Starbucks Global Cup Celebration
Starbucks Global Cup Celebration was a multi-channel campaign designed to celebrate the passion, community, and culture surrounding the world’s biggest soccer tournament. While Starbucks was not an official tournament sponsor, the opportunity was to create meaningful experiences for fans and position Starbucks as a place to gather, connect, and cheer on their teams.
As lead designer, I developed the creative vision and visual system across retail, experiential, transit, and merchandise touchpoints. The campaign embraced Starbucks’ newly launched brand expression, combining bold typography, simplified graphic storytelling, and the iconic Starbucks cup to create a distinctive soccer-inspired identity. The work included reusable cup sleeves distributed across global markets, retail signage, a Seattle Monorail takeover, and an exclusive merchandise collection for Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in New York and Chicago.
The result was a cohesive campaign that celebrated both soccer culture and coffee culture, generating strong customer engagement and helping bring the excitement of a global sporting moment into Starbucks stores.
Services
Art Direction
Campaign Design
Merchandise Design
To bring the campaign directly into customers’ hands, I designed a collection of 48 reusable cup sleeves inspired by the scarves, kits, and supporter culture that define the global game. Distributed across global markets with teams represented in the tournament, the sleeves transformed Starbucks’ most iconic product into a collectible expression of fandom.
The project required balancing competing stakeholder perspectives. Some teams wanted the work to feel broadly accessible to customers unfamiliar with soccer culture, while others pushed for a more authentic expression of the sport. There was also ongoing discussion around how prominently Starbucks branding should appear versus celebrating the identity of participating nations. The final system struck a balance between both objectives, combining bold, soccer-inspired graphics with color palettes drawn from national team kits and flags while remaining distinctly Starbucks.
The result was a cohesive collection of 48 colorways that celebrated countries competing on soccer’s biggest stage and generated strong customer engagement as a launch-day giveaway.
Building on Starbucks’ new brand expression system, I created a series of retail graphics and activations designed to connect the brand’s most recognizable asset—the white cup—with the energy of soccer culture. A simple graphic transformed the green dot from the Starbucks logo into a ball striking the back of a goal, creating a flexible visual device that could scale across multiple environments.
The system was brought to life through store windows, marquee locations, A-frame signage, and a custom Seattle Monorail wrap. Working closely with copywriting partners, the creative paired bold visual storytelling with playful lines such as “This Cup Is Yours” and “For Here or To Gooooooooal.” Despite an accelerated timeline and multiple rounds of executive review, the work launched across key touchpoints and helped create a visible presence for the campaign throughout the city.
For Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in New York and Chicago, I concepted and designed an exclusive merchandise collection inspired by the style, rituals, and community of soccer culture. Drawing from classic kit design, supporter gear, and contemporary streetwear, the collection translated Starbucks Reserve into a lifestyle expression that felt authentic to both coffee and sport.
The collection included custom jerseys, scarves, apparel, drinkware, a vintage-inspired leather football, and accessories built around an original illustration of the Starbucks Siren holding a football. I led the product concepts, graphics, color palette, and design direction, working with cross-functional partners to bring the collection to market. Several products sold out within the first week of launch, including the graphic tees and MiiR tumblers, demonstrating strong customer engagement and demand.
