You’ve heard of Uber, right? Here’s the gist: You download the app, sign up and if you ever need a ride, you “Call an Uber” with your Android or iOS device. A car comes and takes you where you need to go. The full transaction is handled inside the app, and you can tip/rate your driver accordingly. You can also sign up to be a driver for Uber, where you use your own car to shuffle people about town. Uber is one of the few company names that is now also a verb, as I have lots of friends who say things like, “I’m going to Uber over to the store,” because my friends are quirky. Well, that company has now rebranded, and it sounds like it was the biggest pain-in-the butt experience ever.
Here are the new app icons, by the way, plus the wordmark:
And here’s what the old one looked like:
All this info comes from a story on Wired, and it can all be summed up with this section:
Here’s the thing, though. Kalanick is not a designer. He’s an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by nature. Yet he refused to entrust the rebranding to anyone else. This was an unusual decision. Most CEOs hire experts–branding agencies that specialize in translating corporate values into fonts and colors–or tap an in-house team. Not Kalanick. For the past three years, he’s worked alongside Uber design director Shalin Amin and a dozen or so other, hammering out ideas from a stuffy space they call the War Room. Along the way, he studied up on concepts ranging from kerning to color palettes. “I didn’t know any of this stuff,†says Kalanick. “I just knew it was important, and so I wanted it to be good.â€
The story goes on to talk about how it took forever for Kalanick (Uber’s CEO) to get the text of their logo right, and then how the design team went to his house for a long weekend where they all brainstormed icon ideas in his condo where he has a mammoth chalkboard.
Now we’ve all had crappy design experiences with crappy clients, and usually they start with this same kind of story. There’s a client who only has a peripheral idea of what they want, and then they stand over your shoulder during the entire process. Now imagine doing that for months, and then having to go on a company retreat to the client’s house to do the same thing. Holy cow, that sounds like an absolute nightmare.
As for reactions from the world at large, Gizmodo has a few things to say (including this NSFW one), and then there are the tweets:
New Uber logo looks like a new-wave Pac-Mac in a Tron field? I dunno. https://t.co/TdQflKKpAu
– nilay patel (@reckless) February 2, 2016
I don’t know guys, I kind of like the new Uber logo. (the blue ghost represents worker rights) pic.twitter.com/x9PPxz0JdE
– Matt Haughey (@mathowie) February 2, 2016
I really thought Uber would go with the other option they were considering for their new logo. pic.twitter.com/yv3NVQjpj5
– Peter Rojas (@peterrojas) February 2, 2016
Thought that new @Uber logo looked familiar. Better call Robocop. pic.twitter.com/HdFKSp8XVQ
– Pete Pachal (@petepachal) February 2, 2016
What are your thoughts? Good, bad or indifferent, we want to know!
Kevin Whipps is a writer and editor based in Phoenix, Arizona. When he’s not working on one of the many writing projects in his queue, he’s designing stickers with his wife at Whipps Sticker Co.
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Hi! My name is Kevin Whipps, and I'm a writer and editor based in Phoenix, Arizona. When I'm not working taking pictures of old cars and trucks, I'm either writing articles for Creative Market or hawking stickers at Whipps Sticker Co.
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