
Was Uber’s Branding Done While Uber High? - breadbox
http://madartlab.com/was-uber-branding-done-while-uber-high/
======
nilkn
I'm reminded of the Pepsi gravitational field:

[https://people.mozilla.org/~faaborg/files/20090521-firefoxIc...](https://people.mozilla.org/~faaborg/files/20090521-firefoxIconQA/pepsi_gravitational_field.pdf)

(Page 26)

~~~
sciguy77
This can't be real... right? God the advertising industry is so much worse
than I thought.

~~~
samstave
Seriously... is this a real design document?

~~~
sciguy77
I did a quick google and it appears so. :/

~~~
ryan-allen
I think you'll find that the NeXT logo was designed in a similar fashion, and
that many high end brands get this kind of input into their logos and
branding.

Call it snake oil? Probably, but at least a multi billion dollar brand can
answer the question "Why does the swirl look like that?".

And only $1 million? That was _cheap_!

~~~
samstave
Just give me the multi-million dollar logo contract so I may give you the
snake-oil design document which justifies my multi-million dollar fee for the
snake-oil design document!

------
YuriNiyazov
Actually, this reminds me of "This Is a Generic Brand Video, by Dissolve"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YBtspm8j8M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YBtspm8j8M)

It even has a wrinkled ethnic old man.

In other words, the new video shows that Uber executives lack the self-
awareness to understand that they just made their company look like Walmart,
Exxon-Mobile or Altria.

~~~
spott
This reminds me of "Better Off Ted"[0], where the protagonist worked for
veridian dynamics[1], a faceless multinational conglomerate.

[0]
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235547/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235547/)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia8OKMlqxLs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia8OKMlqxLs)

~~~
chupy
I miss that show, never understood why it actually got cancelled.

------
tomphoolery
> That frame says “self-driving cars.” Their business plan appears to include
> firing all of their drivers.

Well, yes. I believe the CEO of Uber came out and said this a year or two ago.
Once self-driving cars become a reality, that's basically what Uber is going
to turn into. A fleet of autonomous vehicles that take you wherever you need
to go, that won't cancel on you if a better fare pops up, and that will most
likely not get into too many (or any) accidents. From a technology,
efficiency, and public safety perspective...this seems like a better way to
go.

~~~
philwelch
But then they would have to buy all of the cars.

~~~
zanny
With a 60 billion + valuation they probably could easily afford it.

I'm sure someone will make a ridesharing app for private owners of self
driving cars to rent them out when they are not using them, though. The app
maker would have to insure against damages, and the long term trend will be
towards transportation as a service where you subscribe to a self driving car
company and just get a car on demand rather than having one idle in your
driveway, but some people will cling to private ownership and might use it.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
The longer term trend could potentially be hire-on-demand for other goods and
services too.

Which will be neatly ironic - capitalism and market pricing destroying the
basis of private ownership.

~~~
webXL
"the basis of private ownership" is not threatened at all. These goods are
still privately owned by those who have incentive to maintain and improve
them. That's efficiency. You buy and maintain the car if that's your core
competency, I'll specialize elsewhere. Don't know about you, but I hate that
expensive thing in my garage that sits idle all the time!

------
zipwitch
From a company whose marketing strategy is "act like assholes", with a
business plan of "break the law and then whine when anyone points out that
we're a bunch of criminals in suits", nothing surprises me anymore, including
the fact that they're still in business.

~~~
jrochkind1
I still remember when the HN groupthink LOVED Uber.

I am not nostalgic. I like it better this way.

~~~
zanny
I also hate the regulations they cite as a reason why Uber should not exist.

