Recently, I was sitting at a Starbucks working on an essay. Stuck for a topic, I was starring off into space, or actually at my Starbucks cup. As I wandered further and further away from my essay topic, I began to wonder how the Starbucks logo came into play, and why, even though it is so basic and simple, it works so well.
I decided to pull out the C-R-A-P principles out of my back pocket and investigate.
First of all, the contrast is clear. It is a green and black logo, with a white background. The green and black are very deep, dark colors, and the white is a stark white.
Repetition is also involved in the logo design, as the hair on the lady and the lines surrounding her are all similar and repetitive.
Alignment is used well here, as everything is symmetrical.
Finally, proximity is included as everything inside the logo is very close together, especially how the logo itself is small.
I also wondered a bit about the history of the Starbucks logo, and here is what I found according to Cracked.com:
“The Symbol Is Used For: A classy-looking figure to put on the coffee chain’s sign and cups. But the Symbol Actually Means: Obsession, addiction and death.
If you’re familiar with the Starbucks logo, it’s probably because, statistically, you are inside a Starbucks right now. If you’re not familiar with Starbucks, that’s because you’re a hypothetical person created just so we could give this paragraph a satisfying structure.
Either way, you may not have realized that the woman in their green label with the perky breasts and weird twin-fishtail deal going on is a siren from Greek mythology.”
I found that pretty interesting. And seeing how those who do enjoy coffee, Starbucks in particular, seem addicted to say the least, their logo is working for their company for a lot of difference reasons.
Words on Images 