Tobias van Schneider's thoughts on Instagram's new design and logo (youtube.com)
7 years ago from Lee Hord, UX Designer
7 years ago from Lee Hord, UX Designer
I want to see a style critique video where he goes that in depth about all the hair on his head.
This is great feedback, but at the same time made me kind of sad that only Silicon Valley gets this kind of intense scrutiny or consideration. There's a lot more to the interactive design world than what's popular in the app store.
Instagram is fodder for analysis because it's a simple app that's hard to get right:
If it were to address a more specific use case, less people would be familiar enough to discuss it. If it were to solve a more complex use case, less people would be qualified to discuss it.
The logo is especially easy to discuss, because it falls into Parkinson's Law of Triviality.
Yeah but that moustache thoe!
That beard is Level 11 hipster shit.
Re: the gradient, I don't think they plan to own the gradient. The gradient is the thing that ties their different apps together, and what they want to own is the connection, not the gradient itself. My guess is that they'll cycle through lots of different gradients and colors, depending on their marketing push or the relevant news at the time. They'll be able to make changes to it as much as they want, because their glyph is so bold.
This is a very mature response and I have to agree with just about everything he said. The gradient is a bit much and it will indeed be difficult to own. I see that design pattern a lot with new apps, so it was shocking to see an established app like Instagram do that. I also think the whitewashing of the UI could be a little much - a lot of it blends together now (for example, the tray icons vs. the icons under each image). But his point about it being purely focused on content is very strong.
No matter what, it's tough to roll out a design change like this, so props to the Instagram team.
Great video! I think this goes past instagram and really becomes a video about brand association. Which was the perfect direction for it to go IMO.
I personally really dislike the icon, however, he is correct. Once I associate the brand with the icon in the coming months I wont mind it (though... the gradient was truly a bad choice). The monochrome I love, I always thought they should head for that approach, as it lift the content up, and brings more attention to notifications (which I also love the new color of).
Designer News
Where the design community meets.
Designer News is a large, global community of people working or interested in design and technology.
Have feedback?
Login to Comment
You'll need to log in before you can leave a comment.
LoginRegister Today
New accounts can leave comments immediately, and gain full permissions after one week.
Register now