Uber 3D Vehicle System

I led the art and creative direction for Uber’s new vehicle library, a scalable icon system with clear guidelines and guardrails built to create a more consistent and high-quality experience across Uber.


2005-2006

What Wasn’t Working

I identified several issues with the old system. We had only around 180 unique icons, but more than 3,000 files had been uploaded over time. Naming was inconsistent, duplicates were everywhere, and there was no single source of truth. It was impossible to scope the work or even know where to begin.

The visual style was also inconsistent. With new car-related requests coming in from teams around the world, the existing assets were difficult to scale while maintaining a consistent look and feel.

We started with Research & Moodboarding

For Uber X, we were looking for an affordable, everyday car. Since the UberX car is one of the most recognizable brand assets in the product, we want to maintain the key characteristics of the new Uber car style without making dramatic changes

Building the 3D Foundation

I worked closely with a 3D designer to explore angles, lighting, and visual styles. We refined the vehicle details through multiple rounds of design reviews, incorporating stakeholder feedback at each stage to shape and approve the final direction.

Vectorizing for scalability in Figma 

We receive more than 100 inbound requests for 3D icons each year, covering new products, services, events, and partnerships. To make future production more efficient, I explored converting the assets into editable vectors in Figma. This gave designers flexible layers they could easily customize with different colors, accessories, patterns, and details for specific use cases.