No, the regulations should not exist. We could have had Uber and more
competitors sooner if not for taking calculated legal risk against archaic
institutions of regulation surrounding everything today. Almost all progress
is a constant battle not against innovation or creativity but against legal
traps keeping you from thinking outside the box.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Why is Uber better than regulated systems? What is superior about poorly-paid
drivers, lack of labour rights, surge pricing, lack of disabled
accommodations, no guarantee of service in all areas, lack of fare caps, no
concessionary travel, having to use a smartphone to pay, unaccredited and
unknowledgeable drivers, generic unmarked vehicles, etc.?

~~~
eru
> What is superior about poorly-paid drivers,

There's a labour market for that.

> lack of labour rights,

That's for the government to deal with.

> surge pricing,

Surge pricing is awesome: at least you can still get a cab if you are willing
to pay. As opposed to no cab at any price.

> lack of disabled accommodations,

Yeah, that's annoying for those in need. I propose giving disabled people more
money, so they can then vote with their newly enlarged wallets. (And perhaps
there's something more efficient for them than enticing taxi drivers.)

> no guarantee of service in all areas,

Why should city dwellers subsidise those yokels?

> lack of fare caps,

As long as the fare structure is known before I get into the cab, no problem.

> no concessionary travel,

Just give poor people more money. No need for concessions. (I've never seen
any regulated taxi with concession fares. Only in public transport.)

> having to use a smartphone to pay,

> unaccredited and unknowledgeable drivers,

Not less knowledgeable than most `normal' cabbies, as far as I can tell. But,
depends on the area. Eg London has some pretty knowledgeable cabbies.

> generic unmarked vehicles, etc.?

Who cares? You can pay more for an UberBlack, if you want to have a non-
generic car.

~~~
dionidium
I'm a big fan of Uber, but unknowledgeable drivers are a real problem. Here in
St. Louis I see a lot of suburbanites coming into the city to drive people to
places they've never been. I had one guy try to take me across a bridge that's
_famously_ closed for construction. Every cabbie knows that bridge is closed.
Shit, everybody on the entire Southside knows that bridge is closed.

~~~
asift
Uber will reimburse you if your driver screws up. It would be better if they
didn't make mistakes in the first place, but this type of accountability
_never_ existed among yellow cabs.

------
chjohasbrouck
[https://brand.uber.com/#bits-atoms](https://brand.uber.com/#bits-atoms)

> "We leave no bit or atom unturned, to create industries that serve people,
> and not the other way around."

I thought I heard wrong, I had to rewind it.

This whole rebranding proposal must have seemed and felt so incredibly
different to the Uber executives within the context of their conference rooms.

~~~
eCa
Yes, it is a good thing that they don't create people that serve industries.
That would be creepy.

~~~
DalekBaldwin
I thought they were trying to allay people's fears of their self-driving cars
going full Skynet, but now I realize I probably misinterpreted what they meant
by "the other way around": "We leave no person unturned, to create industries
that serve bits and atoms."

------
sciguy77
I am so, so confused by Uber's marketing video. I feel like its satirical. I'd
love to hear if anyone has the inside scoop of how it was made/ how Uber
employees feel about it.

~~~
randycupertino
You could email them and ask if it is a real ad, but their PR person will
probably respond and give you a horribly unprofessional response a la Airbnb:

> We emailed Airbnb spokesman Christopher Nulty to ask whether the library ad
> was "real." He responded by email, "as opposed to a fake one :)"

> A follow up email, explaining that we were in fact seeking confirmation as
> to whether the ads are actually from Airbnb received the following response:
> "Are you seriously writing on this?"

> Nulty did not respond to another follow up email.

I'm actually AMAZED their PR dude has not been fired over his juvenile and
unprofessional response to the reporter. You had ONE job!!

[http://www.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2015/10/21/passive-
aggress...](http://www.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2015/10/21/passive-aggressive-
pro-airbnb-ads-appear-on-muni-shleters)

~~~
sciguy77
WOW. Unbelievable. Who the hell hires these people? They make you go through
half a dozen technicals if you're going to be an engineer, but they let the
homeless guy across the street run their PR department?

------
JonnieCache
I dunno, is this not just the inevitable collision of the current post-hipster
aesthetic and the usual corporate PHB nonsense? I mean, what exactly did you
expect the uber brand video to be like? How could it possibly have been any
different from this?

[http://carles.buzz/the-contemporary-conformist/](http://carles.buzz/the-
contemporary-conformist/)

