Guiding Gap Inc. Corporate Aesthetics // corporate identity and brand development
As Gap Inc. transforms itself, defining its corporate brand plays an important role in re-igniting belief and confidence in the company's portfolio of fashion retail brands.
The challenge was to establish a look and feel that would support corporate marketing externally while re-inforce a ‘one company’ message internally. The solution celebrates the people, culture and style that makes up Gap Inc.’s family of brands. Part of the creative strategy focused on driving change management internally and included developing new brand tools and resources with scheduled updates that empowered employees to keep things fresh and relevant as the business focus evolves.
The photographic style reflects the product-obsessed culture of Gap Inc. — the unique individuality of each employee, their passions, and the process behind the scenes at work.
Gathering support for a new company focus required alignment across executive leadership. An oversize book outlining the company mission and vision helped drive adoption.
Design guidelines break down the key elements to the new aesthetic and empower employees and stakeholders to be good brand stewards.
Conveying the importance of core values like Integrity is an important task. Making it engaging and memorable can be challenging. A conversational tone and whimsical approach using product elements and stop motion engages employees and brings the content to life in a meaningful way.
The rollout of the new aesthetic is organic and ongoing. To help drive adoption, internal communications teams were identified as ambassadors and given a series of templates and toolkits to ensure consistency and help manage a cohesive, singular visual voice across functions.
// Work completed as part of the of Gap Inc. Global Communications Team. Some components done in collaboration with Tom Scott Design, Chris Fettin Design, Stef Hermsdorf Design and Churchill Design Studio.
