A few weeks ago, I visited the new Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Seattle Center. Dale Chihuly is world-famous as a glass artist, and the exhibit at the Seattle Center is phenomenal. If you get a chance to see it, you should go! I had my phone with me, and as we walked through the exhibit, I took a few photos. Trust me, these don’t do this exhibit justice. It’s way better in real life. The colors are phenomenal, and the shapes are intriguing and inspiring.
^ The above photo is a ceiling within the Seattle Center’s Dale Chihuly exhibit. I’ll be honest. I looked at that, and I saw the possibility of great creativity in a Starbucks card design. Originally, I’d thought of a mug, but I think a card is a much better idea because of the translucency of a Starbucks card.
By the way, there is glass work in the gardens outside the exhibit too:
So, I propose that Starbucks partner with Dale Chihuly and create something really amazing and collectible. Starbucks certainly can do this. As you may recall, in 2009, Starbucks partnered with Christian Siriano to create a “designer mini card.” If they can partner with a fashion designer to create a card, then they can certainly partner with a glass artist. And, I think it is especially nice that both Dale Chihuly and Starbucks are products of the Pacific Northwest.
Of course, there is the question whether Dale Chihuly might like this idea? I tweeted about it, and @ChihulyStudio replied:
Of course, that does not mean that Dale Chihuly himself is interested in this idea. The @ChihulyStudio profile appears to be an employee of the Chihuly Studio who tweets on behalf of Dale Chihuly and his studio. It’s a good start for a reply though!
As an aside, you may be wondering why I am not posting this idea on MyStarbucksIdea.com. 1) There is no way to put pictures into idea threads at MyStarbucksIdea.com and this idea really needs images. A picture is worth a thousand words. 2) I have my own blog, so of course I will use this resource; 3) I am not totally convinced that the voting at MyStabucksIdea.com is all that meaningful. It sometimes happens that good ideas get down votes, and vice versa, for whatever reason; 4) the format of MyStarbucksIdea.com doesn’t allow for longer ideas with embedded links and a lot of formatting. I want to be able to have links!
There you have it. Now if only we can make a cool Dale Chihuly Starbucks card happen. 🙂
Edit:
Please vote up the Dale Chihuly MyStarbucksIdea.com idea! Thanks!
$30 Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway:
A little over one month ago, I did a giveaway of a $30 Starbucks card in an article about a Tazo tea poster. That giveaway looked like it was pretty popular, and it was easy to manage. So this giveaway is structured nearly identical that one:
You must leave a comment in the blog to enter – Your comment should include your idea for the Starbucks card, whatever that may be. It doesn’t matter if you want new designs, new functionality, or something else. It does have to be a serious suggestion though.
One entry per person.
Your entry must be posted in these comments before 9:00 p.m. (PST), July 15, 2012.
I will count the first 70 eligible entries. No entries after that are counted.
Your name cannot be entirely key words, spam, or you cannot simply have the user name “Starbucks.” (In other words, “Buy cheap meds here” is not a valid user name, and nor is simply “Starbucks” without more.)
I would ask that you share this blog and/or article via Facebook or Twitter, though that is not required.
Do not assume that just because you see 70 comments, the giveaway is closed. I will count the first 70 valid entries. I’ve learned from experience that many comments will simply be discussion and not entries.
All entrants must be over 18 years of age.
The winner must have a valid address in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Ireland, or the U.K.
There will be only one grand prize winner of the $30 gift card.
Good luck! I look forward to hearing your Starbucks card ideas!
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I’d like to see more stores on cards. Maybe it’s just because the trip to Seattle was so inspiring. Every store has it’s own vibe and feeling. A lot of stores in my area are so similar, the only thing that makes it unique is the staff.
Also, Starbucks really needs to step up their rewards system. I get emails all the time from CVS for “25% off” “Save $4 on purchases of $20 or more.” From that email I can go to a website and click a button that says “Send reward to card” and then the next time I’m in CVS and they scan my card, my rewards are automatically applied.
I love the fact that we have mobile payment, so I can’t imagine why they can’t do something similar for free drinks and other offers and cut down on paper waste or all the other issues with mailing them.
This option would also eliminate the problem of people willingly handing over their address information to potential fall into the wrong hands. I always tear the part of the coupon I need and hand the address part back, for personal security reasons. That’s just scary stuff!
