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American clothing company Gap has restored its former logo after receiving an outpouring of opposition to the new design from the online community.

The retailer, which has sported the same emblem - capitalised white serif letters on a blue square - for over two decades, attempted to modernise its brand last week with a more streamlined offering.

The new logo featured the word 'Gap' in black lettering in the ubiquitous Helvetica, a Swiss sans serif font often employed for its clarity and neutrality, set against a white background with a small blue square in its top right-hand corner.

Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, explained the rationale behind the change in her blog on American news site the Huffington Post: 'Our brand and our clothes are changing and rethinking our logo is part of aligning with that. We want our customers to take notice of Gap and see what it stands for today. We chose this design as it's more contemporary and current. It honours our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward.'

The Internet response to the new design was scathing. 'Cheap', 'generic' and 'squatty' were recurrent themes whilst several critics described it as looking like 'a banking organisation' and 'an insurance company'. But equally vociferous was support for the old logo, described as classic and iconic.

The company engendered further criticism when it attempted to solicit design modifications from online opponents. The new trend of crowd sourcing designs in online competitions, where the principal reward is exposure, is condemned by many designers as exploiting young artists and damaging the industry.

In a move that some digital critics have branded hasty and others have suggested sets a dangerous precedent, Gap engaged with the online community not by crowd-sourcing a new design but by completely abandoning the planned rebrand after just a week and reinstating the popular navy blue square. There have been suggestions online that the redesign was a publicity stunt, to demonstrate public loyalty to the original logo.

The Facebook retraction read: '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.'

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