Why Uber’s New App Icon Is Genius
Even if you don’t read Chinese
When Uber unveiled its new app icon, people were quick to attack it. Fortune called it “bizarre.” Business Insider likened it to the Death Star.
The most common complaint? As Linkedin’s joff redfern posted, “Where’s the ‘U’?”
Still, I think the new app icon is genius: it tells a compelling story about what Uber aspires to be.
Five reasons I love the new Uber app icon
As the legendary logo designer Michael Bierut has said, logos get “invested with meaning.” In other words, a logo usually can’t do a great job of telling a story on its own, but it can do a great job of supporting the story that a company tells through its products, its people, etc.
Yes, I know the new icon is jarring, and I hated it too, at first. But when I thought about where Uber wants to be in 10 or 20 years, I felt differently.
Here are five possible extensions of Uber’s story that the new app icon supports, and why, sooner or later, I think we’ll come around to embrace it:
1) It supports a story about the future of transportation
When I first saw the new app icon, the first thing I thought of was a subway token. But it’s a subway token from some cool, future, digital age.
2) It supports a story about connection
Admittedly, in its re-branding explainer video, Uber lost me at the first line (“Consider the bit”). Nevertheless, the new app icon speaks to connection: not only connecting people to the places they want to reach, but also connecting them to a multitude of partner services that will undoubtedly become part of the Uber experience in the years to come.
3) It supports a story about bigness
Those thin lines in each corner? Rotate them, and they resemble the Chinese character for big, 大:
4) It supports a story about becoming an organic part of people’s lives
Even if you don’t read Chinese, those lines around the edges resemble stick figures, so they make you think of people. (In fact, the Chinese character 大 descended from a stick figure.) Similarly, a friend of mine sees them as blood vessels, with Uber as the beating heart.
5) It supports a story about security
Maybe more than anything, the new app icon made me immediately think of a lock.
What the New App Icon Says About Uber’s Aspirations
To be sure, nobody is going to sit there and think this deeply about an app icon, so many of these associations, if they work, will do so subliminally.
However, if you think about what Uber could become — not just a ride service, but an all-encompassing transportation solution that replaces your personal car, takes your kids to school, and all the while connects you to a range of other services — the new logo makes a lot of sense.
The genius, in my opinion, is that this new icon asks you — maybe forces you — to start thinking about Uber as something very different from the Uber you’ve come to know. Something much bigger, more essential, and more connected to your life.
Still…
Having said all that, I can’t argue with a Linkedin commenter who pointed out that, when rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, it’s like looking up from the bottom of a toilet.
Let’s see how the icon fares over the long term :)
About Andy Raskin:
I help leadership teams craft strategic messaging and positioning — for fundraising, sales, marketing, and recruiting. My clients include companies backed by Andreessen Horowitz, KPCB, First Round Capital and other top-tier investors. I also lead storytelling workshops for teams. More at http://andyraskin.com. Or follow me on Twitter: @araskin
