WDYT of Intagram's new logo?

[WanderingWinoZ]

The Great Instagram Logo Freakout of 2016 - The New York Times

www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/technology/the-great-instagram-logo-freakout-of-2016.html?_r=0






Instagram changed its logo on Wednesday and, predictably, the Internet was not entirely pleased. To put it bluntly: It freaked out.



The popular app ditched its old-timey camera icon — the one that actually looked like a camera — and replaced it with a square symbol that evoked a camera, rendered in the vivid colors and simple lines of the “flat design” aesthetic. It was sleek, minimalist and, according to many users, kind of basic.



The company said simplicity was the goal. In a blog post, it said the new logo reflected the app’s explosive growth in popularity over the past five years from a photo-sharing service to “a global community of interests” whose users share more than 80 million photos and videos each day.



“The simpler design puts more focus on your photos and videos without changing how you navigate the app,” the company said. “Our updated look reflects how vibrant and diverse your storytelling has become.”



But the people of the Internet were not buying it. Memes were deployed.




We sought help from three of The Times’s veteran Instagram-watchers: the technology reporters Farhad Manjoo and Mike Isaac and the fashion critic Vanessa Friedman. That may seem self-involved, but this is a story about an app that traffics in selfies. Roll with it.



“OMG I do not like that,” Mr. Manjoo wrote in an email. “It’s not that I hate the new one — it’s passable, if a little generic — but more that I was head-over-heels in love with the old Instagram icon.”



Get the Morning Briefing by Email

What you need to know to start your day, delivered to your inbox. Monday – Friday.





Mr. Isaac agreed. “I’ll miss how it stuck out among a sea of other apps that look similar to one another,” he said. But, he added, he probably would not care in a few months.



The new logo’s color scheme in particular — a neon rainbow whose colors fan out across the square-shaped camera icon — was criticized by users as resembling something that could have been designed in a Microsoft program from the 1990s. Others found it garish.



“The new Instagram logo looks like a rejected starburst flavor,” one Twitter user opined.



Another, the BuzzFeed reporter Katherine Miller, wrote, “To be fair, new Instagram icon looks like something you press on a dreary day in an ad then Pitbull’s there and everyone’s drinking Dr. Pepper.”



Ms. Friedman said the change felt a bit desperate. It reminded her of rumors from the 2000 presidential campaign that the feminist writer and campaign consultant Naomi Wolf had dressed Al Gore in earth tones “to make him seem more attractive and metrosexual.”



View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

Follow

Matt Haughey ‎@mathowie

tbh I actually love the new Instagram logo, but this popped into my head when I first saw it.

12:31 PM - 11 May 2016

779 779 Retweets 831 831 likes

The old camera icon told you what Instagram was and what it did: It took pictures and had filters you could use to make the pictures look old-fashioned. But the new symbol throws skeuomorphism to the wind in favor of flat design, a trend in tech whose origins can be traced to Apple’s embrace of the concept in recent years, Mr. Manjoo said.



Instagram had been “the last holdout” against flat design, he said.



“Now all that’s gone,” Mr. Manjoo said. “All is lost. Instagram will never be the same again.”



Mr. Isaac was more sanguine. People become upset whenever there is a design change to a wildly popular service like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, he said, but they get over their shock and keep using the service.



“This will all blow over, just like it always does with Facebook and Twitter,” he said. “Instagram has hit critical mass. You may think neon is ugly, but I guarantee you’ll still be back using the app again tomorrow.”

[rootbeerfloat]

I'm sure I'll get used to the new one, and I don't hate it, but I prefer the old-timey camera.

[lilibet]

I like the old one. The new one isn't very attractive imo

[pixy0stix]

meh

[secretlyevil]

Whatever

[cattledogkisses]

I'm "meh" about the icon change, but I've been avoiding updating Instagram because of the new algorithm that picks which posts you see first/doesn't show things in chronological order. Apparently they weren't paying attention to the fact that everyone hated it when Facebook did this.

[Deleted]

Wait, the Internet freaked out over something that changed?

[DesertMoon]

I like it, it's not really on my radar though. I'd use IG if it's app looked like a flacid peen...so meh

[josieposy]

Another, the BuzzFeed reporter Katherine Miller, wrote, “To be fair, new Instagram icon looks like something you press on a dreary day in an ad then Pitbull’s there and everyone’s drinking Dr. Pepper.”

This is the best. I like this gal.

[bernsteincat]

I was confused this morning and thought I had downloaded another app in my sleep. But I couldn't care less now that j know what it is.

[ringstrue]

Im so glad they updated it. It think the new one is fine.

