Instagram has changed its logo in a full redesign of its mobile app, getting rid of its vintage camera logo and saying hello to a new, minimalist yet ultra-colourful look.
The refreshed brand identity rolled out this week, featuring the flat logos, gradient colours and a simpler, white-space style interface.
Instagram joins a string of high profile tech companies to change their spots of late, including Uber (to much criticism) and Google.
The head of design at Instagram said the new app icon is merely an extraction of the original in a refreshed format.
“As a part of our process, we also asked people at the company to draw the Instagram icon from memory in 5 seconds,” Splatter said in a blog post. “Almost all of them drew the rainbow, lens and viewfinder.”
You’ll also see updated icons for Instagram’s other creative apps, Layout, Boomerang and Hyperlapse.
But rather than us rabbit on, spend 55 seconds inside the minds of Instagram instead:
As for the user experience on the iOS and Android apps, the interface changes don’t include new features or filters, nor has there been a shift in where all the buttons and menu options live, merely more white space, less clutter.
“We believe the colour should come directly from the community’s photos and videos,” Splatter added. “We stripped the colour and noise from surfaces where people’s content should take centre stage.”
But it’s not striking a chord with everyone, and creative editor for AdWeek magazine Tim Nudd has already stepped out and asked, “Can we change it back?”
“It’s a very forgettable image that will get lost on people’s phones amid the thousands of other similarly uninspired designs of most tech apps.”
Twitter of course has thrown its two cents in as well. Some have been kind…
instagram’s new update tho ????
— Dewanie Catapang. (@waniedoo) May 11, 2016
Living for this new Instagram update ? ?❤
— Cristian Oliveras (@JustMeCristian) May 11, 2016
OOOH I like the new Instagram, it’s so colourful.. Yet so white.. OHHHH THIS IS EXCITING! Bye bye brown ??
— GABRIELLA (@velvetgh0st) May 11, 2016
Others not so much…
the new instagram update is so ugly
— yaniris (@Ii0ness) May 11, 2016
instagram just updated by itself EWWWWW ITS SO UGLYYYY
— Luna (@subtextfantasy) May 11, 2016
Hate to be that guy, but I love the first two rejected logos in Instagram’s promo video. https://t.co/y9CIPVvUTs pic.twitter.com/d8rdSHOrzk
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) May 11, 2016
Don’t update Instagram it’s a Skittles mess.
— Superhero Feed (@SuperheroFeed) May 11, 2016
super impressed with all the time & hard work that went into redesigning the Instagram logo pic.twitter.com/Qcqbl97Flx
— Common White Girl (@CommonWhiteGirI) May 11, 2016
The new Instagram logo is worse than cargo shorts ???
— YA BOY WHALE (@YABOY_WHALE) May 11, 2016
Instagram changes logo and the internet says: pic.twitter.com/NgJfyGI35x
— Stephanie Patrick (@CordyPatrick) May 11, 2016
How the new Instagram icon was made. pic.twitter.com/GnivZv81pW
— Oliur (@UltraLinx) May 11, 2016