~~~
ryanSrich
> post-hipster aesthetic

It's more than that. It's anti-aesthetical postmodernist anti-intellectualism
wrapped up into into a single construct of pure and utter nonsense. This is
what happens when herd mentality really takes off at a company. You produce
work in a vacuum.

~~~
randycupertino
Totally can see this happening... it's unfathomable to me how this pile of
nonsensical steaming dogcrap could get approval through multiple layers of
professional review before it went live. It's the tone deaf airbnb ads
happening all over again.

Too many yes-men and everyone starts believing their own bullshit.

------
pauldbau
Felt like I was watching an episode of Silicon Valley, just needed the Hooli
logo at the end. Think I threw up a little at some parts (am allergic to
cheese), great comedy though, would recommend A++

------
Smushman
Search for the still frame labeled 'Self-Driving Cars'.

Thank you iStock photo.

[http://www.istockphoto.com/video/aerial-bangkok-riverside-
do...](http://www.istockphoto.com/video/aerial-bangkok-riverside-downtown-at-
sunset-gm469043744-62197782)

------
sketchthat
When I watched this video yesterday I thought they are trying too hard to
explain what their new logo means because no one will see the connection
between the strange new logo and the Uber we already know.

Also - complete marketing wank.

------
vinceguidry
Branding has an element of magic to it. You are conjuring something up out of
thin air with the intended effect of surprising and delighting the people that
see it.

The act of magic is to pay very very close attention to the little details
that others miss, in order to produce illusions. For a brand, this is done
largely at the executive / investor level. A few people create a belief system
that the whole company can buy into.

Part of this belief system is the way the company is designed. The "content-
free" dubstep video is an excellent demonstration of how the high-level
concepts conjured up by the branding team slowly wind their way through the
company.

Every company is in a constant battle for relevance in the hearts and minds of
the people that work for it and the people that patronize it. If you don't
keep fighting it, then people slowly stop caring and before you know it,
you've got Uber drivers beating up their riders. That stuff is going to happen
anyway, but again, it's the small details that matter, such as how the company
responds to it.

I didn't think the video was particularly profound, but it did remind me of
what makes Uber such a great idea and a great company. Little details like the
ones I saw in the design video would subtly remind me of the magic that Uber
is trying to conjure every time I used the app.

~~~
beedogs
To me, the logo reminds me of an asshole, which is particularly appropriate,
because Uber are a bunch of assholes.

------
chejazi
On the bottom of [https://brand.uber.com/#our-new-
look](https://brand.uber.com/#our-new-look), they explain the roots of the new
icon as well:

01\. The Bit At the center of our app icons is the Bit—the symbol of our
technology.

02\. Product shape Surrounding the Bit is a shape that denotes the product and
represents the atoms moved by our technology. For the rider app, this shape is
a circle.

03\. Grid line To convey the rider story of a trip in progress or the arrival
at a destination, a single line connects the Bit with the shape around it.

04\. Patterns and colors Behind the other components is a canvas of color and
pattern, another representation of the physical world that symbolizes the
cities and people we serve.

EDIT: The leading zeros in the numbered list above were featured on the site.
What significance could _that_ hold?

~~~
gerbilly
You shouldn't have to explain a logo or icon.

Look at any good logo[1] and it's self explanatory.

[1][https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Fe...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/FedEx_Express.svg/1000px-
FedEx_Express.svg.png)

------
masterleep
The app icon is horrible. It replaces something recognizable with a completely
corporate looking image of nothingness. The brand is bland!

~~~
SilasX
Agreed, the old one was beautiful and distinctive, and conveyed a sense of
greatness, at least to me.

------
mmanfrin
I get the need for a nice rousing rebranding video, and I get that others tend
to go over the top with superfluities and appeals to emotion, but Uber's
'connecting the bits and atoms for the first time' just pushed me so far
beyond eyerolling that it felt like I was being shown a video of Kalanick
huffing his own fart.

The 'Pepsi gravitational field' doc is pretty out there, but it seems to at
least include rationales behind their process. Uber's just feels like they
made the logo and then tried to connect it to some broader philosophical
reasoning which just _screamed_ pretension.

~~~
randycupertino
> Uber's 'connecting the bits and atoms for the first time' just pushed me so
> far beyond eyerolling that it felt like I was being shown a video of
> Kalanick huffing his own fart.

As a San Francisco company they should fit right in at the smuggiest city in
the country:

[http://southpark.cc.com/clips/104282/smuggy-san-francisco-
to...](http://southpark.cc.com/clips/104282/smuggy-san-francisco-town)

------
aaronbrethorst
I don't know if Travis Kalanick smokes pot, but if he does, then yes.

    
    
        If you thought Yahoo’s weekend charrette between CEO
        Marissa Meyer and her design team was scary, try an
        extended process of more than a year of a non-
        designer CEO micro-managing the process.
    

[http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo...](http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_identity_for_uber_done_in_house.php)

~~~
jessaustin
In the "design team" photo, it looks like he was pretty baked when he combed
his hair that afternoon.

------
mbrock
Tacky nonsense aside, the weird neurotic insistence on "human stuff" just
reminds me of Blade Runner's Tyrell Corporation.

