Instagram’s iconic logo is no more. In a surprising move today, Instagram has unveiled a new colourful logo for its app and also for its accompanying apps (Layout, Hyperlapse and Boomerang)
For 6 years, Instagram’s iconic logo was based on a vintage polaroid camera and since it debuted first in iOS, it borrowed the skeuomorphic elements from the old iOS versions. In the new update, the icon is flatter with an interesting palette of colours (blue, purple, pink, white and orange I presume) which has been replicated with its other suite of apps.
That was a process in its own as Ian Spalter (Instagram’s Head of Design) describes it in a Medium post, “We wanted to create a look that would represent the community’s full range of expression- past, present and future” This involved getting rid of the skeuomorphic icon and “flattening” the icon while being inspired from what makes it unique. “We started with the basics, removed ornamentation and flattened the icon,” he says, “after a lot of refinement, we landed on a glyph that still suggests a camera but also sets the groundwork for years to come.”
That is not all, Instagram also introduced the new user interface which was odd thanks to the black and white nature. Ian Spalter described the reason they made the changes: “Around the same time we started thinking the icon, we began iterating on the UI, working to create something simple and clean so that people’s posts are the focus in the app.”
This sets an interesting precedence for Instagram and it will take some time for us to get accustomed to the new changes. Some people are yet to get the new UI and the new icons will definitely stir a conversation in the various social networks.
