So, what font does Starbucks use in its logo? Trick question — there isn’t one. Since 2011, the Starbucks logo has been just the green siren, with no wordmark at all.
Starbucks removed the text entirely in 2011, for the company’s 40th anniversary, in a redesign led by Starbucks’ in-house team with Lippincott. Before that, the logo had always paired the siren with “STARBUCKS COFFEE” set in a custom-drawn wordmark — not an off-the-shelf typeface, though Freight Sans is generally cited as the closest existing match to its proportions.
Why Starbucks Dropped the Words
By 2011, Starbucks had expanded well beyond coffee — tea, food, merchandise, music — and the company reasoned that a logo built entirely around “coffee” no longer fit the brand it had become. Removing the wordmark was also a statement of brand confidence: Starbucks had reached a level of recognition where the siren alone, without a single word of text, was enough for instant identification worldwide.
Starbucks Still Has Fonts — Just Not in the Logo
The logo itself may be text-free, but Starbucks didn’t stop using type. Between 2017 and 2019, led by designer Riley Cran, the company built an entire custom typeface family — SoDo Sans, Lander, and Pike — used across cups, packaging, signage, and digital platforms. So Starbucks does have branded fonts today; they just live everywhere except the logo itself.
Can You Buy Any of These?
None of Starbucks’ custom fonts are for sale — not the old hand-drawn wordmark, and not SoDo Sans, Lander, or Pike. The closest match to the pre-2011 wordmark, Freight Sans, was sold on MyFonts for years but has since moved exclusively to The Freight Collection and Adobe Fonts — it’s no longer available through our affiliate partners, so we’re linking to it directly rather than through an affiliate link.
If you want a similarly warm, versatile, friendly sans-serif for coffee shop or hospitality branding that’s still available through our partners, this is a close match in spirit:
This post contains an affiliate link — if you buy through it, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Sofia Pro by Mostardesign — individual weights from $25. It blends geometric structure with humanist warmth, in the same friendly-but-professional register Starbucks built SoDo Sans to hit.
That same friendly, rounded warmth shows up again in Best Premium Fonts for Children’s Books & Educational Design.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why doesn’t the Starbucks logo have any text?
Starbucks removed the wordmark entirely in 2011 for the company’s 40th anniversary, partly because the brand had expanded well beyond coffee and partly as a statement that the siren alone was recognizable enough without any text.
What font did the old Starbucks logo use?
The pre-2011 “STARBUCKS COFFEE” wordmark was custom-drawn, not an off-the-shelf font, though Freight Sans is widely cited as the closest existing match to its proportions.
Does Starbucks have its own font today?
Yes — just not in the logo. Between 2017 and 2019, Starbucks developed a custom typeface family called SoDo Sans, Lander, and Pike, used across packaging, signage, and digital platforms.
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