02.02.2016 02:24 PM. It was an elegant, elitist way for Kalanick, his friends, and people like them to "roll around San Francisco like ballers." Uber’s previous logo from their 2016 rebrand. “It starts with new leaders, a better company culture, and improvements to our app…” The story of how Kalanick and his design team came to replace the ubiquitous “U” logo is about more than a corporate rebranding effort. — Lauren Sherman (@LaurenSherman) February 3, 2016 Dara Khosrowshahi is the CEO of Uber, where he manages the company’s fast-growing business in 63 countries around the world and leads a global team of more than 22,000 employees. Instead, they'll see a colorful geometric shape---hexagonal if they drive, circular if they're a rider---surrounding a small, bit-like square. Get the free guide now. Uber launched the rebrand in 2016, gradually backed-away from parts of it in 2017, and rebranded again in 2018 (Airbnb, for comparison, also had a controversial rebrand but has stuck with it) I reviewed dozens of stories about the journey and reviews of the output to synthesize what we can learn from Uber’s journey. When most of your employees fit in your living room, it’s easy to communicate your plans. So, let’s look at two of Uber’s rebrands, one in 2016 and another in 2018. If you opt to use any trademarks, logos, designs, and/or other brand features, you acknowledge your acceptance of the terms in the brand guidelines. The team worried it was too minimalist—a user wouldn’t make the connection to the larger Uber brand. Uber’s previous logo from their 2016 rebrand. Uber had cars in fewer than 20 cities and a mere 50 employees, only two of whom were designers. A wiry designer with black-framed glasses and a very light beard, Amin, 37, and Kalanick had worked together six months earlier, on a contract project to redesign the rider app. “The warmth, the colors, those things,” he says, nodding to the new brand. Uber Rebrand: Color and Pattern Framework As part of our new visual identity redesign in February 2016, we launched a dynamic color and pattern framework to reflect the ongoing evolution Read More Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick built a hugely successful business, but an increasingly toxic culture had become a poison and tarnished the brand. Instead of pursuing a complex identity system, localized through color and pattern, we moved towards a universal ‘beyond-simple’ global brand. It’s a coming-of-age tale. Brand identity constantly evolves and changes in public opinion and bad press can tarnish a company’s brand. In 2016, Uber had a “radical rebrand” where ousted founder/ CEO Travis Kalanick spent the previous 2.5 years leading/ meddling with their design team to create all these colors based on country, hexagonal and circular patterns depending on riders and drivers, etc., “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he tells me five days before launch. They landed on the bright colors of the traditional Nigerian fabric, approving of the navies and reds and yellows the team in San Francisco had selected, and bringing them images to inspire their work. Respected design sites like UnderConsideration note the brand’s success at distancing itself from what came before: This new design is the most clear-cut example in recent memory of a company introducing a new logo to signal change and move away from very recent, very scandalous press. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Learn how. Reflecting on this, Kalanick says it was all a misrepresentation by the media. It took them 18 months to agree on five pillars they thought best described the company Uber aspires to be: grounded, populist, inspiring, highly evolved, and elevated. Uber opted for a complete redesign to overhaul the brand from the ground up. It's a question Kalanick is beginning to answer for himself. のっち Ryosuke Inoue 2018/09/16 09:22 こんにちは、のっちです。 ... 野心的なリブランディングを実施した2016年. Sunday, February 07, 2016 An Uber-Confusing Rebrand Not only did Uber unveil a new logo on Tuesday, but a total overhaul of their global brand and identity system—including a completely unrecognizable new app icon. Uber’s Lackluster Brand Experience. “I was a startup guy; I had a business to run,” says Kalanick. Introduce your rebranding efforts thoughtfully and methodically. Kalanick stared at it, slapping red Post-Its on his favorites. If you haven’t noticed already, Uber has completely revamped their look: out with the old black and white “U,” and in with a totally … Trong lần rebrand này, Uber đã nhận vô vàn sự hoài nghi và chỉ trích. He’s probably pacing; it's what he does when he works through problems, and this is a problem he’s been working through for more than two-and-a-half years. The result is a set of colors that are specific to each city. Amin nods and says, “The design review took ten minutes. I met with Kalanick last week, on the same day Apple approved Uber’s new apps for the app store. Forget a refresh---it was time for the company to rebrand entirely. The creative mind behind these was Catherine Ray, 28, a communications designer who was puzzling over themes when she found inspiration in the small square tiles in her bathroom. In 2010, Uber launched as a way for 100 fr Read More The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. Amanda Bowman is best known for her work in art, design, helping strangers at the grocery store, and her extensive knowledge of X-Files canon. Choosing colors was much tougher. Most-requested assets. “That’s where we came from, but it’s not where we are today.”