[waffletime]

[OscarQ]

I'm not a big Instagram user so I'm whatever about the icon change. However I do get cranky whenever icons change because I can never find anything. The new Uber one is terrible. I can never see it in my sea of apps - I have to search for it every time. Kind of defeats the purpose. #Old

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Will the app still transform my boring cup of coffee into a goddamn work of art? Then I think I'll live.

[WanderingWinoZ]

i think it's crap. It went from iconic & well known/recognized to a generic icon of a camera...

[sfy]

I didn't know it was a thing to dislike it, but I dislike it.

[elleblue]

May 13, 2016 7:32:10 GMT -5 sfy said:

I didn't know it was a thing to dislike it, but I dislike it.

Lol! 

I don't really care all that much. I care more about them messing with which posts are shown on my feed. Part of what I liked most about IG was that things were in chronological order. But of course they had to go and FB it up. 

[wambam]

I don't care even a little bit.

[sfy]

May 13, 2016 7:35:41 GMT -5 elleblue said:

May 13, 2016 7:32:10 GMT -5 sfy said:

I didn't know it was a thing to dislike it, but I dislike it.

Lol! 

I don't really care all that much. I care more about them messing with which posts are shown on my feed. Part of what I liked most about IG was that things were in chronological order. But of course they had to go and FB it up. 

Now this I knew was a thing, but it hasn't affected the way I use it, as in I haven't actually noticed the change. I usually check it every other day and I just scroll back to these last thing I liked. I don't think I'm missing any posts this way? It's the same way I've always used it. I feel like I should be having this conversation on "The Olds." I'm so old I didn't even really know it had changed for me lol.

[elleblue]

May 13, 2016 7:42:37 GMT -5 sfy said:

May 13, 2016 7:35:41 GMT -5 elleblue said:

Lol! 

I don't really care all that much. I care more about them messing with which posts are shown on my feed. Part of what I liked most about IG was that things were in chronological order. But of course they had to go and FB it up. 

Now this I knew was a thing, but it hasn't affected the way I use it, as in I haven't actually noticed the change. I usually check it every other day and I just scroll back to these last thing I liked. I don't think I'm missing any posts this way? It's the same way I've always used it. I feel like I should be having this conversation on "The Olds." I'm so old I didn't even really know it had changed for me lol.

See, I feel like I'm missing people's posts and I'm culling my list here and there to try to make sure the posts by friends that I want to see, I see. 

[TR]

May 13, 2016 7:35:41 GMT -5 elleblue said:

May 13, 2016 7:32:10 GMT -5 sfy said:

I didn't know it was a thing to dislike it, but I dislike it.

Lol! 

I don't really care all that much. I care more about them messing with which posts are shown on my feed. Part of what I liked most about IG was that things were in chronological order. But of course they had to go and FB it up. 

Has this happened now? I know people were freaking out awhile ago, but it hadn't happened yet.

[elleblue]

May 13, 2016 7:49:21 GMT -5 TR said:

May 13, 2016 7:35:41 GMT -5 elleblue said:

Lol! 

I don't really care all that much. I care more about them messing with which posts are shown on my feed. Part of what I liked most about IG was that things were in chronological order. But of course they had to go and FB it up. 

Has this happened now? I know people were freaking out awhile ago, but it hadn't happened yet.

Idk for sure, so I freely admit it could just be psychological with me. lol 

But knowing this is coming, I don't bother to scroll through until my last liked picture. IG has lost my trust! (lol) 

[emisi]

Yuck. Not a fan. It's generally not a great idea to change a widely recognized icon to a new, generic looking one, either.

[pandora89]

May 13, 2016 7:49:21 GMT -5 TR said:

May 13, 2016 7:35:41 GMT -5 elleblue said:

Lol! 

I don't really care all that much. I care more about them messing with which posts are shown on my feed. Part of what I liked most about IG was that things were in chronological order. But of course they had to go and FB it up. 

Has this happened now? I know people were freaking out awhile ago, but it hadn't happened yet.

I think it has.

My yoga studio's post was at the top of my feed yesterday even though it was posted "5 hours ago", and newer posts by other people were later in the feed.

[mrsdewinter]

I think it's meh. The colors are too Lisa Frank and the design looks like every other generic photo app. I think they could have done a flat version of the vintage camera and it would have been fresh but still recognizable as Instagram.

[munkii]

Looking at it from a Universal Design standpoint, I wonder how intuitive the design is. I know it's possible that many people who use the app have never used a real or old-timey camera, but the way a camera looks has been ingrained in the human visual experience. Sure, the new symbol vaguely evokes the idea of a camera, but is that really strong enough? Looking beyond what the symbol communicates about its use, I'm not sure it's visually strong enough to support a branding change. To me, the change doesn't make any sense.