--- description: Hard times for casual dining title: Olive Garden’s New Logo Probably Can’t Save Olive Garden image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde8f7d2082248e80/698683dc169ab0511927814e/darden-outlook_stam.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Advertising](/tag/advertising/) ## Advertising Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Olive Garden's New Logo Probably Can't Save Olive Garden by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 4, 2014 3:15 PM CUT  AP by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 4, 2014 3:15 PM CUT In an attempt to bring the masses back to the casual dining Mecca that is Olive Garden, Darden Restaurants execs premiered a [new logo Monday that it hopes to be a symbol](http://investor.darden.com/files/doc%5Fpresentations/2014/Strategic%20Action%20Plan%20to%20Enhance.pdf "undefined") of its [“brand Renaissance”](http://www.dallasnews.com/business/restaurants-hotels/20140303-olive-garden-pins-brand-renaissance-on-new-menu-logo.ece "undefined") with “flair and sophistication.” But with [customer traffic down 13%](http://news.yahoo.com/olive-garden-pins-hopes-logo-menu-201359771--finance.html "undefined") in December and an expected sales drop of 5.4% for its third quarter, a new logo might not be enough to fix the ailing restaurant;s problems. Still Darden said out with the old:  Hard times for casual dining And in with the new (that kind of looks like a font that would be found on a fourth grader’s social study report title page):  AP Design firm Lippincott created the logo after “extensive testing.” Although the Twitterverse had mixed reactions: > [](https://twitter.com/TimMeyers%5FMEK/status/440851268844519428) [Darden’s shares were down 5%](http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=DRI "undefined") the day of the announcement, which also touched on Olive Garden’s new menu and the restaurant chains imminent sale of Red Lobster. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/12292/olive-gardens-new-logo-probably-cant-save-olive-garden/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/12292/olive-gardens-new-logo-probably-cant-save-olive-garden/"},"headline":"Olive Garden's New Logo Probably Can't Save Olive Garden","datePublished":"2014-03-04T15:15:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:35.791Z","description":"Hard times for casual dining","url":"https://time.com/12292/olive-gardens-new-logo-probably-cant-save-olive-garden/","keywords":["Advertising","Logo","Olive Garden"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde8f7d2082248e80/698683dc169ab0511927814e/darden-outlook_stam.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde8f7d2082248e80/698683dc169ab0511927814e/darden-outlook_stam.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"olive garden new logo","caption":"Darden Outlook","creditText":"AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/advertising/","name":"Advertising"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/12292/olive-gardens-new-logo-probably-cant-save-olive-garden/","name":"Olive Garden's New Logo Probably Can't Save Olive Garden"}}]}] ```