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Seattle's Best Coffee Logo - Design and History


Seattle's Best Coffee Logo - Design and History
                          

Seattle's Best Coffee is a specialty coffee retailer and wholesaler based in Seattle, Washington. It is also owned by Starbucks, which purchased the company in 2003. Seattle's Best Coffee has retail stores and in grocery sub-stores in 20 states and provinces and the District of Columbia. Sub-stores can also be found within many other businesses and college campuses, including JC Penney Department Stores and Subway Restaurants.

In 2011, Seattle's Best wanted to expand the reach of the brand and sell it in convenience stores, drive-through kiosks, coffee carts, vending machines and mobile trucks. The company has already reached deals to sell Seattle's Best at Burger King and Subway restaurants and at AMC Entertainment Inc. movie theaters. Along with this new push, they also introduced a new logo which was strikingly different from the previous logo and a new tag line "Great Coffee everywhere"

The logo is radically different from the previous logo which has a more bold Red color with bigger fonts and a hint of golden-brown which probably gave it some feeling that it was related to coffee (perhaps its my imagination). The new logo is terribly simple, even to the point where it looks like the logo of a generic store brand. The font is also very generic and does not stick in my head. Even the coffee mug and the drop of coffee do not evoke any coffee thoughts, perhaps a handle to the mug may have helped. Some bloggers have even suggested that the logo could be a used by a blood bank. The old logo has been around for about 40 years and is definitely bolder and more vibrant than the new one.

I remember walking into Borders and the old logo is so large and looming that you cannot miss it. I personally don't think the new logo will look so attractive in stores. If the aim is to tell consumers that they are a simpler, cheaper more accessible brand, then perhaps the simplicity will work, only time will tell.  Gap Inc tried to launch a simpler logo and was met with such a backlash that they had to revert to the old logo in a few days. Its a bold move and they have stuck with it, lets see what happens.

The logo was designed by a Seattle based company called Creature.

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Starbucks Logo - Design and History


 Starbucks Logo - Design and History

Starbucks Corporation is a coffeehouse chain based in the United States. Named after a character in the novel Moby Dick, it is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with over 7500 self-operated and 5500 licensed stores in 39 countries. The current company logo, modeled after a 15th century Norse woodcut, is a mixoparthenos, or "twin-tailed mermaid, or siren as she's known in Greek mythology. The company and the logo have an interesting history.

In Jan 2011, Starbucks released a new version of the logo with a couple of big changes and some subtle changes as well. The two major changes made to the logo are

  • They removed the name of the company "Starbucks Coffee". Their intention behind this maybe to expand the brand to beyond coffee. They have been talking about expanding into breakfast and there was also talk of a Bar/Lounge concept. This makes sense if they want to expand but maybe they should have kept the name "Starbucks" and removed "Coffee".
  • They also removed the circle around the Siren and the logo now features just the Siren.
The logo has some subtle changes including smoothing her hair, refining her facial features, weighting the scales on her tail to bring the focus to her face. The logo refinements were done by Lippincott.



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Caribou Coffee Logo - Design and History


Caribou Coffee Logo - Design and History 
Caribou Coffee is a specialty coffee and espresso retailer, the second largest in the United States after Starbucks. Caribou sells gourmet coffees, teas, and bakery goods in 415 company-owned coffeehouses in 16 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 80 franchise locations worldwide. The founders of the company were inspired to start this company while they were in Alaska's Denali National Park and hence the name Caribou. A Caribou is a wild reindeer in North America widespread across the Arctic and Subarctic.

The new logo has the following key changes and concepts.
  1. Central to this new rebranding, the company's logo has been adapted to a simpler but playful representation of the brand's key identification. Most noticeably, the leaping caribou is now a coffee-brown color and in the brand's playful nature, is assembled out of graphic elements, including a coffee bean at the heart of the animal and "C" shaped antlers.
  2. The two legs of the Caribou are in the shape of spoons that are used to measure coffee
  3. The caribou also now leaps to the right, signifying the company's vision and movement toward the future.
  4. The blue shield at the back represents the signage from Alaska's Denali park and was also present in the old logo. 
  5. The "Cariobou Coffee" font is also more contemporaryand easy to read.
The new brand look includes a new logo, color palette and design elements that bring fresh energy and broader context to the existing tagline: Life is short. Stay awake for it.

Overall I like the new logo. Its more creative and also has some nice intelligent concepts in it too.


Read more: Caribou Coffee Logo - Design and History