designed: 2013

The design team behind the Whitney Museum's new logo wanted something that could translate to different situations by modifying the design to each application. But as any designer worth his height in picas will tell you, the first rule of a good logo design is to make sure it is instantly recognizable. When The Whitney debuted this shape-shifting single-lined monstrosity, of course a stink was raised-at least, when we knew what we were looking at.

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8. MySpace

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8. MySpace

Year original logo introduced: 2002

Year logo re-designed: 2010

Forget eliminating vowels-eliminate whole words! Before Justin Timberlake rushed in like a Sean Carter to save the sinking social network, MySpace-or My________ as it was rebranded-attempted to hip itself up with this empty new logo in 2010. A rapidly declining membership didn't seem to notice. Designers did, however, and were loathe of the new look.

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7. Pepsi

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7. Pepsi

Year original logo introduced: 2003

Year logo re-designed: 2008

It was easy for cartoonists to make quick work of Pepsi's new logo when it was unveiled in 2008-it reminded some of a bloated belly extending from a T-Shirt, a perfect message for health food hacktivists to get on board with. Though Pepsi has rebranded often over the years, always trying to stay on target with new generations, this was an attempt to speak to The Kids with a minimal dialogue was a flop.

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6. Mountain Dew

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6. Mountain Dew

Year original logo introduced: 2005

Year logo re-designed: 2008

While we're on soda brands, let's dig into everyone's Xtreme beverage of choice, Mountain Dew. Following in the footsteps of text messagers and hip bands in the early aughts, MTN DEW, as it was re-branded, kept just the one vowel. This was in 2008 as part of a $700 redesign of the PepsiCo core brands. Seems like a lot of scratch to scratch a few letters-the logos are otherwise the same.

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5. eBay

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5. eBay

Year original logo introduced: 1996

Year logo re-designed: 2012

Last September, online auction house Ebay cleaned up their classic if not cluttered logo for this sans-serif look. Sure, the company swept the letters together in a less-fettered arrangement of the distinctive, chromatic lowercase text. But to many design experts, the new look was boring, too clean, and outdated. Hated? Maybe not. But the new logo definitely lost much of the playful energy and representative diversity of the old emblem.

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4. London 2012 Olympics

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4. London 2012 Olympics

Year original logo introduced: 2007

Year logo re-designed: 2012

Given this took more than a year to unveil, it had to have been designed and redesigned numerous times. This $800,000 monstrosity is nearly unreadable. "Jagged panes of garish colors usually reserved for empty space in a .jpg" is the best read we have on this. The world wasn't lacking for more suggestive interpretations: The Iranian contingent for the games claimed to see the word "Zion" in the logo, while many bloggers said it looked like one person fellating another. No medals were awarded for design.

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3. Arby's

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3. Arby's

Year original logo introduced: 1964

Year logo re-designed: 2012

Trying to class up a fast-food logo is like garnishing a shit sandwich (which is also how some people describe Arby's food). When Arby's rebranded last year, the company's new logo was panned across the board. Adding a 3D look to the classic ten-gallon hat was remarked on as hopelessly out of touch. The fact they added a meat slicer blade to the logo wasn't the best choice either, considering the new look was in part of a campaign to distract from a fingertip found in one of their tasty treats.

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2. American Airlines

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2. American Airlines

Year original logo introduced: 1968

Year logo re-designed: 2013

The American Airlines finally turned a profit at the end of 2012, as a result of filing bankruptcy, laying off loads of workers following strikes, and dealing with some of the most despicable costumer service complaints in the business. So the main complaint when American Airlines unveiled their rebranded airplanes earlier this year was how the clearly flailing company could spend so much time, money, and effort on something that would do little to correct AA's ills.

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1. Gap

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1. Gap

Year original logo introduced: 1969

Year logo re-designed: 2010

In October 2010, clothing company Gap attempted to rebrand from their "classic, American design to modern, sexy, cool," to disastrous results. Their iconographic blue square and serif, all-caps look was retooled to a sans-serif look that fit better on a startup design firm's business cards than on the back of jeans. In fact, the maelstrom was so fierce surrounding this the company tried to crowdsource a new logo. No one could come up with something suitable and Gap changed back to its old insignia after just a week.

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