On February 11, 2010, I announced a contest to find Starbucks barista art. See previous blog entry:
Anyone could enter, though I listed quite a few rules. You could just find barista art, snap a pic, follow the rules and enter. Here are the entries. Keep in mind that I have listed the name of the person who submitted the photo (who may or may not be a partner), and the store information (store number where possible) where the art is found. I realize in hindsight that I was pretty vague as to when the art had to be hanging up in the store. It absolutely must have been hanging in a Starbucks at some point, and what I intended is that it has to be fairly current – within the last 90 days of this blog contest. Some of the artwork seems a little dated to me, but mostly I’m giving people the benefit of the doubt, since I was pretty vague.
Just as a reminder, the art contest was inspired by me finding this in a Starbucks:
Here are the four winners – it was NOT easy to pick!:
#1 - This entry was submitted by Christopher and currently is on display at Starbucks store 2640, located in Milford, Ohio. It is chalk art for Caffe Verona, inspired by Romeo and Juliette.
#2 – This entry was submitted by Larissa who thought my art contest timing was remarkable: how “strange it is that you post a contest the day after my store does an epic collage of time and chalk markers. And the one time I actually brought my camera in!” This chalk art is on display at a Chapters Starbucks in Alberta, Canada, Starbucks store 4337. This is just incredibly unique, and from what I hear, five baristas pitched in to make this art display. If I were to walk into a Starbucks as see this chalkboard art, I might think that a graffiti artist was let loose in their store, but after a momentary skip of the heartbeat, I’d be able to appreciate the effort, the uniqueness, and the store’s personality all poured into one large massive piece of art.
#3 – This entry is Via paired with TCHO chocolates and is a recent chalkboard art at Starbucks store 7776 in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania. How incredibly beautiful that heart is. The coloring in it comes to life. It’s hard to believe that that is really just some chalk art pens. Thank you Ken for entering this! And this is what Via looks like when it pours its heart into chalkboard art:
#4 – From Eureka, California, I received a pic of a fabulous pumpkin spice latte chalkboard art, though I wish there had been another photo of it without the pen in the way. But I can still see the uniqueness to it, and it looks professional! I love the steam-lady with the pumpkin hair barrette. Great detail in this one:
There were too many entries for me put a caption underneath each one of them; it would have made displaying all the pics messy. I saved each entry with the name of the person who submitted it, the store location, and some identifier of what it is. Somewhere in the mix of the pics below is included my photo from the store at 1912 Pike Place – obviously I am not entering my own contest but including it just for fun. One thing I hadn’t thought about when I started the chalkboard art contest is exactly how much chalk art space a Starbucks might have. I realize that a tiny kiosk store might not have any, but it never occurred to me that any store would be remodeled to have an entire wall of chalkboard. Store 2363 in Wisconsin is phenomenal. From what I hear, when store design gave it a refresh, in order to make it more integrated with its surroundings and the theme of its surroundings (Marquette University) it was designed with an entire wall for chalk board art. Well, it most certainly fits with it being near a university. Below, there is a Casi Cielo drawing submitted from store 2363.
The entries:
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Wow, great comp! There are some amazing artists in our stores! Thanks for making this happen Mel!
Wowza! Just a really quick comment to say that that’s some impressive art, and that your post presents it beautifully.
Great idea and there are so many I can’t pic a fave!!
#3….(at the top of the thread….the heart) TOTALLY beautiful and the best, to me. As for some of the others (a few)…… they’re everywhere…. not so special. Great topic and idea of yours! I wish I could have found ANYTHING worth sending in! (I wish they would’ve given me the chalkboard and let me draw….I love the ability they have to do…whatever…with their boards…..but mostly, don’t
Wow, Mel… Words, at first, seem to escape me. All of these entries are gorgeous and fun and would be perfect to walk in on. I love the atmosphere of Starbucks, and I have always adored the chalk art that comes along with most stores. I especially love the Pumpkin Spice entry – although, like you mentioned, I wish we had been able to see the finished product – and I adore, SERIOUSLY adore, the Caffe Verona scene with Romeo&Juliet.
wow! Love them! Although some in there (not the winners) are in fact, stencils…(the three cup boards-of both varieties ) Thanks for doing this
I have SO been waiting for this! THANKS Melody!!!
wow, who knew that creativity was still out there hiding in the shadows. Gr8 post of some barista talent, thumbs 4 all the work.
Absolutely Amazing chalkboard art. Truly wonderful your efforts. Starbucks rules the day, and the creativity!! Mel great post and the artists rule that chalk sticks.
Wow! These are so nice! I wish that the Starbucks here would get a little bit more creative with the drawings…but maybe I’ll start paying more attention here too! These show a real passion for the job, especially considering the time some of these took I’m sure. Very nice!!
Beautiful. I like the dragons the best, personally. Chalk can’t be easy to work with, though. These are truly quality artists. It’s very cool that you went through all this trouble for your readers. Thank you.
If I haven’t said it enough, thank you to everyone who sent in an entry, and to every one who cheered this blog post idea on!
I’m proud of this blog post – not because I assembled a bunch of jpgs – but rather it shows such a great creative spirit inside Starbucks. It’s only a shame that there isn’t more of it encouraged right now. There is a competing interest of not enough time and down and dirty stencils, which ultimately rob the store of its chance to show off its unique character.
I hope that a few people will use the “tweet this” button or spread the word about this blog post: I mean, it really is a fun one to look at, more so than most anything else I’ve done on this site.
Thank you again!
Wow & amazing! Love it. Some obviously had a lot of thought put into them. The SKCDL or the “I’m back & this time I’m organic” I’d pick for humorous category. Admiral Ackbar for the humorous/sci-fi category!