Sorry for my rant. 😀 The glass work you took pictures of look beautiful. I can’t wait to get to visit Seattle again and see the City… not just all of it’s Starbucks. :p I loved that city.
This would be a great idea for a card, his work seems really cool! It could also be a transparent card, that way when you hold it to the light all the colors come through, like a mini stain glass window 🙂
That’s a wonderful idea Melody! I’m bummed that I didn’t check out the exhibit when i was in Seattle this summer. It looked great from the outside. I couldn’t imagine how beautiful it must have been from the inside.
As for my card idea, I think it would be really awesome to have sports teams logos on the cards so that everyone can represent their favorite teams. I imagine they would all be either sold online or exclusively where the team’s from since there are A LOT of baseball/basketball teams out there. I’d love to have a card with my SF Giants on it.
After reading one of your previous blog posts, I was surprised about how many people have gold cards now. I think Starbucks should add a new tier onto their rewards. A platinum status that will be more exclusive and more difficult to get. The platinum status would give you a custom and good quality card, an exclusive reward (such as a special mug or keychain) for maintaining your status that changes every year and maybe even access to an exclusive shop with Starbucks gear (similar to the starbuckscoffeegear.com shop).
I love this idea, when Chihuly had an exhibit at the De Young in San Francisco I went multiple times, I loved his art. If they could make regional cards to match up with major art exhibits it would be amazing, we get a lot of big ones in San Francisco and if there had been one to go with the Monet or Picasso exhibits or even the current Gaultier exhibit I think they would be popular…
I think your idea for a Dale Chihuly card is great and Nathan’s idea of making it transparent even better. Thank you for taking the great pics!
My idea is this. Starbucks should introduce a rewards level above the Gold Level. For those of us that tend to make Starbucks a staple in our everyday lives I think that we should be awarded Platinum Status. So after 150 stars per year you would get a Platinum card and extra perks. One of these perks would be to not only get a star for every purchase that you make once you reach platinum but you also would get a point after every 5 stars. After so many points you could then redeem them for exclusively designed cards for Platinum members only – online. Starbucks could limit the amount that are made so that the cards are really special. I believe something like this already exists in Taiwan so it should be easy to implement here.
I agree with Nathan- having it more transparent to make it look like stained glass would be neat. Biggest problem are the numbers, strip, and fine print. But some clever arranging and I bet it’s be a fun collectable card! 🙂
Another idea would be to launch more charity cards. Starbucks could ask you to pay $1 for your charity card and that $1 could go directly to the charity. In the past there have been the Red cards and the Preservation card (which you did not pay for but a portion of your purchase was donated) so I don’t see why they couldn’t come up with a Breast Cancer card for example in the month of October.
BTW love this idea about different card suggestions and I hope some people at Starbucks see this 🙂
You took such beautiful artwork pics of Dale Chihuly. I will definitely try my best to visit the next time I’m in Seattle, which is in two weeks. It shouldn’t be that difficult since I’m from Vancouver, BC and just 3 hours away.
I’m a fan of Starbucks and have a small collection of Starbucks cards. As for my Starbucks card idea, as much as I love seeing all the different city cards, I would like Starbucks to come up with a Hello Kitty theme. When Starbucks opened up their Disney location, I thought what could be more perfect that Mickey or Miney Mouse theme but I’ve always had this idea of a Hello Kitty Starbucks card since I started collecting in 2002. I hope people don’t think of this as childish or shallow but I think Hello Kitty drinking a Starbucks beverage or something along the line of ordering from a Barista will be such a cool and unique design.
I love your idea Ivee ! I think this would be a huge success in Japan too. Did you know that there is a Hello Kitty plane?
First, I like the idea of more charity cards. I like the idea of having 10% of purchases using the gold card go to a non-profit- even if it’s the Create Jobs one. I would really like to see literature themed cards- maybe classic book cover designs. I’m surprised they don’t have more cards. I would think they’re collectible.
I like the idea of a Dale Chihuli glass art card!
Maybe he could do a special glass art piece that communicates the idea:
“The Greatest Day in the History of Starbucks is yet to come!”
(The day that we can tip Partners with our registered cards.
Or any cards! I am an enthusiast, not a Partner, btw.)
Let the beauty of glass art and tge beauty of generosity unite!
🙂
-Organic Refresher
Melody,
I love the idea of a glass art card.
