All hail the new Uber logo

[Rss Bot 1]

If something's struck you as not quite right about your phone's home screen this morning, here's the reason: Uber has just launched its second new logo design in under three years, and it's making waves, if not for the best reasons.

• 10 commandments of logo design

On first sight, the new Uber logo looks like it's doggedly following the recent trend for wordmarks in bespoke fonts. It's the work of the ever-controversial Wolff Olins – who you'll remember for the 2012 Olympics logo and the similarly provocative Met rebrand – along with the Uber Brand Experience Team. Of course, it includes a bespoke font, Uber Move – a sans serif by MCKL Type Foundry, which was inspired by typefaces usually associated with transportation, and designed to look friendlier than the previous, more aggressive typeface, Clan Pro.

If you've just found the new logo on your phone, you might find it hard to be pumped about this new design; it's the word 'Uber' in white on a black background, a style we've seen just a little too much of over the past year.

Uber Move is designed for motion and works in every local alphabet where Uber has a presence

Thankfully, however, there's more to this rebrand than a disappointing wordmark. It is, you'll doubtless be astounded to learn, part of a larger design system that's built to embody a sense of mobility and to look good and be understood in any of 660-plus cities in the world that Uber operates. As Wolff Olins explains, "instead of pursuing a complex system to be localised through colours and patterns, we moved towards a universal 'beyond-simple' global brand that teams on the ground could localise with content relevant to their audiences."

The new design system has been built with simplicity in mind

Naturally, a rebrand like this is never going to please everyone, and reaction to the Uber redesign has been deliciously mixed, ranging from cautious approval through to traditional designer rage.

You can take a closer look at the new Uber logo and design system over at Wolff Olins.

Related articles:

• 11 places to find logo design inspiration
• 5 fascinating stories behind unusual logo designs
• 11 brilliant resources for logo designers

View the full article