New Starbucks logo leaves the Siren without words

The new Starbucks logo will be officially rolled out to stores in March. Image: Starbucks

In the fourth redesign since the company’s 1971 opening, there is a new Starbucks logo. Starbucks is not going to officially start using the new logo until March of this year. This is just one of many changes Starbucks will be making in honor of its 40th anniversary.

New Starbucks logo is wordless

The new Starbucks logo is a clean and simple redesign of the current logo. The first redesign was in 1987, when the company switched from “Starbucks Coffee Tea Spices” in brown and white to a green “Starbucks Coffee” logo. In 1992, when Starbucks became a publicly traded company, the company simplified the look. The 2011 new Starbucks logo is simply the Siren in green and white, no words and no text.

‘Evolutionary refinement’ in new Starbucks logo

Starbucks is coming out of a difficult time. Starbucks opened many of its stores with the idea of a unique, friendly location where customers could have a “third place” other than work and home. After opening thousands of stores in dozens of countries, though, Starbucks began to feel the economic pinch and brand dilution. After the return of the company’s previous CEO, Starbucks took extreme steps to bring the brand “back to the original feel.” The Starbucks CEO said the new logo is a symbol of Starbucks’ “evolutionary refinement” moving forward.

Reactions to the new Starbucks logo

Though removing the text from the Starbucks logo makes it more internationally friendly, not everyone is excited. On the official Starbucks announcement, commenters had a wide variety of reactions. Negative reactions ranged from the blah to the poisonous:

I realize that Starbucks has done a good job with “branding” their image, but without the Starbucks name on the logo, there seems to be a disconnect with seeing it. I have to go hmmm…coffee cup–>mermaid–>green–>Starbucks.

This is the kind of thing that overpaid executives do to fluff their resumes before moving on to the next company. Memories of the “New” Coke.

The positive reactions, however, were few and far between:

Wow… What a beautiful and compelling way to move the company into the new millennium. I always thought that the harsh black band around the siren represented the shackles of history past.