As it usually is, the Indiana Avenue Starbucks is packed. The line, creating an arch shape of customers around the tables and holiday merchandise displays, stretches toward the back of the store.
The front of the store has been transformed for the holiday season. The menus are red, holiday drinks are on display, and there are shelves of potential holiday gifts being shown off to customers who are waiting in the lengthy line.
By the door and the anxious people at the end of the line, a display shows off 10 of the 13 new holiday cups. For the first time Starbucks has released not one holiday design but 13 distinct ones submitted by customers from across the world, according to a Nov. 9 press release.
Next to the cashier is a display of ceramic mugs, which, unlike the highly anticipated red cups, will be useful long after the holiday hype is over. The travel mugs are decorated with black and white checks made to look like the Indianapolis 500 flag. Across the bottom, “Indiana” stands out in bright red, calligraphic letters. The sign beneath the display claims “custom-designed just for you!”
They really are.
The racing-themed mugs were designed by IU alumna Suzie Reecer, who is currently working her dream job at Starbucks Global Creative Studio.
“Finding your dream job is possible,” Reecer said. “I know IU is really setting all their students up to find that.”
Reecer attributes much of her success to the opportunities she had at IU before she graduated in 2014 with a bachelor of fine arts in the Department of Studio Art and a minor in apparel merchandising.
Don’t be afraid of what other people think about whatever major you choose to pursue, Reecer said. She left the Kelley School of Business to pursue art, which she said took guts because of the stigma associated with an art degree.
Outside of class, she was heavily involved in the IU Student Foundation, which she points to as a main reason she landed her position at Starbucks.
“At the end of the day, the IUSF was the best thing that I ever did,” Reecer said.
She spent her four years at IU working with the philanthropic organization in some capacity. She started in the marketing committee then moved to the steering committee, which led the hundreds of members in the organization, and then became vice president.
It was through IUSF she met Louis Jordan, who had previously been senior vice president of finance for Starbucks. He said if she was ever in Seattle to give him a call, and he would set something up for her.
So when all of her friends went to Mexico for graduation, Reecer went to Seattle.
The interview worked out, she said, and she was offered a role as a visual merchandiser.
It is no coincidence that the shelves of holiday gift mugs tower over the line of waiting customers, nor is it accidental that Reecer’s Indianapolis mugs are placed right in front of the cash register. Those decisions are made by visual merchandisers, the first role Reecer took on at Starbucks.
Her responsibilities included planning where merchandise and signage would be located in a store, and setting the layout. It wasn’t a design job but she said her minor in apparel merchandising from IU came in handy.
She had also previously had a visual merchandising internship with Victoria’s Secret, which she learned about at a career fair her freshman year.
“People were like, ‘freshmen don’t get internships’, but I’m still going to try,” Reecer said of her freshman self.
The Victoria’s Secret representative asked Reecer what she would suggest adding to the company’s product line.
“Socks,” she said.
She got the internship and another one the next year in graphic design and promotions for the company. She said these two internships gave her the leverage to clinch the job at Starbucks.
“There are so many opportunities,” Reecer said. “Experience is what teaches you a ton and gives you the opportunity to apply what you’re learning in class.”
Billy Bettner, a senior pursuing a bachelor of fine arts in the Department of Studio Arts, agreed experience is essential.
“Nothing that I have been taught can compare to the experience of working with a client one on one,” Bettner said. “In a classroom, you only have so much at stake, a grade or to some extent your personal reputation, but with a real job, you have people’s plans, events and money on the line. When you do work for a class, it doesn’t always account for a client’s needs, and what’s at stake for both parties should the design not live up to either’s standards.”
He also echoed the importance of networking, which gave Reecer the connection to Starbucks she needed to get the intial interview.
“Finding a job afterwards, or an internship or apprenticeship, are all on the networks you create yourself,” Bettner said. “Some of those you can create from within the program, but the ability to work for people is the most important, and can only be taught so much.”
Bettner balances several different skills in the fine arts area. He is currently deciding between graphic design and photography for his future career.
During her two-year visual merchandising role at Starbucks, Reecer had to balance her responsibilities and passion for design.
“Even though that wasn’t my role here, I kept doing it because I was passionate about that,” she said.
In 2015, Reecer designed a bicycle mug that was chosen to be part of the holiday gift collection.
“It was one of the first times I could be like, ‘I do know how to do this,’” Reecer said about using her design skills.
Reecer used a Japanese-style ink and brush technique to sketch a minimalist bicycle, according to a Starbucks press release from Dec. 7, 2015. After rounds of feedback, the final design made the front tire a bright green accent against the white background of the mug.
The bicycle design paid homage to several parts of her life, she said. Most obviously for Hoosiers, the bike represented Little 500, the largest event put on by the IUSF. The design was also inspired by the Pelotonia bike ride, which Reecer was involved in during her internship with Victoria’s Secret in Ohio.
The design also paid tribute to her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. When Reecer was in fourth grade, a family friend was killed in a bicycling accident, she said. This loss inspired Reecer’s mother to co-found Aboite New Trails, according to the release. The nonprofit builds trails in the Fort Wayne area to provide safer options for cyclists.
However, Reecer could not tell her mother about the mug she helped to inspire until the very end of the design and selection process, according to the release.
“There’s no showing anyone, not even family or anything,” she said. “Everything is really confidential.”
The big reveal is her favorite part.
“The most rewarding part is seeing people appreciate it,” she said. “That’s the most special part — when I get to share it with people.”
Shortly after the debut of her bicycle mug, Reecer was promoted to senior designer and has now switched gears again to become a senior designer of e-commerce. Although she has settled into Seattle and Starbucks, she hasn’t forgotten about her Indiana roots.
“My whole group of friends, quite a few people went to Indiana,” she said. “We have this connection of IU and being able to go watch basketball games and football games together and also simple things — just knowing what Kilroy’s is, and Nick’s and Little 5.”
Bloomington is really special place, Reecer said.
