Following the appointment of a new CEO and preparing for its IPO, Uber was at a key inflection point. Though its product was in use everywhere, the Uber brand was synonymous with the company’s reputation challenges and weighed down by design inefficiencies.

Leading strategy with the team at Wolff Olins and working alongside product, design and marketing teams at Uber, we helped reorient the brand and reimagine a truly iconic design system.

Our extensive stakeholder interviews and design research revealed confusion around Uber’s app logo and low awareness of its visual identity. We crafted three driving principles for the design strategy: let in the light, but embrace black; invest in a wordmark not a symbol; bring back the U. Together these helped capitalize the power of Uber’s name recognition, celebrate the people who make Uber possible, and shift perceptions of the company from a Silicon Valley ride-sharing service to a platform for global mobility.

The result is a holistic brand system that’s instantly recognizable, works around the world, and is efficient to execute.