A timeless logo on a trendy disguise

The new Instagram design “set the internet on fire”, so whether you hate it or not, I think that the launching campaign was completely successful.

Just imagine a more conservative redesign, following every brand rule, sticking to the old colors and to the worldwide known camera icon as much as possible. It might have been correct, but definitely it wouldn’t have been such a phenomenon. That makes me think that more than trying to create a timeless color scheme, or an everlasting gradient, they tried to shock as many people as possible and also get into the current design trends.

But in the end, the gradient is just an accessory, because the logo itself, stripped away from all its colorfulness, is actually a great work.

• Recognizable.
• Synthetic.
• Clean lines.
• Thick strokes (it wouldn’t have any problem in small screens… or any small representation).
• And most importantly, works over any background, including the so hated gradient itself.

Some people think that this particular design lacks of the timelessness needed by a logo, but in this case we are perceiving the background as a figure; this might sound as a design flaw but I think it’s perfectly fulfilling its function: the controversial layer (the background) is shocking, like fireworks, and like fireworks it will fade out (in one or two years it might change or dissapear), but the most important layer (the geometry) will prevail, because it seems made to last, considering the properties listed above, properties that from my point of view make a logo great.