The Starbucks siren was given a makeover in 2011 and, to make her more appealing, a design team made her less perfect.
Starbucks has used its image of a double-tailed siren since the early 1970s, but as the company has grown, she has undergone a number of changes. While many of the alterations simply involved cropping, scaling, and reframing, the siren underwent a significant yet subtle transformation in 2011. In order to make her more appealing, a design team made her less perfect. According to Fast Company, the change coincided with the decision to do away with the surrounding Starbucks coffee circle. That left the siren standing alone, and, as such, under greater scrutiny. After staring at her for some time, a team at Lippincott decided that though she looked great, she seemed to be lacking warmth. Making her seem more human meant doing away with her perfect symmetry and giving her a bit of a flaw. Designers found the solution was making the right side of her nose just a touch lower and the side overall a bit more shadowed than the left.