Could it actually be made from some space-age, super-tough glass?
Pyrex?
I’d like my gold card to be real gold!
Maybe after 365 days of earning a star every day?
Or 1000 days of continuous worship at the shrine of the Green Goddess?
She’s a Siren, I know…
My Card Idea:
Make a card that allows you to set a tip amount for the partners.
It could be .25 or .50 per purchase, or 10% or 15% of total.
You could modify your choice online or through the app.
It will happen as soon as Starbucks decides it wants to.
Or we all demand it!
(Btw, i am not a Partner. Just a customer.)
-Seaweed Hero
I would like to see a retro card with the siren logo or maybe a card with evolution of the Starbucks logo as it as changed over the years.
I would also like to see a card for Indivisible so you could donate to American jobs.
I think we should have animals funky drawings and the Dale Chihuly glass card would be nice to
Hugs from Canada Lana
http://visicanada2.govisi.com
I love the idea of doing local charity cards. I think they might be even more popular because I feel as if people are more likely to want to contribute to something that are local to them. I think the RED cards were great!
Those pieces were beautiful!! I agree that Starbucks could definitely design a more interesting card. I loved the New Years card but I haven’t really seen another eye catching design since. I have the card Christian designed and I think it is about time to bring out something new!
I saw his work at an exhibit in Boston and actually have currently a 2012 calendar of his works! I agree Melody you cannot truly appreciate his work until you see it in person. I love the idea that SB combine forces with him to create a card and would love to see more than one design (like stamps) on different cards. Great post Melody!
I know for the giveaway it is one entry per person but I have to add it would be nice if Chihuly designed a card just for SB – one of a kind!
I’d like to see more card designs 🙂 What I miss are a lot of the tumbler designs for the holidays (specifically Halloween) Maybe do a reprint of the tumbler designs on the cards. Like a series of 5 “looking back” picks for each month from tumblers of the past. That could be a lot of cards so maybe 2 per month lol 🙂
@darkkatpouncing – I like the idea of a Halloween themed Starbucks card. 🙂
I have seen a couple Chihuly exhibits and am amazed at the art and engineering. I have also seen a video of him producing just one of his simple objects, his motions and creativity are art and dance.
I would like to see a Starbucks Card that morphs the Siren from original to present day. It could even be a high tech hologram where the Siren shifts as you move the card.
I would love to be able to design my own Starbucks card – my wife is a Gold member and it is a really attractive card.
In Canada, we usually don’t see anything beyond the typical gift card design. It is nice to see something different.
Love the idea about the glass (looking) Starbucks card!
My idea: it would be great to have more seasonal Starbucks cards, especially here on Canada. I loved their augmented reality idea and it would be cool to use the cards
With the app.
Here in Canada we also don’t seem to get too many designs either, which they should change.
Really awesome idea! I was just in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream where we used some of his art as inspiration (mostly just the glowing lights.
As for a card? I’m a Philly boy, so I’d love to see a Philly themed card, maybe with Independence Hall or the Liberty Bell or something to that effect.
I wish I could earn stars on all my different cards and put them in the one account ! Don’t know if thats different in the US
I would like to be able to make my own card from the starbucks website & have the ability to upload my own picture to it. Best Buy used to give you the ability to do so & I uploaded a picture of some freinds & I, and while the card has no value anymore, I cherish it.
also If we could see one with how the Siren has changed over the years would be great as well.
I would like to suggest a functionality improvement. I get Starbucks cards all the time as gifts, which is great, but then I have to register them so I can get the Stars. It would be so great if I could scan something on the card that would automatically register it to me on the app as well as on the Starbucks.com site.
Thanks !
I still really want to see Gold Card free drink coupons loaded into the iPhone app. I envision it working similar to Groupon. When you hit 15 drinks, the app loads a special barcode for a free drink that you can scan. The barista could mark it as redeemed. I would be so happy with this!
@ Bobbi Cacatian – You don’t have to register each individual card you get as a gift. If you have one main card that you love and use as your primary card (and have registered it) just take it and any other Starbucks cards you get as gifts, to your local Starbucks. Ask the Barista to load the cards you received as gifts onto your primary card. 🙂 I do this all the time.
@ Brett – I believe that Starbucks has launched a pilot project for this already in a small area. If all goes well I think they said it was going to be rolled out by the end of the year. From what I read the free drinks would be loaded onto your card but you would have to use them within a two week period.
