Maddison Wright

Intro to Art History

10/8/2013

Starbucks Logo

The largest chain and most famous coffee house around the world (now located in 62 countries) was started in 1971 in Seattle, Washington and was named Starbucks. Starbucks became a “trendy” coffee house when the company expanded in California in 1991. This company was founded by three students attending University of San Francisco and were all motivated to sell coffee beans. They almost originally named the coffee house Pequod (a ship from Moby-Dick) however was changed and instead named Starbuck (the chief mate on Pequod). Starbucks seems to be a constant company in our everyday life and will most likely continue to grow and expand throughout countries.

The Starbucks logo has remained a mermaid with two tails (or a siren) throughout their start-up years till now. Their original logo was based on a “16th century Norse woodcut.” The logo had the mermaid topless with her whole fishtail in the image. Next was a cropped image of the mermaid but with her navel still showing. Then the image was changed to a lady with flowing hair covering her breasts and only the top part of the two tails showing. Continuing through the years the logo was then (recently) changed from brown to green and removed the wording around the image leaving just the cropped siren. On their 35th year of business the company decided to celebrate by reusing their original design with the siren as a whole. There was quick controversy when they showed the breasts of the siren once again though the media did not seem to take much interest in this dispute at the time. 

Throughout the years whenever the Starbucks company decided to change their logo, that was all that altered, was their logo. However their hot and iced coffee still remain the same and enjoyed in many countries.

Original Starbucks Logo

1971-1987

Present-day Starbucks Logo
2011-Present