'Making Starbucks planners takes whole year'

In this photo provided by Starbucks Coffee Korea, planner designers Park Young-ha, left, and Whang So-youn of the creative team pose for a photo with the 2020 planners. Courtesy of Starbucks Coffee Korea

By Kwak Yeon-soo

With the Christmas and holiday season just around the corner, Starbucks Coffee Korea is sticking to the classics for its 2020 planners.

Two designers ― Park Young-ha and Whang So-youn ― of the creative team at Starbucks Korea shared some stories and the passion that went into making these annual holiday treats.

“The overall theme of the 2020 planner is Time, Journey, My Own,” Park said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

“To commemorate Starbucks' 20th anniversary in Korea, we decided to stick to proven customer favorites, like bringing back the iconic Siren logo.”

Whang said the team initiated planning for the 2020 collection right after launching the 2019 planners last year.

“In 2019, we received a lot of feedback from our customers through diverse channels, including social media and my Starbucks review survey,” Whang recalled.

“Customers said it would be perfect if there were pen pockets and index stickers. So, we reflected their opinions when creating this year's planners.”

With four color options to choose from, the daily planners come in blue, green, purple and pink.

“The blue and green planners are for those who want to use it as daily schedulers. They have monthly goal trackers,” she said.

“The purple one is recommended for those who want to use it as a travel organizer. It's compact in size and has a map that shows Starbucks stores all around the globe. Meanwhile, the pink planner includes pages where you can keep a journal.”

For 2020, Starbucks Korea incorporated the Siren logo back into the design.

“We know that our customers love having the Siren logo on our merchandise, so our latest planner comes with it on a hardbound leather cover,” Whang said.

A difference between the Starbucks 2020 planner and previous ones, Park mentioned is its eloquent design and use of diverse fabrics.

“Every year, we think of ways to make our planners more unique, exclusive and collectible,” Park said. “We also used denim fabric with logo silk printing on the cover.”