Theme Showcase: Inconsistent Premium Themes Labeling

[Copons]

Premium themes are labeled inconsistently across Calypso and wp-admin:

Plan	Calypso	wp-admin
Free
Paid

Things that come to mind:

• The label should be consistent and as similar as possible.
• Can't help but question the Calypso ones. To me, they feel kind of the opposite of what they should be.
  • Do paid users (with premium themes included) need the loud green star?
  • What is its purpose, what is it signalling? Is it a way to teach users the value of the plan they are already paying?
  • With some searches, users would see the green star on most-if-not-all themes, which can be overwhelming.
  • Are free users able to notice the subtle grey star?
  • Is it intentional that this "upgrade nudge" is less visible where it should be more visible?
  • I'm aware that we use the star to indicate paid features, but I'm not sure if it's the right icon. The first thought I had when I saw it was that it was a bookmark button! (which, btw, not the worst idea! 😄 )
    • No idea if there is a commonly established icon for premium/paid features (a padlock? a dollar symbol?), but by and large, nowadays, star signifies: favorite, bookmark, like, etc.

cc @Automattic/serenity @SaxonF @ianstewart

[dsas]

The first thought I had when I saw it was that it was a bookmark button! (which, btw, not the worst idea! 😄 )

It's a thing in Core! Maybe particularly useful for agencies / prolific site creators

No idea if there is a commonly established icon for premium/paid features (a padlock? a dollar symbol?

I'm aware that we use the star to indicate paid features

We also use it to mean "Connect to stripe" on payment blocks 😅

[Copons]

@dsas Yeah the star icon has been my pet peeve since the big GS Next Steps post (along with the wild usage of "Premium") 😄

And, TIL about favoriting themes on Core! I used to do it for plugins, but it never occurred to me that it was the same for themes. 😮