Instagram reveals new logo inspired by Coca-Cola

Instagram's new logo. It's different – promise.

Creating a "timeless" logo is far from a simple undertaking. The most established logos; Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple, McDonalds (among others), are instantly recognisable from a distance.

This vision of an instantly recognisable logotype has been the goal of Denver-based typographer, Mackey Saturday, on behalf of Instagram. Among various feature and UI improvements in version 3.5 of the app, Gizmodo notes the logo script has also been altered slightly. From a first glance, you could be forgiven for believing nothing has changed at all. Further investigation, however, reveals that the slight aesthetic alteration is the result of over a year of professional design work.

A shot posted on Dribbble by Saturday shows the new logo as well as a full rundown of the design process. It's really worth a read.

Saturday, a personal friend of Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, suggests that the smallest alterations matter an awful lot when creating a long-term brand:

The real goal is to sit alongside some of those timeless scripts, like Kellog's and Cambell's. Coca-Cola's another great example. It's nostalgic, but it transcends popular trends.

He goes on to elaborate about the finished design over on Dribbble:

I had the opportunity to work with the fantastic team at Instagram to create their new logo. It has been a long time coming, and I'm honoured to share the result with you.

It was always essential that the design maintained everything that we've all grown to know and love about Instagram while creating a logotype that was more refined, durable, and that position the brand for expansion. Looking to the past to inspire the future, the script connects with the nostalgia that Instagram was built from, maintains the important character of the original typeface [Billabong, a webfont that tied in well with 1950s surfer culture and the general vibe of the company], and places the brand in a unique and prominent position both in the current and future landscape.

Whilst the new logo offers a more refined and cleaner design as Saturday suggests, the company may find it difficult to propagate the script into a timeless logotype given that most people associate the retro camera-style app icon with Instagram.