NOTATION: I thought about how kids love bedtime stories, reading, and picture books vs. the fact that as adults we are so inundated with unwanted forms of reading that a lot of us quickly lose that passion or at least lose time for the pursuit of reading. For this project I focused on the idea of “magic” and the mentor trait of “teaching“. I created the idea of an Uber Magic Book Bus for adults based on inspiration from my childhood and created a drawn prototype.

CONCEPT: For this iteration of the “kindergarten” directive I thought about what I loved most as a kid which was honestly books. Books fueled my imagination and the games I played. I loved Reading Rainbow and the The Magic School Bus. Book-Mobiles and Book Exchanges became popular in the area I was living when I was in middle school and they were awesome. I think that Uber having a book mobile for adults only would be an amazing concept. Uber Magic Book Bus would support and collaborate with local book stores and coffee shops. It would be a great way to forge a community focal point based on a love of all things literary.

INSPIRATION:

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JOURNAL: 

© Diana Davis, All Rights Reserved | www.freshsavagery.com

NOTATION: The idea was to imagine what it would feel like to have an Uber service create a feeling of “self-confidence” on those days when we need a boost, or maybe even on a regular basis. My ideas are based on thinking about how kids play dress up and make-believe in order to explore feeling confident in different roles. I created a mock service called “Uber Stretch: Feel the Success“, a mock logo, imagined what different cartoon characters would think about the service, and wrote mock customer testimonials.

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PROTOTYPE CONCEPT: UBER STRETCH | Feel the Success is a service of Uber Local, located in Los Angelos, California that provides mini stretch limousine rides at the tap of a button. Summoning a limo gives you that extra boost of confidence before an important meeting, event, or interview. It empowers you to make a positive impression and a grand arrival.  Even if no one sees you, you can already feel the success.

MOCK CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS: 

“Nobody thinks of the business side of my job, but I honestly have so many meetings. Sometimes my meetings are over 45 minutes away. I like using Uber Stretch because it either gives me a space in which I can stretch out and relax – pun intended – or quiet time where I can focus on prepping for what’s next.” – Bruce Wayne

“As a women striking out into a ‘man’s industry’, professional presentation is everything. Whether it’s my outfit, a visual presentations, or the how I arrive to work it all has to add up to one message; I am a one-woman powerhouse! Thank you for creating Uber Stretch!!” – Serena Tsukino

” I was crushed when my company laid me off during a sweeping corporate downsize. I never thought I would be looking for a new job at the age of 56. Taking an Uber Stretch to job interviews makes me feel calm and confident so I can be my best self. ” – Bill Dauterive

“Uber Stretch is the most amazing way to start my day. I’m currently an intern at this rad makeover company. Uber Stretch gives me confidence and reminds people that I am important.” – Quinn Morgendorffer

 

“I am not a prophet, but sometimes I have prophetic dreams, like the one where I was at a garden party. That would’ve been a great time to take an Uber Stretch.” – Huey Freeman

 

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JOURNAL:

© Diana Davis, All Rights Reserved | www.freshsavagery.com

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NOTATION: For this project I wanted to explore how Uber would mentor a professional creator / on-the-go influencer. This concept focuses on the word “encouraging” to represent Uber’s mentorship role and the word “playground” to represent the environment of the influencer’s lifestyle. I created the imaginary service Uber Influencer: Play Hard & Dream Big, a service concept of Uber Local, and a mock-advertisement video.

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PROTOTYPE CONCEPT: Influencers submit an application to apply for access to the Uber Influencer service. Uber Influencer provides monthly subscriptions for tiered amounts of pre-paid drive time minutes to influencers and creators at a lower fare.

SERVICE FEATURES + MENTOR:

• affordable transportation for independent contractors and small business owners (helping/empathetic)
• fixed monthly expense and auto bill pay (helping/wise/empowering)
• travel expense reports and statements for easier tax documentation (helping/wise)

BENEFIT OF USING UBER INFLUENCER:

• save time on trip planning and searching for parking (helping/wise/relatable)
• save money on paying for parking and per-mileage wear and tear (helping/wise/relatable)
• tailored to you and your small business needs (compassionate)

BENEFIT OF THE BENEFIT:

• creates collaboration and sponsorship opportunities for Uber & Influencers (helping/empowering/encouraging)
• taps social media platforms and followers (empowering)
• meets an unmet demand in the market (leadership/empathetic)

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JOURNAL:

© Diana Davis, All Rights Reserved | www.freshsavagery.com

NOTATION: The word I chose in relation to Uber as a mentor is “adventure“. The idea is to visualize how using an Uber Local: Know Your Destination service like Uber Coco encourages you to take on an adventure in Havana, Cuba. I explored this concept by creating a written copy and brand mock-ups.

