Who is that lady in the Starbucks logo?
Which is your favourite go-to stop for coffee? Nine out of ten chances are you are thinking Starbucks. After all, it is the most renowned coffee chain in the world. Apart from its addicting coffee, part of how Starbucks brewed its own success lies in its branding. Can you imagine it having any other name or logo? Kind of difficult, right? The name ‘Starbucks’ with its green lady has become synonymous with this artisan coffee. Let us tell you how the brand got its name and logo and its journey from there on.
1971: A mermaid logo
Starbucks wasn’t always called Starbucks. In 1971, when the company opened its shop in the seaport city of Seattle in the US, its original founders named it Pequod, after the whaling ship in Moby-Dick, an 1851 novel written by Herman Melville. But that wasn’t really received well and they soon changed it to Starbucks, after the ship’s chief officer, adding an ’s’ to make it catchier.
What about the logo then? That too was inspired by naval theme- a twin-tailed mermaid. But why a mermaid to represent coffee? Well, the connection was interesting. In Greek mythology, these sirens (as mermaids were often called) would often lure the sailors into crashing their ships off the coast of small islands. And the owners thought that the Starbucks logo would do the same: it would lure customers or divert their minds into buying Starbucks coffee. Quite a thought!
So the first logo was made in a coffee brown colour (earthly, stable, nurturing), and the fierce-looking mermaid was fully visible with bare breasts holding her forked tail in both hands. A circular design was chosen and the company name was put around the logo, with the words coffee, tea, and spices — to let the customers know what was on offer.
1987: Evolution of the logo from brown to green
In 1987, Starbucks was bought by an American businessman, Howard Schultz and he wasted no time in modifying the Starbucks logo, its first evolution.
He hired an American artist and graphic designer, Terry Heckler, to help in giving its mermaid a makeover. Heckler went all out: he changed the logo colour from brown to Kelly green, covered the mermaid’s breasts with her hair, dropped the words ‘tea’ and ‘spices’, added the wordmark ‘Starbucks Coffee’, with two stars connecting the words. That was the new Starbucks logo.
1992: Focus on mermaid
After about 5 years, the logo was revisited. The idea was to give it a cleaner look and feel, with the siren having a bigger impact and focus. So, the logo zoomed in on the mermaid, giving a close-up view of hers. Accordingly, her naval was no longer visible, but some of her tail could be seen. Some tweaking was also done in the font to give it a more modern appearance. This re-designed logo remained for more than a decade.
2008: Revisiting the original logo
Ahead of its 40th anniversary, the company decided to rebrand itself and thought what would be a better way to do it than revisiting its original 1971 logo. The brown colour of the logo was changed to black and a few modern twists were made to produce a new logo. But much to their disappointment, the public did not like the new design at all. They had got so used to the green branding of Starbucks and its simple logo design that they refused to accept anything else. This shows what a powerful tool a logo can become to connect with a business with its audience.
2011: Replacing the mermaid with a princess
Keeping simplicity in mind, the logo was given a very modern look and feel, with a minimalistic approach in 2011. The ‘Starbucks’ wordmark, stars, and outer ring were all dropped removing font and text entirely. By this time, Starbucks was sure that its mermaid was so recognisable and their coffee was so established that there was no need for any text. The focus this time was entirely on the siren. The siren was further enlarged and given a facelift to look more like a stylised princess with longer luscious flowing hair with a crown. Most importantly, the iconic green background colour was brought back.