The holiday season is in session. How do I know that? Starbucks has started to use their red cups for drinks! Red cup season is the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you are a Starbucks addict, like I am. This year, Starbucks decided to try and pull a fast one on its customers. A photo was leaked of an all green Starbucks ‘unity’ cup, which is opposite of the traditional red holiday cup that has been in the franchise since 1997. For the past two decades, Starbucks has chosen one design for their red cups– anything from an abstract look to a holiday traditional style with mistletoe and ornaments. This year, Starbucks decided to change up the red cup game and have 13 different designs for this holiday season. These designs are from people all over the world! A designing contest was held on Instagram, and got over 1,200 submissions in the eight-day timeframe. Once the designs were chosen, Starbucks made sure to keep as much of the artwork true to the artists (which are all females! #girlpower) as the cups went into production! The 13 designs have artists that come from six different countries, and now their artwork will be spread over 75 countries on more than 25,000 cups this holiday season. Of the 13 designs, 12 are for the hot beverage cups, and one for the iced drink cups. So, let’s meet the 13 designs and the women behind them:
- ‘Birch Forest’
This design comes from Chloe, who lives in Plainfield, Illinois. She is a nurse aid that created this design using acrylic paint. She says, “It is such a beautiful sight seeing the bare trees covered up by snow. The first thing that comes to mind is home.”
- ‘Birds & Flowers’
This cup is nature inspired and was created by Florencia, who is from Bandung, Indonesia. She chose to create this design based on the symbolization behind the bird and flower. The magnolia symbolizes friends and love and the hedge sparrow represents faith and creativity. She hopes that her design will help customers, “be joyful, love life, and be creative even when faced with tough times.”
- ‘Candy Cane’
This is not Jennifer’s (who is from Seattle, Washington) first time designing. She is a professional artist that also illustrates coloring books. She went for a classic holiday element when creating her cup. She combined candy canes with a botanical pattern underlying it. Her goal was to create a symmetrical look that captured the holiday spirit and worked on the red cup, which is why the design was created with white ink.
- ‘Evergreen Forest’
This creation came as inspiration from a mountain trail hike that Bronwyn ventured on. Bronwyn is a college student from the town of Moscow, Idaho. She said, “Everything was snow covered and still. The contrast was beautiful – almost like a black and white photograph of the space around us.”
- ‘Graphic Swirls’
This cup comes from up above, as in Ontario, Canada. The artist behind this design is a paralegal named Erica. She created this design while helping her sister who was recovering from knee surgery. “We were stuck on a couch for a month, so we spent a lot of time coloring together. I wanted to change it up by doodling, which happened to be on Starbucks cups!”
- ‘Holiday Lights’
Lights are a classic holiday symbol. Whether they are on the street, on the outside of a house, or on a Christmas tree, lights are everywhere during the holiday season. This is where Maria Lauren got the idea for her design. Maria Lauren is from New York City. “I was looking around for inspiration, and I noticed how beautiful all the lights were.” This is how this simple and classic but bold cup came to be.
- ‘Love and Joy’
Anna – who was born in the Soviet Union but now lives in Toronto, Canada – is the artist behind this detailed design. This creation showcases Santa and his reindeer in flight above a village covered in snow. The detail is based off a form of ancient Ukrainian folk art called, “petrykivka” and also from the rich cultural heritage that Toronto is known for.
- ‘Ornaments’
Anz Soza has experience decorating Starbucks cups, and has created more than 75 different creations. The red cup inspired her next design to be holiday themed, which depicts hanging ornaments that are combined with the remanence of a dreamcatcher. She was born in the Philippines, but now lives in Dubai with her husband.
- ‘Poinsettia’
Along with lights and ornaments, poinsettia flowers are another classic symbol of the holiday season. This design was created by Christina, who is from California but currently lives in Bonn, Germany. She is a student who studies landscape architecture. The artwork is based on her idea to connect people to the environment by creating a sense of place. The poinsettia flower is highly associated with the holiday season, which makes the nature connection while also showing Christmas spirit!
- ‘Sleigh Ride’
This cup comes from Daejeon, South Korea. The artist Eun Joo chose to depict Santa’s sleigh ride on a starry night. She also puts different circles that overlap with snowmen on top. “There are many different people – like different patterns of overlapping circles – but everyone can have happy memories with a cup of coffee at Starbucks.” This design is so whimsical and fun. I love how Starbucks chose two different sleigh ride designs that are both expressed differently.
- ‘Snowflake Sweater’
This Christmas sweater design is far from ugly. It comes from St. Petersburg, Russia and was created by Alisa. She got the inspiration for this design while drinking a Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks (Coincidence? I think not…). She says, “The holiday mood I was in made me draw on the cup!” This intricate design was modeled after a Christmas sweater that includes snowflakes and reindeer in the pattern.
- ‘Wooden Wreath’
This is the cup that will hold the iced beverages, if anyone orders something iced even though it is winter and the temperature of the weather and drink are about the same. This design was created by a professional artist in Los Angeles, named Tracy. She chose to incorporate the Starbucks logo on the cup as a part of her design by drawing a wreath around our favorite coffee mermaid. She loves nature, so she illustrates a wooden wreath with different ornaments, a little snow, and a bow to create a design that is simple and captures the holiday spirit!
- ‘Woodland Deer’
Samantha is the creator of this wintery creation. She is a hair stylist that was on maternity leave when she drew this design out. It features an evergreen wreath with snowflakes next to a deer silhouette. She created this work during her newborn’s naptime to keep herself busy.
Too bad it is not a contest to see who can collect all 13 different designs, because I TOTALLY would have won. Here is me showing my #RedCupSeason spirit with my ‘Woodland Deer’ Cup!
Which #RedCupSeason design is your favorite? – Renata
Pictures credits: https://news.starbucks.com/news/artists-behind-starbucks-holiday-cups-2016