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PROTOTYPE: UBER COCO | Adventure Starts With a Coconut

No one could have invented Havana, Cuba. It’s too audacious, too outlandish, and just too damn beautiful. How it does it is anyone’s best guess. Maybe it’s the swashbuckling history slinking around every corner, or the indefatigable mambo energy that practically ricochets off the walls.

Only here does adventure start with cruising through a colorful labyrinth seated in a hollowed-out coconut; on a three wheeled ride that is the near-summation of all the wildly pulsing energy of Havana. Simply summon an Uber Coco and let the adventure unfold before your eyes. Don’t come here with a list of questions. Just arrive with an open mind and prepare for a long, slow, coconut-infused seduction.

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JOURNAL:

© Diana Davis, All Rights Reserved | www.freshsavagery.com

NOTATION: The idea is to imagine and express the feeling of discovering Uber Local: Know Your Destination while traveling abroad. The emotion I chose in relation to Uber as a mentor is “empowerment“. I started with the concept of Uber Gondola, a service of Uber Local, featuring gondola tours on the Grand Canal of Venice, Italy.

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PROTOTYPE: UBER GONDOLA | You Got This

You’ve arrived at your destination: Venice, Italy.

Your bucket-list is chock full of adventure, excitement, and instagram-worthy stops. You’ve been dreaming of gliding along the placid waters of the Grand Canal for ages. When you arrive at St. Mark’s Square, the place is buzzing with locals, tourists, and merchants. Every inch is rippling with activity and you can almost touch the energy thick in the air. As you make your way towards the portico wondering how exactly to snag an epic gondola tour, you start to feel your spirits sink. The harbor is bustling with people shouting and haggling for rides. And you’re pretty sure you’ve heard at least 10 languages in the last 10 seconds. Stress is starting to cloud your Venetian euphoria. What if you get overcharged for clearly being a confused tourist? What if it sucks?

You hover at the edge of the crowd trying to determine your next steps. A gorgeous glossy-black gondola catches your eye. You idly watch while a lean gondolier deftly maneuvers through the crowded waterway with the boats’ golden filigree glinting under the late afternoon sun. As it flits by, you recognize a decal on the stern of the boat: an Uber logo. Your jaw drops as you whip out your phone to check the Uber app. It loads in and there are not any cars on the map; instead, there are miniature gondolas squiggling across your screen! Then, a notification bubble prompting you to select your language and currency pops up. A smile spreads from the inside, out. 

You got this.

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JOURNAL:

 

© Diana Davis, All Rights Reserved | www.freshsavagery.com

NOTATION: The idea is to create a new Uber service that embodies the concept of Uber as a mentor. I chose the word “guidance” as a project theme and created a mock-logo, written concept, and itemized features for a new service called Uber Local: Know Your Destination.

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PROTOTYPE CONCEPT: With Uber Local: Know Your Destination, you travel in distinctive forms of transportation only found in certain parts of the world using the Uber App. Travel with and like the locals for a one-of-a-kind, destination-based experience. Uber Local enables you to explore new destinations with the tap of a button.

SERVICE FEATURES + MENTOR:

• map out your own custom tours with a single designated tour guide (empowering/reliable)
• travel like a local with the locals (encouraging)
• get an upfront estimate (trustworthy)
• select from pre-planned tours (guiding/safe/experienced/reliable)
• standard on-demand transportation (empowering)
• see tour and tour guide reviews and ratings (helping)
• no signing up, paying, or planning in advance; summon on the spot (empowering)

BENEFIT OF USING UBER LOCAL:

• an app you know and trust in an unfamiliar place
• currency and language of your choice so you’re in control
• hassle-free tours on your schedule

BENEFIT OF THE BENEFIT:

• worry-free travel
• familiarity and comfort
• clear pricing and trip planning
• only at a specific destination, only with Uber
• Uber provides local guides on local rides

LOCALIZATION TARGETS & TRANSPORTATION TYPES: 

• Havana, Cuba: Cocotaxi
• Venice, Italy: Gondola
• Madeira, Portugal: Toboggan
• Athabasca Glacier, Canada: TerraBus
• Faisalabad, Pakistan: Tangah
• Hanoi, Vietnam: Cyclo
• Nile & Red Sea, Egypt: Felucca
• Nationwide, Philipines: Habal Habal
• Nationwide, Thailand: Tuk-tuk
• Nationwide, Kenya: Matatu

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© Diana Davis, All Rights Reserved | www.freshsavagery.com

NOTATION: The idea is to research and contemplate “What is a Good Mentor?“. I took a look at Uber’s overarching “about” statement and the etymology of the word mentor. I wrote about my idea of a good mentor, listed the attributes of a good mentor, and included some quotes relevant to the topic.