I can hear the Uber voiceover woman saying: "Do you like our owl?"

------
ape4
That's Ken Thompson(seated) and Dennis Ritchie(standing) at a PDP-11 in 1972
at 0:18 into the video.

------
dontscale
Oh gosh, I didn't realize how heinous that video was until just now. Uber ego.

------
funkybooty
Piling on, the representation of a bit in the beginning fades in and out. That
makes no sense. Reminds me of Orwell's essay on writing, how poor writing is a
necessary feature of propaganda.

------
waterlesscloud
I blame Mad Men and "The Carousel" for making it more possible to sell
companies stuff like this.

~~~
daturkel
Complex and seemingly pretentious design pitches are actually a good way to
explain to a company the way a design or design metaphor might subconsciously
impact or impress its users. There are two problems here though: 1) the pitch
is inane, for the reasons pointed out in the linked post, and 2) even if the
idea weren't dumb, spelling it out explicitly for the customer is a great way
to ruin the magic. (Fedex doesn't tell everyone to look for the arrow in their
logo, and Gmail's slogan isn't "The envelope is also an M for mail!") Good
design is often subtle of even invisible, and not just logos.

~~~
giancarlostoro
Well said, never realized the arrow in FedEx. Yeah, I'm still to become a Uber
user, but reading that article made me feel like they're over-doing it a bit
much.

~~~
georgechen
I have a theory about large (and well known) cooperation reguarding brands.

Google re-branded themseleve just last year (before the Alphabet switch over).
People hated the new typeface etc, etc. but that doesn't stop anyone from
using Gmail or Google search.

Point being, when you get to a certain size it really don't matter if you use
comic san for your corporate type face. That's not going to change the public
perception of you the company.

All the brand work, rebranding etc etc are just a way to make the people
within the company feel good about _themselves_.

~~~
giancarlostoro
That sounds accurate, most people don't like change too much because they get
used to it, but Google at least didn't do something as extreme as Uber. But
you're right, it wont stop people from using the service.

------
Theodores
I dislike Uber for reasons I can't really articulate, they just are not for
me. I wait aeons for the night bus rather than just get a cab, I don't even
think 'Uber'. So I am new to the branding, having not seen what went on
before.

Despite the dislike, I think this brand website is extremely slick and quite
inspirational. Not bad for Wordpress. The video isn't bad either, as far as
these things go. I still do not buy into the brand though.

~~~
Apocryphon
Have you ever considered taking Lyft?

------
mozumder
I'm really hoping one of these drone cab companies rebrands themselves as
Johnny Cab.

------
stcredzero
_Before shredding this mess, let us first give credit where it is due. They
did get the age of the universe about right. General consensus right now
places it at 13.8 billion years, and that is when all matter in the universe
was created. However, not all atoms were “born” then, as they indicate, as
most have been generated through fusion in stars and supernova._

To be pedantic at the level the madartlab.com folks seem to be going after,
the video doesn't state that all atoms were born 13.8 billion years ago. It
says "the atom" was born 13.8 billion years ago. This is correct.

[http://patrickgrant.com/BBTL.htm](http://patrickgrant.com/BBTL.htm)

It took 300,000 years for conditions to get the point where neutral atoms
could form. That's still about 13.8 billion years ago to a reasonable margin
of error. It's entirely correct to say that "the atom" was born then. This is
the point in time from which the cosmic microwave background dates from, so
it's arguably our view of the Big Bang.

We'll see about the rest of the video now.

------
lukasm
someone from marketing is Peter Thiel fan
[http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/08/vc-peter-thiel-you-can-
eit...](http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/08/vc-peter-thiel-you-can-either-
invest-in-bits-or-atoms/)

------
draw_down
I thought their branding was pretty good before they did this. I find the app
icon particularly mystifying.

~~~
peteretep
I thought it was a new "app is updating" image provided by my phone at first

~~~
__jal
I was going with Pacman, now middle-aged, eating square dots for fiber.

~~~
such_a_casual
looks like a toilet seat to me

------
matthewbauer
That video reminds me of one of those ads for Veridian Dynamics from Better
Off Ted.