(If you ever run out of ideas for blog topics in the future, do this again!)
Hi Melody — What a great idea you had! The artwork is beautiful. Love creativity.
Great post! I’m glad so many submissions were entrered
Beautiful beautiful art work
I enjoy viewing the creative coffee love that’s expressed in these chalk drawing.
I wish I ran across more of it
Thanks for this. Everyone I have met at Starbucks is multi-talented and this just demonstrates one aspect of those talents.
ok, let me say I love the via/cupcake boards, esp the happy ones lol (looking at them all closer now)
These are pretty decent I must say. Sad that I was actually shut down by my SM when I asked to do Chalkboard art because it isnt “Sirens Eye”. Even after I pleaded that people are easily persuaded by cool drawings (very true) and it could increase whole bean sales.
Starbucks is certainly stacked with quality artists judging from these pictures! I wish the stores I visit were as enthusiastic, or didn’t have DMs that suppressed their creativity! (That’s you, Mark the Shark!)
WOW! Such BEAUTIFUL artwork! There are SO many exceptionally talented SBUX partners out there. What a beautiful thing.
Mel, you’re such a thoughtful & passionate SBUX enthusiast!
Karl, thanx for taking me to this!
What exactly happened to NO STENCILS???
All this art is really nice though… Too bad there’s not more of it. I really like the Komodo one in the top right hand corner.
Sorry for my multiple posts but I forgot to mention that this contest was a great idea. It’s very cool to see all this art. Thanks for doing this Melody!
hmmm…via does not have 0 cals…
nathan-only 9 or 10 are stenciled :-p
@Nathan – I think it is possible that a few could look like stencils but are not. For example, store 14870 is the 1st & Pike Starbucks right at the entrance to the market, and I know the barista who does their art. She does not use stencils. The thing of it is that ’3 cups’ has a propensity to always look like stencils because most people are just going to draw 3 basic easy cups.
no melody, there are actually 10 or 11 here that are stenciled…those 3 cups are stenciled , there is a reason there are so many, it’s siren’s eye approved…
although the one you refer to is slightly different and not stenciled (as I peaked closer)…
Which one with “three cups” are people suggesting were done with stencils? The ones for skcdl, skvl, and vanilla rooibos? I did one of those and I definitely did NOT use a stencil! Yes, it was executed according to sirens eye but I personally don’t use the stencils! Just thought I’d let people know that looks can be deceiving!
I believe you, some of them do look “ish” but some of them are identical to the stencils I’ve seen and that I stare at every day
i can’t believe that my board actually made it to second place. i just hope that more people quit using stencils and get the juices flowing.
i just transferred stores last week and
spent two hours doing new rollout boards
as volunteer time.
worth it.
thank you.
Bummer…I totally missed the deadline for the contest. I like this post though since I never even realized that some stores have baristas that decorate the chalkboards with awesome art. I have not checked at my local Starbucks but I am guessing that they just use the stencils.
Good job to all the winners!
I will definitely pay attention now to the chalkboards…
You rock starbucksmelody.com!
haha those are all awesome! Its good to see things like this that encourage staff to get arty!
I *adore* that Komodo Dragon one BTW
Such talented people! I rarely see such lovely chalk art my usual Starbucks.
I love that Starbucks partners not only have such incredible talent, but have the opportunity to showcase where they work every day. It provides a sense of pride and accomplishment.
My favorite from the above is the Sidamo, but I’m biased since it’s my favorite.
ooo these are nice! congrats to the winners!
Wow! These are incredible. The Cup Cakes from Space one made me laugh and the Eureka California one reminds me of Disney’s Cinderella movie with the coach, etc. The Virginia Beach one is very cool too.
Perhaps once the “Bold” campaign is over they could start a chalk art campaign and reward the baristas!
they are discouraging the chalk art w/ the bold campaign
instead of the chalk boards for each brew, they insist on a cardboard stand. I’m so sad to not see our beautiful “now brewing” board for 8 long weeks *tear*
How did Admiral Ackbar not win? The “We can’t repel flavour of that magnitude!” line was brilliant.
pretty cool talent!
i’d suggest to ‘ed’ that he meld the coffee experience with the artistic experience of the hidden talents in his staff and have art sales/auctions along with the Starbucks liquid products.
it would certainly be an added draw for a lot of us.
Great looking signs. I like the personality it brings to the stores
lauren&i are sooooo over the moon that you came to visit today! you have no idea! thank you so much for everything!!!! and i’ll be sending you more chalk-ark pictures very very soon!
@Jocelyn – I had great fun visiting your store and Lauren is quite the artist! I’m going to write up an entire blog post about the visit when I have the time.Thank you for a great day. I wish I could have personally delivered all four of the “grand prizes” but yours was the only one on the same coast as me. Take care, Melody
Yeay! I love this! I hope you do this again and again so we can see the different beautiful boards that are constantly being created!
Call Starbucks, tell ‘em to slap it in a book. You’re welcome Starbucks. This one’s on me.
@Corey – Good one! LOL.
mmmm…thanks again for this
Awww thanks for bumping up this old blog post!! This still remains one of my all time favorite blog posts. I wish that somehow I could get everyone to read it and look at every single beautiful entry. Amazing talent in green aprons!
I wish I always had my camera with me at work. I’m trying to be better about having it w/ me all the time in general. Life passes so quickly and it isn’t just the big events that make up life. I just had that really impressed upon me by flipping through a friends beautifiul scrapbook. Anyway…there have been a few signs since this that I wish I had captured in our cafe! Our girls rock the chalk art (well, among other things
).
I cannot express that in English well, but these prominent art should be shown in the art museum of each place. Also, in each country. The language is not necessary for art.
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