The cult of the new dictates that every brand must get a makeover ever few years. Or more often if you’re a global phenomenon that’s only a few years old. Recent rebrands by the likes of Uber also suggest you can go for a minimalist look that’s actually crummier than the previous one and call it progress. Introducing, exhibit B, the new Instagram logo.
“Inspired by the previous app icon, the new one represents a simpler camera and the rainbow lives on in gradient form,” Instagram says in a post on its blog. We prefer to think of it as a child who’s eaten Neapolitan ice-cream and a dodgy bacon sandwich and projectile vomited the partially digested combination onto a camera logo. But hey, different strokes.
For the sake of uniformity, Instagram’s also updated the icons for the rest of the apps in its stable, namely collage app Layout, looping pushmi-pullyu GIF whatnot Boomerang and time-lapse-meets-super-stable-video app Hyperlapse (which is still iOS only).
Instagram itself has also had a bit of a redesign so that it “puts more focus on your photos and videos without changing how you navigate the app”. That’s code for the navigation bar at the bottom getting smaller and it and the title bar changing from the previous blue to an off-white. You’ll still double tap images to like them and all of the other functionality like direct messaging is where you’d expect to find it.
“Our updated look reflects how vibrant and diverse your storytelling has become.” Umm, sure. We’re still going with the Technicolor yawn angle. No matter, though, Instagram’s still our favourite image-sharing app. Ours and half a billion other people, give or take. Besides, we’ll probably only have to wait a few months until the next rebrand — which should be just long enough for us to have grown to like this one.
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