Starbucks Logo and Branding

Try taking a walk in New York without bypassing a Starbucks. Seriously, try– I dare you! Starbucks coffeehouses are so ubiquitous this task would almost certainly be impossible. The truth is, this is not just a New York thing, I was just trying to make the point relevant. Starbucks is the largest coffee distributor in the world and exist all over cities across the country as well as a global expansion. Before getting to the company's origin, branding and success, a closer look will be taken at the company's most simple, unique and important graphic representation: the logo. Even considering the relatively low level of advertising done by such a large company, the omnipresent storefronts and ubiquitous coffee cups have exposed us all to the logo countless times. While one would assume the logo designers had no idea how many people would eventually see their work, it is obvious a lot of thought went into its design. This is apparent not just in the elements included and their symbology which will be tackled later on, but also the placement of everything, all contributing to an overall balance. The logo has undergone a few revisions since the original was released, but the basics remained consistent. In the original, as in the next version and the current version, the basic shape is circular with the company name surrounding an image in the center. Whether the image is that of a mermaid, a siren or something else is up for debate, but for now, the composition is our focus and the content will be discussed later. The original logo showed the mermaid/siren in its entirety, surrounded by concentric circles containing the name. This circular shape is seemingly placed atop a rectangle. The Law of Simplicity and the Law of Completeness suggest this is the case rather than the overall outline being comprised of simply one shape. It is uncertain whether they changed the logo to make it more simple, but whether or not it was their motivation, it was a solution