Old Navy Logo PNG
At a fashion retailer, the Old Navy logo conveys the color of the water, which links it to the name. The smooth lines of the oval and the even letters create a unique balance between the two elements, which serves as the basis for the fashion brand’s concept. And it lies in the availability of goods, so there is no exquisite monogram in the emblem, only a clear form of ordinary printed glyphs.
Old Navy began as Gap Inc.’s answer to a competitive threat in the early 1990s. Gap was being pressured from above by fashion brands and from below by cheaper retailers. The key trigger was Dayton-Hudson Corporation, the parent company of Target, which was preparing a discount clothing concept called Everyday Hero.
Gap president Millard “Mickey” Drexler had already rebuilt Gap after joining in 1983. For the new format, he used a name he had noticed years earlier on a Paris bar sign: Old Navy. In August 1993, Gap Inc. began converting some stores into Gap Warehouse, selling simpler clothes at lower prices, including $22 jeans and $7 T-shirts.
On March 11, 1994, Gap Warehouse became Old Navy Clothing Co. The first store built fully around the concept opened in Colma, California. By the end of 1994, the chain had 59 locations. Its stores featured concrete floors, exposed pipes, and chrome racks, making them closer to supermarkets than to traditional apparel shops. H&M was another affordable player, but its U.S. presence was still limited at the time.
In 1997, Old Navy used TV ads with retro celebrities such as Morgan Fairchild and the Smothers Brothers. That year, it became the first retail brand to reach $1 billion in annual sales in under four years. By 2001, it had more than 500 stores, about $3.4 billion in revenue, and its first Canadian locations. Gap Inc. planned to spin off Old Navy in 2018, but canceled the move in January 2020, keeping it inside the group as its largest brand by revenue.
Meaning and History
Just as the process of improving the Old Navy identity was continuous, the brand logos are relatively similar, yet they differ in several ways. They share the same lettering and color scheme: white and dark blue. But the difference lies in such details as the shape of the letters.
What is Old Navy?
Old Navy is one of the largest fashion retailers, offering affordable clothing and accessories in multiple countries. This company was founded in 1994, and at the same time, its first stores opened in the United States. Now it is one of six divisions of the American corporation, The Gap, Inc.
1994 – 1998
The first Old Navy logo featured a blue ellipse with a thin red outline. Inside it was the brand name, represented by white capital glyphs. A serif font was used for both words. The inscription was indistinct, with partially erased lines.
1998 – 2005
After a slight adjustment in 1998, the phrase “OLD NAVY” became easier to read. The designers changed the typeface to favor a bold sans-serif with narrow letter spacing. And at the same time, they removed the red outline along the ellipse’s edge, so the logo became two-color white and blue.
2005 – 2009
As a result of another redesign, the oval base disappeared. So that the inscription does not get lost on a white background, the developers had to make it dark blue. At the same time, the letters, which were previously elongated vertically, acquired a more balanced shape because they had equal proportions of width and height. The only imperfection was at the end of the word “NAVY,” where the “V” and “Y” joined at the top.
2009 – today
In 2009, a logo very similar to the one introduced in 1998 began to be used. It has the white lettering “OLD NAVY” against a dark blue ellipse, but the font has been slightly adjusted: the letters and their spacing are more visually balanced.
Font and Colors
The brand name inside a horizontal oval is the basic element of the Old Navy identity. This bold and memorable logo combines the softness of rounded baselines with the roughness of bold rectangular glyphs. The same contrast is evident in the colors, as the white lettering is formed by negative space on a dark blue background.
A bold geometric sans-serif font, set in uppercase, makes the company name more visible. It is similar to a range of similar grotesques, including Rational TW Text Bold by Rene Bieder, Workaday Bold by Yes Please, and Verb Extra Condensed Extrabold by Yellow Design Studio. Another related font is Futura Condensed Bold, designed by typographer Paul Renner.
The combination of dark blue (#003763) and white (#FFFFFF) was not chosen by chance. The fact is that Gap, Inc. has a similar color scheme, and it is she who owns the Old Navy brand. Blue symbolizes constancy, honesty, and a good reputation. White is the personification of perfection and purity.