There is a usual pattern I noticed with companies that become too big.  I don’t know if, when they become big, they follow a certain play book on how to grow the business with international presence, but the evolution of logos tells not only the story of the company but of its mission as well.

As with Starbucks, which renovated its logo recently, it tells us about its mission and purpose; which is to establish its self as the big fish among all coffee business.  It is reflective of their logo evolution.  The first logo certainly feels local because of its complex and intricate details. The last logo feels global because of its simplicity. Often businesses, when they become big, simplify their logos significantly as part of branding playbook. As you know for big business the world revolves around branding.   Apple, Pepsi, and a few other corporations show a similar pattern. 

The irony behind Starbucks logo change is that, while they were trying to reverse their direction back to their roots; to provide a local warm feeling, I think they failed to do that with their new logo, which speaks of the opposite.  Although I like very simple logo designs for most things, my feeling about food related logos, is they look better with more detail and complexity.  But that is my opinion and yours may be different.

What do you think?