@ Cheryl – True, but the App has a Scanner built in. How cool would it be to scan the code, pick the card it goes on from your My Cards library and Voila ! ?
For the tazo tea idea have a picture of tea cups with Dale Chiluly art on them!
@Darkkatpouncing – I like the idea of a Halloween card too. The other day I was talking to a friend about some SBUX Halloween merchandise I had picked up about 8 years ago, including small tumblers and some paper mache (day of the dead-type) orange skulls. You don’t see merchandise like that at Starbucks any more.
@Dadcooks – I also like the idea of the morphing logo – it could be made very high tech, or the retro 3-D cards.
As for my own card suggestions, I too would like more charity cards – perhaps an Indivisible card. I wish they hadn’t stop supporting the (RED) card. Hopefully, they’ll do more cards like that in the future.
@Melody – forgot to mention how much I like your idea. Especially if it was translucent. I still would like to see mugs too though! – Perhaps a Chihuly collection with the launch of the card.
Since Starbucks had the grand Opening of their FIRST Starbucks inside a theme park this month. Namely Disney California Adventure, I think it would be fitting to have a Co-Branded DISNEY Card1 They have wonderful Co-branded drink service cups. (Melody, email me if you would like pictures of the co-branding, or a story on the restaurant)
Hi Sue! That’s a very nice offer but I have photos of those co-branded Disney-Starbucks cups here on the blog. Just look at the June archives, right around the 15th (or relatively close to that. :)) I went down there for its opening! And I totally agree, that a cobranded Disney-Starbucks card would be great. I think that I am a fan of co-branding, when tastefully done. The Chihuly card would essentially be a co-branded card too. Sorry for typos. In a hurry.
I think some crazy and cool shapes and lots of bright colors would be cool, and it could be transparent as well maybe reflect the colors from the.card but it won’t be just one card design like that there could be many different ones!!
I find that the cards, although very convenient as it is available at all corporate stores is also creating a lot of waste. I see lots of people who get these cards as a gift from friends and when it’s used up, dispose of them, creating a lot of plastic in the landfill. There’s got to be a better way to deal with this creation of waste. It would be nice if there is a way that the used cards can be re-used because a lot of them look very new. Or if there is some kind of program where they can be recycled or something. As much as the app is great at dealing with this issue, it’s also a pain to use at drive thru because of the sunlight’s glare outside. And for a lot of licensed stores that don’t have the barcode scanner, it’s also a pain to have to manually enter the card number at the register. What I would like to see is a bigger barcode screen instead of the tiny one that is by default right now and a better way to deal with the mass amount of plastic that gets thrown into the landfill. There should be some kind of way to encourage people to reuse their cards instead of getting new ones and throwing them away, some kind of star system that you can get with a reload on the same card so as to encourage the reuse of the card instead of getting a new one that you throw away. I don’t know. It just seems like a lot of waste in my view about the cards, especially if it doesn’t seem to be much of a “collectible” for the majority of users.
Hi
I love the glass art you shared Melody. Perhaps state cards – showing the state flower, bird, flag… some people collect shot glasses or spoons… some of us – Starbucks cards.
Just a thought.
I adore the old “coffee stamp” artwork that you can find in most of the older Starbucks locations. I’d love to see a collection of Starbucks Cards that represent some of our most popular single-orgin coffees and blends with those older, romantic images. Breakfast Blend card, Espresso Roast card, etc….. that could be really cool. Going with that same “coffee card” theme, it’d be awesome if partners could submit their in-store artwork and we could vote for partner artwork to be featured on Starbucks cards.
I would like to see more functionality to the Partner card. Mine is registered with my Starbucks Gold Card account. Many Partners don’t realize you can do this. I wish that when the swipe is made for your Partner discount it would also be the swipe to pay- one swipe, instead of two.
I’d like the card to be accepted internationally, it would definitely make my life easier.
