Uber, the business that started out as a way for tech bros and other moneyed Americans to hail Lincoln town cars and German luxury sedans from the comfort of their smartphones but now offers all sorts of services in dozens of countries, has had a makeover. Gone is the capital “U” with the little flourish on the left ascender in favour of a block (or bit, in Uber’s new design parlance) surrounded by a shape that’ll vary depending on the service.
If you’d like the full rundown of the what prompted the change you can head over to Wired’s comprehensive, behind-the-scenes piece. Alternatively, if you don’t know the difference between line spacing and kerning, and don’t care to, all you really need to know is that 65 countries will get custom logos that incorporate a pattern in the background that’s somehow representative of their particular locale. That sounds to us like a whole lot of work.
Given Uber’s branched out from purely high-end travel (UberBlack) to budget options (UberX), ride-sharing (UberPool), helicopters (UberChopper) and food deliveries (UberEats) and wants to be positioned as more of a logistics company than a cab company, the move makes sense. Now it can roll out dozens of logos with different shapes, patterns in colours in different markets. Of course, it could arguably have simply changed the colour of the “U” in its old logo. But whatevs.
As much as the Stuff team likes a good logo or typeface, all we want to know is when the Uber service that brings you puppies to cuddle is arriving in South Africa. Because, other than Cruella De Vil, who doesn’t love puppies?