As a designer, I often look at the many shops trying to grab my attention as I walk down the street. I take note of the wide variety of logos I see, but often wonder what they are trying to say to me. What do they mean? Let alone what it might mean. As it turns out, the Starbucks name comes from a fictional character, Cpt. Starbuck, from the story Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I like where the name came from, as not only does it link back to their heritage but it makes me think of adventure and distant places; perhaps where the mightiest coffee grows.
What this siren represents to others, however, might not be so clear. Or positive. From European myths and alchemy, her two tails represent dualities, such as earth and water, or body and soul. This folklore and mythological story goes that Melusine is a spirit of freshwater and the daughter of the fairy Pressyne and king Elinas of Albany Scotland.
The figure became enlarged and its hair appeared to be covering up most of its body. The third version of the Starbucks logo is comprised of an even more close-up view of the siren. Its torso has completely disappeared out of the frame while its twin-tail still remained visible. However, this Starbucks ring logo design became problematic for the company as it was considered to be too easily replicable. Other countries around the world were copying and using the same logo design for their knock-off versions of Starbucks which made it harder for some consumers to be able to tell the fake and the real logos apart.
In this redesign, the siren was once again enlarged. The biggest change with this design was that the wordmark and stars were no longer a part of the logo. This was because Starbucks was starting to sell more than just coffee drinks. They wanted to expand their company even further by offering their customers with more product ranges.
As you can see today, Starbucks does not only sell coffee. They also sell breakfast foods and tea. Interestingly, this simple and flat design resulted in Starbucks being criticized by their fans as well as other design experts. Yet, even with the negative reception, the brand has decided that they were going to keep this logo. Over the years, Starbucks has definitely made a statement for its brand and logo.
It has continuously been consistent with what the brand stands for , and this was what contributed to the success of this global coffee brand.
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FAQ Contact Us. October 4, You Might Be Interested In. Get your Coffee Logo Design! The second version of the logo was unveiled in , by which time the chain had already opened 17 stores, including branches in Chicago and Vancouver in Canada. The logo was still recognizably based on the original version but had already become much more stylized. The two-tailed siren was now white on black.
Her breasts were covered by her wavy hair but with her navel still visible, making her more appropriate for a wider audience. By , Starbucks was already a significant company with branches — although as yet, with none outside North America. It was time for another redesign of the logo. In this new version, her navel was also not visible anymore. The color scheme remained the same as in the second version.
This third version of the famous logo was a much simpler, more uncluttered design. The fourth version of the logo, and the emblem still used by the company to this day, was revealed in to coincide with the 40 th anniversary of the founding of Starbucks. The logo is now entirely green and white, with no black anywhere to be found. This version also no longer includes any words. All that is left is the siren in the center, with only her head and upper-body depicted along with her twin tails on either side.
The removal of the writing is probably the most obvious change, and it was done for a couple of reasons. First, the writing tended to dominate the old logo, taking attention away from the siren herself and concentrating your gaze on the text. Interestingly, a second reason for the removal of the words was that it is now a lot harder for other companies to imitate the design. Before, by using similar font but with different text and image, it was quite easy to open imitation Starbucks-style coffee shops that looked very similar.
Now it is much more difficult to fool people. It is a simple and unmistakable emblem and is now one of the most easily-recognizable logos in the world. So what is the one subtle design feature we just alluded to? This may come as a bit of a shock to you…. When in-house designers from Starbucks and designers from Lippincott were working on the redesign, they originally produced a perfectly symmetrical siren that they thought represented flawless beauty.
Except their perfect new Starbucks siren somehow left them all feeling cold. While we might imagine that perfect symmetry represents the pinnacle of human beauty, it turns out that we expect to find some imperfections in what we see. If the face is too perfect, we reject it as somehow seeming wrong.
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