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UBER RESEARCH: “It started as a simple idea: What if you could request a ride from your phone? More than 5 billion trips later, we’re working to make transportation safer and more accessible, helping people order food quickly and affordably, reducing congestion in cities by getting more people into fewer cars, and creating opportunities for people to work on their own terms.” – Uber About Statement

THE ORIGIN OF MENTOR: The term “mentor” comes from The Odyssey, an ancient Greek epic poem by Homer. Odysseus asked his friend Mentor to help watch over his son Telemachus while Odysseus was away at the Trojan War. Twenty years later, the goddess of wisdom Athena disguised herself as Mentor to provide Telemachus crucial advice at the start of the epic story: to investigate what happened to his father. Based on this origin story alone, mentors are wise, give good advice, and encourage the pursuit of adventure and discovery. 

MY IDEA OF A GOOD MENTOR: A mentor takes every bit of themselves – every mistake, lesson learned, personal victory, and vision – they take all of those bits and pieces and pass them on to you. They freely share their knowledge and wisdom. Their biggest hope to is lift you up and teach you the art of self-empowerment. At the end of the day, they’re your toughest critic and your most diehard cheerleader.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD MENTOR:

• experienced
• compassionate
• relatable
• encouraging
• advises
• reliable
• wise
• accessible
• empathetic
• trustworthy
• guiding
• helping
• empowering
• leader

QUOTES ON MENTORSHIP:

• “The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” – Plutarch
• “A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” – Oprah Winfrey
• “Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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MISSING: This post may be missing some key elements, including “interesting/new ideas”, and “prototype”. This is because I chose to focus on my personal process of starting a new project with research and to explore the class themes by documenting my ideas about mentorship.

Image Source: Forbes

© Diana Davis, All Rights Reserved | www.freshsavagery.com

NOTATION: The idea was to compile a research-based overview of Uber’s history, services, and campaigns in order to develop an informed perspective on the company. I’ve compiled information that I felt was conducive to the creation of new ideas based upon the company’s existing brand and helpful to avoid repeating previously executed ideas.

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HISTORY: “Uber was founded in 2009 as UberCab by Garrett Camp, the co-founder of StumbleUpon, and Travis Kalanick, who had sold his Red Swoosh startup for $19 million in 2007. Following a beta launch in May 2010, Uber’s services and mobile app officially launched in San Francisco in 2011. Originally, the application only allowed users to hail a black luxury car and the price was 1.5 times that of a taxi. In 2011, the company changed its name from UberCab to Uber after complaints from San Francisco taxi operators. During the initial development of the Uber app, the company created a think tank consisting of a nuclear physicist, a computational neuroscientist, and a machinery expert who worked on predicting demand for private hire car drivers and where demand is highest.” *

SIDE PROJECTS: Uber’s staple service is UberX, an affordable peer-to-peer ridesharing service hosted on a smart device application. There are multiple iterations of this services from UberX to UberAccess. Additionally, Uber has multiple side projects*:

• Self driving technology (“Advanced Technologies Group”, alpha testing)
• Urban air transport (“Uber Elevate”, 2023)
• Food delivery (“Uber Eats”, 2014)
• Accessible healthcare & Transportation (“Uber Health / Uber Access”, 2018)
• Corporate travel (“Uber for Business”, 2014)

PR CAMPAIGNS: Uber has launched limited-time services to boost consumer awareness and the company image. These are some of their recurring campaigns*:

• During National Ice Cream Month Uber users in certain cities can summon an ice cream truck for on-demand delivery. The ice cream purchases are billed to users’ Uber accounts.
• On National Cat Day Uber drivers deliver kittens for 15 minutes of cuddling in exchange for a donation to an animal shelter.
• In some cities Uber offers delivery of Christmas trees during December.

COLLABORATIONS: Uber has offered limited-time services in collaboration with other companies as advertising campaigns. Some of the most noteworthy limited-time events*:

• NFL: September 4, 2013 – Uber announced a promotion with the NFL Players Association to promote safe rides for NFL players.
• DeLorean “time machine”: September 2013 – Uber offered rides in the DeLorean DMC-12 car which was featured in the Back to the Future film franchise.
• UberCHOPPER: July 2014 – Uber partnered with Blade to offer helicopter rides from New York City to The Hamptons for $3,000 each, including during Independence Day.
• Dream Drive: March 2015 – In collaboration with Dream Drive, Uber offered a luxury car-rental service in Singapore that included Lamborghinis and Maseratis.
• GrabOn: November 2015 – In collaboration with GrabOn, Uber offered hot air balloon rides to customers in Hyderabad, India for INR 1,000.
• UberCOPTER: 2016 – The company partnered with Airbus for a one-month trial of a $63 Uber helicopter service, in São Paulo, a city famous for its extreme traffic congestion.Uber, in partnership with Blade, has also provided helicopter service for specific events, including the Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival with flights from Salt Lake City International Airport to Park City, Utah.
• Bobbi Brown Cosmetics: September 2016 – Uber and Bobbi Brown Cosmetics made a partnership for Bobbi Brown x Uber Retouch campaign, to celebrate the launch of the Retouching Wands and Retouching Pencils. Customers got an opportunity to take a ride with a Bobbi Brown Makeup Artist and quick make up course how to retouch make up on-the-go.

