If you happened to take out your app list on your phone recently, you may have noticed something that was a little off about one of your installed apps: it would appear that Uber is not just rebranding its app icon though, as the company seems to be looking to expand its services too.
With the change being a mere day old now, users and others seem to not have a very positive selection of feelings towards the change. Twitter has been booming with angry tweets saying that the change is not the greatest they had ever seen; however, that’s hardly a surprise when it comes to changes made by popular companies or services.
The app’s change log doesn’t say anything new; and on a closer inspection of the app itself after the update there’s hardly anything changed other than the icon and the splash screen that greets you when you turn it on. The former classic U-shaped logo is now a rather abstract form that the company explained in their presentation video.
Uber’s blog received a new entry yesterday, where the company’s CEO Travis Kalanick personally got involved in delivering the new changes to the public. And that is on top of personally getting involved in the entire revamp of the brand. According to his own post, the company feels that the new logo and icon define what the company does a lot better than before. After 4 years of developing as a brand, Kalanick says, they felt it was time to reflect the fact that Uber has matured as a company.
In Kalanick’s vision, Uber is more about connecting and “moving cities and their citizens”. Along with a new website layout, the new logo is gifted with a lot more color and personality than its predecessor. Apparently, the colors chosen for each major city or zone differs.
For example, Ireland’s green to burgundy selection of colors was inspired by lush fields and brick-build houses. Mexico’s bright greens, blues and magenta reminisces the colorful alleyways and streets. China mixes the foggy nature with the bright red traditional decorations. Uber said they are planning to have a theme for each and every city or country that it functions in – accounting for hundreds and hundreds of patterns and color palettes.
The new and rather ambiguous icon takes a step away from the classic look and attempting to open new pathways for the company. As they started as nothing more than a personal driver service, Uber now does a lot more than that – food or goods transport, with self-driving car service and “more” planned to come in the future.
