If that’s not enough to get you to get yo pumped for the ski season? Watch Level1’s offering for this year: EyeTrip. If you’re like me and you’ve already seen it, buy it here.

Their original logo (pictured above left) features a dark blue square with their name in large, capital, white serif font. It has been around since the company was started in 1969 and has become iconic in the world of logos and branding. After submissions were closed and the stark white-helvetica-blue gradient square-winner (pictured above left) was chosen, the company saw an uproar of critisism through blogs, social media, and their own Facebook fan page. A @GapLogo Twitter account was set up to protest the logo redesign collected more than 5,000 followers. A couple tweets that sum up the overall theme below:

One cunning online activist even made a “Make your own Gap logo” site. It quickly went viral on the internet, prompting nearly 14,000 parody versions.

Not all internet feedback was so negative though. Website 99designs held a Gap logo redesign contest of their own, with plans to submit the winner to Gap as a gesture of goodwill. You can see the designs here.

The smartest use of social media by Gap in this whole campaign was to listen to their fans and scrap the new logo. Marka Hansen, president of the Gap brand in North America, used the same Facebook fan page to release the company’s retraction.

“We’ve been listening to and watching all of the comments this past week. We heard them say over and over again they are passionate about our blue box logo, and they want it back. So we’ve made the decision to do just that – we will bring it back across all channels.

What can you learn from all this? Logo design and branding can play a huge part in your business or organization, but only when done right. Graphic designers and branding experts stay in business for a reason. They work. If you’d like to incorporate social media in your redesign process, I suggest using a professional to create several versions, then post them on Facebook, Twitter, etc to get feedback from your fans. This way you have your finger on the pulse of those who are enthusiastic about you, but you don’t have to rely on their professional skill set in design. If all this talk has you worked up to revamp your logo or branding, let me know, I’d love to help you out.

“Promoted Accounts are suggested based on a user’s public list of whom they follow. When an advertiser promotes an account, Twitter’s algorithm looks at that account’s followers and determines other accounts that those users tend to follow. If a user follows some of those accounts, but not the advertiser’s account, then Twitter may recommend the advertiser’s Promoted Account to that user. For example, a lot of people who follow several gaming-related accounts also follow @xbox. If someone follows gaming-related accounts, but not @xbox, Twitter may recommend @xbox to that person.”

Promoted Accounts are just one feature that will be more accessible with Twitter’s new format of their web interface. The new layout also allows users to browse trending topics, @mentions, retweets, searches, and lists all in a new, wider right-hand column. The new right-hand column can also be used to view photos and videos from partners like TwitPic, Flickr, Vimeo, and YouTube as seen in this video.

What does this mean for Twitter’s over 100 million users worldwide? Many suspected were terrified that Twitter would start charging for their services across the board. However, Twitter knows they face alienating their users should they choose to do so. Kevin Thau, Twitter’s head of mobile business development stated that Twitter is developing a range of analytics and metrics products and services built around the information contained in “tweets,” the e-mail and text messages that pass through its platform. “We can measure the tweets,” he says. “We’re trying to figure out what are the appropriate metrics around engagement and how to convey those.” So go ahead, Twitterheads, breath that sigh of relief, you wont have to shell out any cash in the near future to keep tweeting. The way I see it, this move by Twitter will lead to more dynamic content, ease of sharing, and a new way to find connections not available with the older layout. What do you think?