Creative Thoughts on the New Instagram Logo

Instagram debuted its new logo this past Wednesday, and as expected, with the launch came both backlash with some love mixed in. We asked our creative team at TMG to weigh in on the new look; here’s what they had to say.

I feel the older is more unique and families with the name better. It’s the nice pairing of a nostalgic name and icon. The new is trendy, simple, not as nostalgic and captures the Instagram camera in a more abstract way. It’s much brighter. Feels more cheerful and modern which will appeal to a younger audience. The rainbow color pattern, which is so symbolic of the Polaroid Land Camera, has been retained in a different way. It has a much more stronger presence. The new logo when used as an app icon on screen will work very well when appearing small, but might blend in with the other similar looking icons on your phone.
-Dave Riley, Creative Director

I really love the simplicity and fresh colors of the new logo. It feels more relevant to me than the “hispter” style camera of the old logo since this app is so widely used now.
-Andrea Elliott, Senior Art Director

I think it makes sense to switch to a logo or icon that can be as easily replicated and is as ubiquitous as the Facebook “F” or Twitter bird icons. Often times these series of logos exist as scaled back elements of a page—usually along with the icons for various other social media channels—so it makes sense to adopt a mark that is easily recognized in that fashion. While there was equity built up in the old icon’s retro charm, I feel it was a smart move. The new icon itself however is not the most smartly executed. It lacks any of the retro charm that made its predecessor so memorable and feels as though the icon was pulled from a stock website. Instagram offered a one-color variant of the icon and I feel as though simply switching gears and making that the new primary mark would have made more sense—possibly evolving the look slightly—as opposed to this jarring new icon.
– Terry Caber, Art Director

The logo itself is an expected evolution, following the recent trends and remaining recognizable but not remarkable. The best part of the rebrand is the revised design for the app itself, simplifying the interface and only using color where necessary to keep the photos as the focus.
-Levi Neuland, Vice President, Digital Strategy

Great logos are typically very simple, but when too simple, they can feel generic and lose distinction. The new logo because of its simplicity will reproduce better as a bug along the side of Twitter and Facebook icons, but I will miss the character of the old logo. The old had so much more personality.
-Dion Pender, Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director

Photo credit: Adweek