See the Roman god who could have taken out the Starbucks siren

The Starbucks Siren

The Starbucks Siren has been around since the company’s founding in 1971. Though her bare breasts have been censored and her design has changed, she’s always been based on the same drawing (though that drawing is the subject of some dispute). Despite the siren’s long life, it’s easy to imagine an alternative universe where she was bashed against the rocks in favor of a Roman God.

A Starbucks leader in exile

Current Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz didn’t found Starbucks. Though he joined early on, he didn’t have a controlling share. That led to clashes with the company’s founders over Starbucks’ direction, and in 1985 he left to open his own shop, Il Giornale. That shop, of course, had a different logo.

Il Giornale Blue

Look familiar? The logo also appeared in familiar Starbucks green, and at the time the Starbucks logo was brown.

Designer Doug Fast made the logos for both Starbucks and Il Giornale. Arguably, the Il Giornale logo is more refined. As Schultz writes in his first memoir, the picture of Mercury was meant to represent speed and efficiency (Schultz calls him by that name instead of Hermes, the similar Greek God). Eventually, the Roman Messenger God was even encased in a green ring that resembles the Starbucks logo’s colors today. Schultz opened the store and had a near monopoly on the coffee serving market (since Starbucks itself only sold beans and spices).

But then he had a decision to make.

Buying Starbucks and choosing a brand

Starbucks’ original owners, Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker, wanted out of the Seattle business, and Schultz quickly bought the chain. That meant he had to make a decision for the future: Il Giornale or Starbucks.

Il Giornale had a cleaner logo, coffee-serving experience, and a defined, if somewhat conflicted, brand (Schultz modeled the stores so closely on Italian espresso bars that he didn’t even want customers to sit down). While Il Giornale was doing well, there was something wrong. On the other hand, Starbucks was a Seattle institution (and it was easier to pronounce than Schultz’s Italian name). The decision was clear.

Starbucks Logo Evolution

Thus the siren won, and today a version of that same logo is plastered on coffee cups around the world. The logos did merge, however, incorporating Il Giornale’s color and stars. Thanks to the similarities to Il Giornale’s logo, it’s easy to imagine another world where the winged feet of Mercury would have outraced the siren’s tail.

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