. Then they met with people like Atawodi in their local offices via video conference to help edit the boards. Does Uber's rebrand move me? — Joshua Topolsky (@joshuatopolsky) February 3, 2016. They started talking to agencies and interviewed more than half a dozen. For one, the company had two logos—one with a U inside a box on the Android app, and one with a U and no box on the Apple app. The Uber brand became associated with negative attention rather than a positive brand experience, and its existing branding was undermining Uber’s marketing efforts. Uber's Powerful Rebrand and What Your Business Can Learn From It, https://images.crowdspring.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/27130851/uber_2018_reel.mp4, Learn How to Grow Your Business With Beautiful Design. By last spring, they’d stopped looking for outsiders to freshen the brand. This, of course, was before Uber ran afoul of regulators and got hit with lawsuits alleging it misclassifies drivers as private contractors. The 2016 effort wasn’t a disaster, but it also wasn’t the hit the company had hoped it would be. Not Kalanick. Your brand lives in everyday interactions your company has with its prospects and customers, including the images you share, the messages you post on your website, the content of your marketing materials, your presentations and booths at conferences, and your posts on social networks. The way Amin saw it, Uber's branding problems were manifold. There was no going back. Truth be told, Amin and Kalanick didn’t fully understand what they were trying to do, either. “If you don’t hear from me in 48 hours,” he remembers telling Amin, “We’re good.” Amin watched the clock and his email box alternately for 24 hours, and then locked down the final-final-final design on January 19. In 2010, Uber launched as a way for 100 friends in San Francisco to get luxury rides—everyone’s private driver. Incorporate your new logo or a related brand message everywhere you can. They kept getting stuck. New CEO Dara Khosrowshahi introduced himself to customers with a reassurance that he would bring the company a fresh start: I’m so excited to write Uber’s next chapter with you. Its highest growth areas are in regions outside of the US, such as Latin America and India, where Wolff Olins has a considerable depth of experience. But they had to kill the idea at the last minute; the icon looked too much like one belonging to an app launched by the State Bank of India. “I just knew it was important, and so I wanted it to be good.”. How to spot an @uber investor: search Uber on twitter and look for people saying nice things about their rebrand. Save articles for later. “There’s an evolution here, for the founder as well as for the company,” he says, “because really, they’re very connected.” During Uber’s early years, Kalanick came across as a bellicose bro, a rebel-hero always angling for a confrontation—with regulators, the taxi industry, and competitors. She marked the problematic ones—ones she felt were too squished up, or too busy—with yellow Post-Its. At least once a week they’d invite Kalanick to the war room for jam sessions that could last up to four hours. 26 September 2018. And in keeping with logo design trends, Uber’s promotional materials showcased how Uber was using its new logo in the real world. Eventually, they agreed on the pattern that would represent the global brand. By Dan Rule. Uber had two key goals when they created their new brand: simplicity and global usage. It’s important to equip your business with equally powerful strategies when it’s time for your own rebrand. This bits-and-atoms framework provided a north star as the team started considering new colors, patterns, photographs, and illustrations. In June, after sketching hundreds of icons without landing on a good lead, Amin invited them over for a week-long retreat. In place of Uber’s signature black, gray, and blue color palette, the company will embrace bright colors---lots of them. This belied what Uber actually is—a transportation network, woven into the fabric of cities and how they move. It can take time for people to come around to something so new, he says, “but I feel that it’s going to be good.”. Image courtesy of Uber, Uber’s goal with this project was to create a cohesive brand system described as “instantly recognizable, works around the world, and is efficient to execute.”. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Go check for yourself, if you haven't already. Your company’s brand is, in many ways, its personality. Updated February 11, 2016 — 11.43am first published at 11.09am. The old Uber logo emphasized the public’s perception of this hostility, imposing itself on customers with an all-caps, hyper-masculine aesthetic. This was an unusual decision. A great brand identity starts with a good, memorable company name and professionally designed logo. “The early app was an attempt at something luxury,” says Kalanick. 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. Uber, Uber, Uber. Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick built a hugely successful business, but an increasingly toxic culture had become a poison and tarnished the brand. Amin and his team decided to create colors, patterns, and images that were specific to each market, allowing Uber employees more autonomy in crafting messages for their own cities. Uber has relaunched its brand, with a new logo, identity, app icons, and site designs. これまでのUber、これからのUber（Uber rebrand 2018） 177. Today, millions of people around the world will turn on their smartphones and scan their screens for the black-and-white Uber icon, only to find it missing. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. Dara was previously CEO of Expedia, which he grew into one of the world’s largest online travel companies. Two-and-a-half years after Kalanick began thinking about how to help Uber’s brand grow up, its new apps were ready. Successful businesses know that checking on brand health is critical if they want to stay profitable. A strong brand communicates what your company does, how it does it, and at the same time, establishes trust and credibility with your prospects and customers. Fast forward to May of 2018 when Uber customers received an email, ostensibly from new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi. He challenged the designers to develop not just an image, but a concept. Their grid formation echoed the bits aspects of their bits-and-atoms theme. Wired may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Someone ordered Indian food, the scent of which persisted into the evening as they sketched ideas on a white board. Make sure your new branding is used consistently anywhere your customers engage with your business. Wrong turn in Uber rebrand. Uber, the transportation and logistics unicorn many private investors consider more valuable than Ford Motor Company or FedEx, rebranded today. Company Presentation Template (Keynote) Last … Peer-to-peer ridesharing, food delivery, and transportation network. By November, the team had a final design for the icon---a badge so visually connected to the concepts they’d developed that, in describing it, Kalanick once again narrowed his eyes and lifted his fingers to his mouth in a gesture of supreme satisfaction. Video courtesy of Uber. Yet he refused to entrust the rebranding to anyone else. Uber definitely went against the branding grain with its new look. Kalanick's involvement makes more sense when you understand the rebranding was personal. They wanted to communicate their vision to … He was like, ‘that’s good.’” But the logo introduced a bigger problem; beside it, Uber’s old brand assets looked tired. Image courtesy of Uber. Uber isn’t standing still, having only just had a rebrand in 2016, followed by some inescapably bad press, they are moving onwards and upwards with a complete overhaul of their brand and as a result their marketing materials at large. Most CEOs hire experts---branding agencies that specialize in translating corporate values into fonts and colors---or tap an in-house team. That’s exactly what happened with Uber when it rebranded for the second time in three years. Use valuable customer feedback to keep your brand relevant and reflective of their wants and needs. Either an agency would have great ideas and poor execution, or its designers wouldn’t understand what Kalanick and Amin wanted to do. It is his attempt to define who he is, and to give himself the flexibility to evolve alongside the company he started. She stared at it. Light smirks ripple across the room. As part of our new visual identity redesign in February 2016, we launched a new logotype to reflect the ongoing evolution of Uber. As we explained: A brand is the sum total of the experience your prospects and customers have with your company. It's a coming-of-age tale. What's the story behind it? “We walked out and we were like, this is crazy---we're designing a brand for Travis,” says Amin. He narrowed it to two—a tight, blocky font and a thicker one with rounded corners. By Christmas, the team had nearly finalized the icons for the rider and partner apps. Uber’s new logo is the foundation of a substantial rebranding effort – one that incorporates a sense of mobility, accessibility, and friendliness not found in previous iterations. What’s more, Uber is a global and a local brand—the Mumbai market is very different than, say, the market in Lagos. “I basically gave up understanding what your personal preference was,” Shalin tells him. Uber Rebrand: Visual Identity Framework In February 2016, we launched a new dynamic visual identity to reflect the ongoing evolution of Uber. But there’s more to creating a great brand experience than a flashy new logo. Uber Rebrand: Logotype. The problem was that even Kalanick realized he shouldn’t be controlling everything. Are you freaking out? UberCommute and UberPool would come later, but Uber had become a different company within a matter of months. Back in 2010, Uber’s founders launched an app that let wealthy bros summon BMWs and Lincoln Town Cars at the push of a button. In early January, while Kalanick was traveling in India, he jumped on the phone with Amin to talk through the last of the app’s refinements. Uber’s 2016 rebrand. Let’s take a look at why Uber rebranded, the lessons you can learn from their rebrand, and how smart businesses can do the same to protect their brand’s health and success. Each of 65 launch countries will receive a toolbox of new brand assets that include tailored colors and patterns, new midcentury modern illustrations, and guidelines for photography. “That happens, when you start to know who you are.”