Link:
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ia8OKMlqxLs](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ia8OKMlqxLs)

------
JauntTrooper
It reminds me of Veridian Dynamics:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_bPobs8T5w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_bPobs8T5w)

------
Geekette
Oh, my. that video is not going to help dissuade the notion for some that the
new logos are reminiscent of assholes because the centre apparently resembles
an anus: [http://gizmodo.com/ubers-new-logo-its-an-
asshole-1756692669](http://gizmodo.com/ubers-new-logo-its-an-
asshole-1756692669)

Noticed the same opinion from others elsewhere, including Twitter.

~~~
chris_wot
Not quite as bad as the logo fail from the Office of Government Control (OGC)
in the UK.

[http://www.boredpanda.com/worst-logo-fails-
ever/](http://www.boredpanda.com/worst-logo-fails-ever/)

------
synaesthesisx
This is one of the most cringeworthy things I've seen in a while. I wonder how
much they ended up spending on this...

------
melbourne_mat
I don't get why the writer is so surprised. Marketing is a dodgy industry. So
many advertisements contain lies our bullshit - most often small ones,
sometimes large. And it's all pushed onto an audience that is ignorant or at
the very least accustomed to the barrage.

------
untilHellbanned
Dear OP, thank you. My brain must have gone into complete shutdown because I
could only think of one word, "terrible" to describe this video. Such a terse
dismissal is an obvious disservice to the level of awfulness that Uber
continues to unleash on the world.

------
surferbayarea
It's uncannily similar to this!
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbi.SBFree...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbi.SBFreedom&hl=en)

------
untilHellbanned
And I thought Facebook forever owned the moniker Supreme-Lame-Ass-Company-Of-
The-Millenium. Uber wins in a landslide.

It's like how everyone thought that Carl Lewis would forever hold the 100M
dash record and then Usain Bolt comes in and obliterates it.

------
stepanhruda
Making fun of them here is cute. You know what will hurt them? If you start
taking Lyft.

~~~
chris_wot
Please do!

------
philjr
The sentiment behind it reminds me of this
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GMQhOm-
Dqo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GMQhOm-Dqo)

Problem is, it seems a little disingenuous

~~~
randycupertino
Uber just needs to get over themselves. You're a taxi dispatch company with an
app. Stop fronting like you're using cutting edge technology to cure cancer or
brokering world peace.

------
rajacombinator
Just updated so I could see the new app icon and actually loled IRL. Someone
trolling pretty hard, they couldn't even put the U rightside up. Glad to see
they're spending that 2x preference money wisely.

~~~
randycupertino
Ohhh it's supposed to be a sideways U? I thought it was a C and couldn't
understand why the heck they made their logo the letter C.

------
yggydrasily
I wonder how much of their most recent round of funding went towards this.

------
ha8o8le
The author forgot to mention how horrible the new app icon is.

------
ddingus
It has a fucking kitten in it!

I love kittens, but jesus... that's an embarrassingly egregious appeal to das
cute!

Overall, this is epic comedy. 5 stars, would recommend!

------
zhoujianfu
Their new logo always makes me think I have an app on my iOS home screen that
is not quite finished installing! Annoying!

------
multinglets
This is why I tend to buy the idea that Monster intentionally hides satanic
themes in their branding.

------
chris_wot
They leave no bit or atom unturned. I'm inspired!

------
novaleaf
the video was taken down. Anybody have a working link?

~~~
aftbit
For the ctrl-f happy:

"Sorry: because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here."

Hopefully someone was kind enough to mirror this before Uber silently
retracted it.

------
pm24601
Yes. Next question?

------
atemerev
> Their business plan appears to include firing all of their drivers.

But this was obvious from day one, and reiterated by all their messages. When
the tech is ready, humans will be expelled from the loop.

It is open information, and market seems to be OK with it. Ergo: most jobs
will be history soon (also well-known obvious observation). Those who adjust
first will reap the rewards.

~~~
ekianjo
Most jobs history soon? This is as baseless as uber s marketing.

------
grmarcil
The brand video reads a little pompous and I haven't really taken a liking to
the new icon yet, but I don't think the concept in the brand video is really
that faulty. Uber is one of first companies to integrate software with an
external consumer-facing physical service on a big, meaningful scale.

The whole bit-and-atom routine may be a little cheesy if you are a marketing
skeptic, but it's fairly reasonable by Corporate Marketing Speak standards.

~~~
waterlesscloud
"Uber is one of first companies to integrate software with an external
consumer-facing physical service on a big, meaningful scale."

That's not even remotely true.

~~~
grmarcil
I'm genuinely interested in what you think is a counterexample. Maybe I'm
overlooking something obvious or we're just considering different definitions.

