Starbucks has revealed its holiday coffee cups for this year, showing 10 different designs from customers around the world, selected from an Instagram contest.
The winning designs were chosen in an Instagram contest, with 1,200 submissions from 13 countries. The winning designers came from six countries, and include a college student from Germany, a hair stylist near Philadelphia and a paralegal from Ontario, Canada.
“We hope that this year’s red holiday cup designs express the shared spirit of the holidays as told by our customers,” said Sharon Rothstein, Starbucks global chief marketing officer.
Last year’s more subdued red cups caused an uproar from critics who said the chain was part of a so-called war on Christmas.
“We were surprised and inspired by the amount of incredible art submitted by our customers. The designs were beautiful, expressive and engaging,” said Dena Blevins, creative director, Starbucks Global Creative Studio. “We quickly realized there was potential to use the customer-created art for our holiday cups.”
The Starbucks Creative team printed each design posted to social channels and noticed the themes that began to emerge – graphic, inspirational, intricate, seasonal, typographic. No customer names were included, just a photo of the cup that was submitted.
“We loved how the red cups with white designs naturally created a collection,” Blevins said. “They hang together as one idea, but each expression is unique.”
