Elmwood chairman Sands praises new Starbucks logo
Elmwood chairman Sands praises new Starbucks logoJonathan Sands, chairman of international design consultancy Elmwood, has praised the controversial redesign of the Starbucks logo.
The new logo for the world’s largest coffee chain has dropped both the name ‘Starbucks’ and the word ‘coffee’ from the previous design, choosing to focus solely on its 40-year-old green image of a twin tailed siren.
As a result of the new design being unveiled, hundreds of customers have complained directly to Starbucks through its website, calling for it to reintroduce the previous logo design.
Sands said: “First of all I think it is extremely unprofessional to criticise another agency's work (and actually cowardly if you do so anonymously) when you have no sight of the brief or any understanding of the background research that was done. And there will have been lots.
"For me the idea of leveraging the core asset, 'the siren', is a good one and the fact that only two hundred customers have complained out of tens of millions is an awesome achievement. It gets my vote.”
The new Starbucks identity was launched this week around the world as the company looks set to expand its offer from coffee.
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People are naturally resistant to change - it's a fact of life. Every time Facebook change their layout there is uproar, but we soon stop complaining.
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a new logo that I liked immediately, and this Starbucks one is no different. Time will be the judge.
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Good point, well made.
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Correct. People are often quick to judge without the benefit of the brief. I think the 'siren' is a strong enough element of the logo to work alone. I wonder if there was a question of saving money in these hard times - a one colour print x many millions will surely go some way to achieve a cost saving. I also think the logo looks cleaner without the black.
The tweaking of globally known brand identities will always incur a large amount of hostility, resulting in the inevitable 'how much did the agency earn' etc. When most of us would actually love to have such an opportunity.
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I agree a bold move but a good one, It's instantly Starbucks but I suspected this will help Starbucks branch out and not only be related to Coffee. Change is good!
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It's going to happen every time someone changes their logo now. It's odd, the great unwashed don't feel the need to comment quite so harshly, on, say, a new model of car. But when it comes to design, everyone's a bloody expert, because they've got Word and some clipart and they designed a school newsletter once. When brands start listening to these keyboard warrior idiots, it will be the end of good design. Hopefully, it'll never happen.
Pardon me for being slow here, but aren't most of the comments pointing out, that it 'isn't' a new logo.
All they've done is take the two words 'Starbucks' and 'Coffee' off the original logo.
Nothing whatsoever wrong with that - stupid to throw the baby out with the bath water for the sake of change. The fact they have done what they have done, is in fact, refreshing and makes complete sense.
But when that's all you've done, don't sell it in to the market with a load of bullshit and hype as though it's some amazing piece of brand development - which it plainly isn't!
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Well said Jonathan, there speaks the voice of reason.
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