Hasta La Ideas

The latest in a series of updates, Starbucks is back again, announcing another new change in their re-branding and identity-altering efforts. Following a string of interior updates over the past couple of years, along the way getting press for making sure everything’s LEED-friendly, the coffee chain has updated their logo once more. A more serious departure from the previous two changes made to its identity, which were seeming just modern variations on their original logo (which you might recall they caught some major heat for when they tried returning to it back in 2008), this newest update scraps the company’s name and wrap-around green and white circular band entirely, instead going with less, just the image of their subconsciously-iconic mermaid. Upon its launch yesterday, the company got busy on their site, with blog posts explaining the process of coming to the new logo, a message about what this update says about the direction they’re heading in by CEO Howard Schultz (along with a video), and even who/what they think the mermaid is (or as they call her, “The Siren”). Here’s a bit from the design side of things:

After hundreds of explorations, we found the answer in simplicity. Removing the words from the mark, bringing in the green, and taking the Siren out of her ring…

The details came next. The 20-year old logo was built in the early days of AutoTrace and it showed – points everywhere. We improved composition, brought in more sophisticated stroke width and spacing and a smoother line flow. When it came to her – the Siren – we enhanced her form in subtle ways, smoothing her hair, refining her facial features, weighting the scales on her tail to bring the focus to her face. We enlisted the branding firm of Lippincott to help with these refinements, and give us a better global perspective on the entire identity system.

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