I would LOVE to see chalkboard cards. Would that be gross and messy? Hmmm anyways, yes a chalkboard card and you could write your favorite drink/a love note/ a thank you to your barista – whatever! Chalkboards are all over pinterest and blogs these days – I think it would definitely go with the Starbucks vibe!! 🙂
I’m sorry that I can’t reply to everything. So many great ideas. I’m thankful for everyone who chimed liking the idea of a Dale Chihuly card. I’m doing some legwork to see if I can really facilitate this. It seems like a big idea, but it’s not an out of this world unrealistic idea. We just need to get Dale and Howard talking right? 😉
@IveeMendoza – I can see that a Hello Kitty card might really work in Japan. Who knows, maybe someday? Japan gets all kinds of cool merchandise.
@LK – I am very fond of the older, more romantic coffee stamps. Love your idea. I far prefer the older coffee packaging to the new ones. Did you ever see this blog post?
http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2011/11/20/the-classic-starbucks-coffee-stamp-a-framed-look/
It would be great to do coffee stamps on the cards!
@CherylForsley – One sort of challenge with the idea of adding another level, is that it would be possible to create another level of confusion. As it is right now, you can use ANY card to get all your benefits, and there is no requirement to use the gold card. Many partners erroneously believe that you only earn stars if you are paying with an actual gold card. Not true. A platinum card could really add a layer of confusion in the stores. The other thing is right now the card system is almost weighted in favor of people who live in very urban areas that have numerous Starbucks. I’m around Starbucks ALL the time because of spending A LOT of time in downtown Seattle. Places like downtown Seattle, and perhaps Boston, and NYC are dense with Starbucks. I visited 5 different stores today (that’s a little more than usual because of what I had going on). I sometimes think that there is no area more densely packed with Starbucks than downtown Seattle. But in any case, for some people, it’s not unreasonable that he or she may earn 80 to 90 stars in a month, every month. Suddenly, the threshold of 150 stars being platinum seems far too low. Perhaps 500 stars is more sensible. And to add an additional layer of confusion, there will be every year people running around with gold cards, with their name on those cards, using those cards, who are NOT gold level. You get a gold card. You permanently hold on to it. You do not permanently stay gold. Each year you have to re-earn that status. Looking at my own profile, I’m over 500 stars so far this year, and I have to re-earn gold status on 1-5-2013.
I do not mean to sound like a negative nancy about your idea – Many brands at the scale of Starbucks find ways to reward their extremely high use/high purchasing customers.
I have a whole series of articles in drafts about all of this. It would be even more overwhelming to have a platinum level, which again, would not be permanent – but that person would always be using a platinum card. I hope all of that makes some sense.
@Brett – Some of us use an Android phone, not an iphone. 😉 In any case, digital rewards are in testing in Pittsburgh! Yay!
http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2012/04/23/starbucks-now-testing-digitalelectronic-free-drink-rewards/
I would love for starbucks cards to be able to work internationally, at least for the stars, if not being able to make purchases using them. I travel fairly often between Australia and New Zealand, and wish I could just have the one card!
@Lena – Thank you for reading the blog. I realize that sounds a little random. I do think this blog is very Seattle-centric, and obviously I focus largely on what Starbucks is doing in the US. I appreciate all the international readers who are here despite that I can see it might get a little dull when what I write might not pertain to the international markets. So thank you! Statistically, about 70% of my visitors are from the US. Canada is number 2 with about 8% of my month visits. And not many people in Australia read this site! So thank you!
A customer art contest? A customer art contest in which the background must take into account the spaces for the fine print, code, and stripe? And of course the ultimate, and you know the technology exists, and people might pay extra for it, let us design our own custom cards. Ten dollar printing charge and they mail it to us.
Beautiful photo – that would be great on a card!
I like LK’s ideas of coffee stamps and partner artwork for card designs.
@Melody— Yes, I saw that one. Also loved the post about the bridge on the old Verona bags. I sort of unintentionally started a collection of coffee stamp artwork. I’ve seen 3 stores through major 10 year renovations, and if you’re in the right place at the right time the old artwork and framed wall posters are offered up to partners for the taking. My living room wall is host to all these four feet tall coffee stamp pieces—Bella Vista, Viennese Blend, Gold Coast and French Roast. The Viennese Blend one even says Wien 2001 on the bottom, it’s awesome.
So many great ideas! I’d love to see more holiday/special occasion cards. Especially Halloween and even a wedding card. My daughter wanted to give a Starbucks gift card to some friends getting married this summer and it was hard to find an appropriate, special card for them. For a Starbucks newlywed couple it would have been fun for them to take that wedding card on their honeymoon and to just keep as a treasure and keepsake of their special day.