. “We’d made this assumption that one app could represent Uber,” said Jow, 27. They realized they needed to understand not only the thing they no longer were, but also the thing Uber was at the time, and what it was likely to become. He's an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by nature. © 2020 Condé Nast. Give your employees easy-to-use tools and resources to make it easy to follow your new branding guidelines to the letter. Uber’s new composition layout. Jow presented the idea to Kalanick, who loved it. Uber may be a global brand, but it is a local business. Make sure you keep your customers engaged and informed while you roll out your new brand experience. Uber’s lackluster brand experience. When Uber’s design team gets really stuck, they take a trip to Amin’s house. Transport company Uber has launched a new identity, which has been developed in-house by the company’s chief executive and co-founder Travis Kalanick working with its design director Shalin Amin. Uber understood it faced a critical mission: it had to persuade customers that its lousy reputation left the building when its former CEO was replaced. The concept stuck: Bits and atoms gave the team a frame on which to hang the redesign. If you haven't heard, the company that everyone loves (or hates, depending on which side of the fence you're on) unveiled a complete rebrand yesterday. Promotional reel for Uber’s new brand. A Brazilian designer named Roger Oddone arrived from Google to work on the typography and came up with some 200 new fonts to replace a logo many found hard to read. She began playing with the idea, sketching ovals and lines, and then printing 50 options that she affixed to a display. 2016 Rebrand. Today, we’re a transportation network spanning 450 cities in 70 countries. To reinforce their newfound dedication to a better customer experience, Uber’s brand strategy started with its most important visual element: their logo. But if you feel that your brand isn’t keeping up with the times or you’re not able to grow your business as fast as you want, consider a rebrand. What's more, the lettermark---the stylized, upper-case "U"---looked awkward beside the wordmark. At some point, Amin realized the process would be easier if the group established a set of principles other designers could follow. Listen to your customers. It felt wrong for Uber’s global and local brands to revolve around the color preferences of a rich, white guy in California---even if that rich, white guy in California is the CEO. Almost two-thirds of its 6,000 or so people have been with the company less than one year. The easiest way to get affordable, high-quality custom logos, print design, web design and naming for your business. The company updated its logo, and new rider- and partner-app icons reflect the individuality of Uber’s local markets. When not chasing down her adorable son from the clutches of Bob the Builder, she can be found writing, reading, designing t-shirts, and perfecting her Tom Jones impression. A smart and carefully considered design strategy will drive your rebrand straight to success. Kalanick became engrossed, evaluating pixels and colors according to what he euphemistically calls his “unique” set of preferences. Working with a few other designers, Amin and Kalanick started trying to articulate new brand pillars, company principles they could distill into simple words and phrases. Atawodi, 29, hired away from a local telecom operator last year, is tasked with expanding the Lagos market. Log in, register or subscribe to save articles for later. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. A young designer named Bryant Jow drew five boxes and popped a geometric shape around each. Does it work? That’s when they hit on the idea of designing different color palettes for different regions. Uber's Powerful Rebrand and What Your Business Can Learn From It - crowdspring Blog. Nothing seemed right. Learn more. 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. Not everyone enjoyed the new typography, and many found the new icon — the “bit”, as Uber called it — to be confusing. And they’d made great progress. Because right now, on the fourth floor of Uber's cavernous offices in downtown San Francisco, the company’s pugnacious founder and CEO, Travis Kalanick, is waiting to hear what people think. A few days later, Kalanick questioned whether it was really done. Anyone can draw an icon, he told them. “I was like, ‘He’s got this pastel thing going with, like, bright colors.’”