New Uber Logo Design Shunned By The Internet: Many Want The Old Uber Logo Back
The new Uber logo isn’t sitting well with the rest of the internet. What used to be a black and white U-shaped icon was replaced by an “atom and bit” design yesterday, leaving the rest of the world asking, “Why?”
Wired reports that the new Uber logo will vary from country to country.
Jessi Hempel writes, “The colors and patterns will vary from country to country—red in China, turquoise in India, dark teal in the United States—but everywhere, the app will open with an elegant, patterned animation, welcoming users to the new Uber.”
Mashable notes that Uber’s logo change comes at a time when their valuation continues to rise every day. In fact, the company is currently valued near $62 billion.
From a business standpoint, Uber expanded its courier delivery program to retailers like Nordstrom and is planning to release a food delivery app sometime this spring.
So, what’s the reason behind the logo redesign?
Jessi Hempel explains, writing, “The story of how Kalanick and his design team came to replace the ubiquitous ‘U’ logo is about more than a corporate rebranding effort. It’s a coming-of-age tale. It’s about Uber’s attempt to transform its purpose and cement a new reputation—to change not only how it is perceived throughout the world, but how it perceives itself.”
Amidst the changes, it’s tough to determine whether the new Uber logo is well received or not.
Truthfully, the CEO of Uber himself, Travis Kalanick, doesn’t even know what’s going to occur.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I feel that it’s going to be good,” he told Mashable.
Fast-forward to now.
Twitter exploded with mostly negative comments about the rebrand today. Why a new logo is so important to so many people remains unanswered, but many are nevertheless asking for the old Uber logo back.
Despite all the negative comments, the rebrand was an effort to get past old perceptions about Uber.
“The early app was an attempt at something luxury,” says Uber CEO Kalanick. “That’s where we came from, but it’s not where are today.”
Perhaps it’s easier to understand why everyone hates the rebranding when looking at it like this: Kalanick himself, a CEO with no experience in graphic design, came up with the design himself.
Normally, these types of things are entrusted to marketing and branding agencies, but Kalanick wasn’t having it.
“For the past three years, he’s worked alongside Uber design director Shalin Amin and a dozen or so others, 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,” Jessi Hempel writes.
“I didn’t know any of this stuff,” said Kalanick. “I just knew it was important, and so I wanted it to be good.”
Uber changed their logo and it makes no sense to me. You changed from a "U" to a backwards "C"…? pic.twitter.com/RKvBNJtvtr
— TmarTn (@TmarTn) February 3, 2016
The CEO’s words are put into an oddly different kind of perspective when put up against the harsh Twitter rants of the past day.
People are not happy, and many want the old Uber logo back — despite them not liking that one too much either. Whether the new Uber logo is going to win the hearts of us in time is tough to tell, but Uber is moving forward regardless.
[Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images]
