Today I came face to face with the new Starbucks Logo and my immediately feeling was discomfort.
Ok, I don’t know how I truly feel about it just yet. It’s cleaner, but it feel’s like there’s something missing. There is no more ring around the mermaid or twin tailed mermaid or siren (dangerously seductive enchantress from lore) as some argue. I think I don’t really like change. Prefer the old logo, but maybe because I was just so used to it.
Looking at all the designs I think the original brown one looks the coolest. I guess I’m a sucker for vintage, although it may have been changed for being too sexually suggestive. If that’s so, I like it even more.
{Image: Slog}
The logo change made me think about Blogging, specifically Theme Changing. I am guilty of it. I lost track of the number of times played around and changed the theme of my blog. There were just so many delicious new themes to chose from. Perhaps the unfamiliarity may annoy the reader as B informed me. It annoyed him at least because you just got used to that certain layout even though the new one might have a nicer font or cleaner look. (Just a disclaimer: I may still end up changing it if I see a cooler cleaner theme with huge font size that’s easier on the old eyes, but for now I’ll stick with Twenty Ten.)
Back to the Starbucks logo, it’s claimed that the new logo liberates the Siren from the ring, but I see it as zooming in on the logo just like Nike did and ending up with a swoosh. I guess I’ll just have to let it grow on me.
Very interesting and wow, a new look logo for Starbucks.
Any idea what a mermaid has to do with coffee? Am I missing something painfully obvious?
great question, which prompted me to dig further….this is what I found at the Starbucks site:
Let’s go all the way back to 1971, to when Starbucks was first coming to be. In a search for a way to capture the seafaring history of coffee and Seattle’s strong seaport roots, there was a lot of poring over old marine books going on. Suddenly, there she was: a 16th century Norse woodcut of a twin-tailed mermaid, or Siren. There was something about her – a seductive mystery mixed with a nautical theme that was exactly what the founders were looking for. A logo was designed around her, and our long relationship with the Siren began.
Over the last 40 years we’ve made some changes to that identity. Now we’re doing that again, to keep ourselves relevant as we evolve without ever losing sight of our heritage. But the Siren has always been there. She is at the heart of Starbucks.
As a writer, though, I can tell you that there is a lot more to her than just the design and how she looks. This is what she means to me, and to us.
She is a storyteller, carrying the lore of Starbucks ahead, and remembering our past. In a lot of ways, she’s a muse –always there, inspiring us and pushing us ahead.
And she’s a promise too, inviting all of us to find what we’re looking for, even if it’s something we haven’t even imagined yet.
She means something different to every one who sees her, who knows her. For me she’s kind of the final say on the spirit of everything I write and everything we do. Even as I’m writing this, I wonder what she thinks. (She likes it, by the way.)
Hey BJ,
Nice to see you up and running. 🙂
I was looking at the logo and it looks like each year the siren mermaid thing is getting bigger, like it is going to jump off the cup.
And swim right back into the water.
I was living in Los Angeles at the time the first star bucks came out there. I remember seeing that logo actually in LA Weekly, a info free mag on corners. Then, suddenly, there were like six star bucks at all of the cool corners.
Now I think everyone’s caffeine addiction has taken over and that’s why the company continues to grow.
We don’t have Star Bucks in Italy BUT I’d like to say that my students like to wear their shirts. I suppose they know something cool when they see it.
Julie
I think Singapore only got Starbucks when it had the previous logo…we missed the first 2. I do like the brown one a lot. Just seems more mystical.