. But now that task is exponentially harder. The dust has settled, the commentary has been published, and almost everyone—from branding experts to the average Twitter user can agree—Uber’s rebrand leaves much to … The clean visual break from Uber’s previous brand identity broke ties with their former CEO and toxic culture, pushing the company forward into a new era. The letters in the UBER wordmark were too widely spaced, and the U had an unsightly twist on its left prong. New mid-century modern illustrations are part of Uber's new brand. Branding, Rebranding, and Uber's New Logo. Kalanick knew there was a problem, but he had a long list of more pressing matters. For Kalanick, who turns 40 this year and has gained a few more shades of silver in his spiky, salt-and-pepper hair, this rebrand has been an act of self-exploration. Most redesigns we have seen in recent years are part of positive momentum and while Uber surely has some of that going in its favor, this logo’s primary job is try to get as many people as possible to put as much of Uber’s past in the past. Forget a refresh---it was time for the company to rebrand entirely. Logo này được phát triển và thiết kế bởi chính đội ngũ design in-house của Uber vào năm 2016, với mục tiêu để thể hiện cho “bit” – viết tắt của binary digit, đơn vị dữ liệu nhỏ nhất trên máy tính. By combining the best elements of each and adjusting the prongs of the “e” in Uber, he came up with a wordmark that is easy to read. Uber’s rebrand is a powerful example of how design can influence consumer opinion. “Mmmm!” he says. In February 2016, we launched a new dynamic visual identity to reflect the ongoing evolution of Uber. It just sort of worked. They’ve replaced 2016’s odd, blue circuit board pattern with a simple, clean font, and in doing so, invited the opinion of every branding professional, designer, and enthusiast. ... Well, then you pull an Uber and totally rebrand your image. Save. Their intention with this rebranding was to reposition themselves in the marketplace as more than just a ride-sharing company. “But Uber had already changed; we weren’t really just one app anymore.”. They returned to the war room with this conceptual framework for building a toolbox of materials. Do you like it? Uber’s previous logo from their 2016 rebrand. The team stared at it. One of the most well-known startups in the world, and not always for the right reasons—with allegations ranging from unfair business practices, to assaults on customers—it’s essential for the company that it establishes a positive brand message. They updated their logo and branding just two years ago. In place of black, gray, and blue, Uber is embracing bright colors, and lots of them. Kalanick is not a designer. Meanwhile, a set of patterns emerged organically. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business, science to design. The story of how Uber came to replace the ubiquitous 'U' logo is about more than a corporate rebranding effort. Unlock the secret to faster business growth. Not this one. It’s a three-bedroom condo with a chalkboard wall, located at the edge of San Francisco’s hip Mission neighborhood with a Blue Bottle Coffee on the corner. Even now, Kalanick strides over to the poster board bearing the new logo and points to it, then lifts all ten fingers to his mouth and squints his eyes. Ebi Atawodi is the general manager of Uber Nigeria, in Lagos. Image courtesy of Uber. Only 24% of people answer all 5 questions correctly. Uber’s lackluster brand experience. It starts with new leaders, a better company culture, and improvements to our app…. The reaction to Uber’s rebrand has been generally positive. Uber’s previous logo from their 2016 rebrand. All of Uber’s brand features are proprietary. The need to rebrand was clear: without a complete brand overhaul, Uber risked totaling its business. The company had, by that point, assembled a more complete design team, which had grown more confident in its own ideas. Bits represented the machine efficiency involved in Uber’s mapping and dispatch software. According to Fast Company, one of Wolff Olins’ primary goals was legibility. It was before Kalanick raised more than $10 billion---valuing the business at close to $65 billion---on the promise that it would become the future of logistics. Uber’s new rebrand celebrates cities BY Tate Papworth ON 3 February 2016 4 min read Uber has drastically altered the appearance of its icons and logo, as part of a new rebrand designed to better reflect the company and the cities it serves. We’ve written in detail about effective rebranding strategies. The old branding materials were nearly nonexistent—black, gray, and blue colors and a few small design elements (a grid, a dot, and a line) that Uber’s marketers could use to put together ads and promotional materials. As we wrote, creating an effective brand strategy for your business means you must consider how your brand connects you with your customers: A brand is a living document of not only what your company represents it also acts as a vital connection between your customers and your business. Ride-sharing juggernaut Uber is all too familiar with checking on brand health. When will you learn? Uber's rebrand, says Kalanick, is about helping every person in its ecosystem---riders, partners, and employees---grok the company's culture and ambitions. In mid-November, everyone returned to the war room once more for a brainstorming exercise with very clear objectives. Image courtesy of Uber. Uber’s rebrand in use in New York’s Times Square. Design studio Wolff-Olins collaborated with Uber’s internal design team to create a brand that would easily adapt to the 660+ cities worldwide where Uber operates. The designers mocked up mood boards for individual cities, regions and countries, piecing together images representing architecture, textiles, fashion, and art, among other things. The design incorporated Uber’s bits, a nod to high tech, and different shapes, each of which could represent a different product, and beneath them, patterns and colors that could change in local markets.