Elisha ben Abraham Cresques, Catalan Atlas (Majorca, 1375). Manuscript map. 25.3 x 118.1 inches. Web (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
“The Catalan Atlas”
This is a siren depicted in the Catalan Atlas. The Atlas was made by a Jewish mapmaker in Majorca, Elisha Cresques (1325-1387). He achieved this with his knowledge of Catalan, Hebrew, and Arabic, helping visualize his understanding of the universe and inhabited world in 1375. The manuscript map measures ten feet wide and represents the peak of medieval mapmaking in Majorca.
Cresques’ goal was to create a visual encyclopedia of the world with images to encompass all known geographical, historical, and human knowledge. This map covers lands from the Atlantic to China and Scandinavia to Africa. The imagery of his Atlas shows how one 14th-century man understood the political and ethnic realities of his world.
This siren is located in East Asia, which still remained largely unknown to Europeans in the 14th century. Cresques relied heavily on Marco Polo’s 13th-century travel narrative to fill in certain details, such as sirens in the Indian Ocean, as well as pearl fishers in the Persian Gulf, who—according to the Venetian traveler—chant incantations to protect themselves against dangerous fish.
Jordan Perkel
Illustrator: Terry Heckler; 1971 Terry Heckler, The Evolution of Our Logo, Starbucks Archive, 1971-2011.
“Evolution of Our Logo”
The siren on the Starbucks logo first appeared in 1971 and has since undergone a few makeovers before it became the iconic logo people know today. In 1971 Starbucks had a brown logo with the words Starbucks, Coffee, Tea, Spices, encircling an almost lifelike siren. In 1982 it made the switch to green and a cartoon siren that looks closely like the famous modern siren. In 2011 Starbucks had the siren stand alone, without the title of Starbucks Coffee since the siren had become so famous and recognizable to their brand.
The coffee company’s siren can be closely linked to the one on Elisha Ben Abraham Cresques’s 1375 Catalan Atlas. The Starbucks siren is described as a seductive, twin-tailed mermaid from Greek mythology, who used her enchanting song to entice passing sailors to their death. But in the case of Starbucks, they want to lure customers to their piping hot products.
Jordan Perkel