CONCLUSION: While Uber is best known for it’s baseline ridesharing service UberX, the company has been exploring, testing, and launching next-gen transportation services ever since they firmly established their company in the transportation industry. Uber is a multi-national company with stakes in over 40 countries worldwide. They are willing to think outside of the box and push the boundaries on many fronts. Each beta test is the start of a small battle in the great war being wagered to continuously push the transportation industry into the future, now. Their pursuit of greatness has earned them the title of “thugs”, incited riots, and caused the first pedestrian death by autonomous vehicle on American soil. Despite this, Uber has completed over 5 billion trips as of 2018. Uber is a high risk = high reward company.

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JOURNAL:

MISSING: This post may be missing some key elements, including “interesting/new ideas”, “uber+mentor connection”, and “prototype”. This is because I chose to focus on my personal process of starting a new project with research and to explore the class themes through documenting my research and ideas.

*Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber#History

https://www.uber.com/about/

Image Source: Wikipedia

© Diana Davis, All Rights Reserved | www.freshsavagery.com

Hello, and welcome to my Project 54 blog space! My name is Diana and I’m a visual artist and creative content developer living in Richmond, VA. 

I’ve always been really into art and was previously enrolled in the VCU Painting & Printmaking department from 2005 to 2008. At the time I really struggled with actually attending classes, although I loved doing the artwork. Long story short I dropped out of art school, moved to the West Coast, and started a tattoo apprenticeship. While living in Portland, I worked in the tattoo industry for 5 years and during 3 of those years I owned a brick & mortar parlor called 7 Savages Tattoos. 

Because my startup was on a tight budget, I did all of the marketing and advertising for the shop myself. I was thrown into a new, multifaceted art form that I swiftly fell in love with. When my initial 3 year lease was up, I closed shop and started my own one-woman company called Fresh Savagery Design. After living in Oregon for 7 years, it’s easy to see in retrospect that I needed to branch out on my own in order to grow up a little, fail a lot, and learn how to try, try again. 

TL;DR | Now I’m a freelance artist and a returning VCU student in pursuit of transitioning into the Mass Communications department with a focus on creative advertising. I currently live with my two cats, Maureice and Wickham, plus my boyfriend whom I like to call CatDaddy (much to his chagrin). A few of my favorite things other than cats are reading, drawing, and guzzling coffee like there’s no tomorrow.

“LET’S DO THIS”

 

© Diana Davis, All Rights Reserved | www.freshsavagery.com

WHAT IS CURIOUSNESS? | Project 54 is a semester-long project that is the main focus of the masscomm class titled Curiousness at the Virginia Commonwealth University. The project title refers to the 54 projects enrolled students have to complete in one semester. Each project includes 3-4 pages of handwritten journaling, a prototype, and a notation (2-3 sentence summary of the project idea) posted online to a WordPress blog. The Fall 2018 focus of the project is to generate 54 project concepts for Uber that include Uber (the company), transportation (the service), and mentorship (the brand theme).

The course syllabus states that it hopes that:

• you learn how to generate ideas and to evaluate ideas.
• you learn to present your ideas in multiple media.
• you learn more about advertising.

The class focuses on two primary topics: 

1. Creativity — the ability to create new, meaningful ideas that solve problems.
2. Advertising — the way brands connect with audiences.

The most important thing that you learn is to allow curiousness to fuel creativity.

WHAT IS THE POINT? | According to the syllabus, the primary point is to “ponder and design and write and draw and doodle and compose and create and plan and question and list and commit and translate and copy and scribble and fold and draft and characterize and formulate and bang out and jot down and think up… all in your journal.”

WHO ARE YOU? | I’m a student enrolled in the Fall 2018 Curiousness class at VCU. You find can out more about me here.

UNDERSTANDING INDICATIVE SYMBOLS & FORMATING: 

*  = cited sources

“word or phrase here” = represents the inclusion of the brand theme mentor

collaboration = green words highlight the inclusion of a collaborative element

NOTATION: = tl;dr / summary of your idea

this is what a link looks like = link that will open new page in browser