The design team behind the Starbucks logo have revealed that the female face depicted was made asymmetrical to make her look more human.
Closer inspection of the logo, known as ‘the siren’, reveals that the shading around the right eye drops further down that the left.
Creative consultancy Lippincott were given the job in 2011 of updating the image, which had been around since 1971, originally appearing as a mermaid.
A design consultancy was given the task of revamping the Starbucks logo
The ‘siren’ image depicts a mermaid, which was given a slight imperfection by designers to make her appear more human
But despite studies showing that people are attracted to symmetrical features, they came to the conclusion their original creations were too perfect – and cold.
Global creative director Connie Birdsall told Co.Design, the team thought to themselves: ‘There’s something not working here, what is it?”
‘It was like ‘Oh, we need to step back and put some of that humanity back in’. The imperfection was important to making her really successful as a mark. We didn’t want her to be perfect, like Barbie.’
The mermaid design has been the face of Starbucks in various forms since 1971
Birdsall revealed that they got all the various versions of the reworked design, pinned them up on the wall and ‘stood around debating and debating and debating.
‘And that’s when the team realized that, despite what we’ve all been led to believe about human attractiveness, no one really liked looking at a perfect face after all. It was a eureka moment.’
According to design partner Bogdan Geana: ‘In the end, just for the face part of the drawing, there’s a slight asymmetry to it.
‘It has a bit more shadow on the right side of the face. It felt a bit more human, and felt less like a perfectly cut mask.’