Instagram Head of Product Design Explains Thinking Behind That New Logo and Responds to Critics: ‘It’s Important for Us to Embrace the Future’

Instagram rolled out a new logo last week — which instantly drew jeers from some users. One of the top criticisms was that the cursive-style “s” in the updated wordmark confusingly looks like a “z,” leading to a flood of jokes about the new “Instagzam.”

Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst, who was one of the leaders of the redesign effort, explained to Variety the philosophy that went into the new logo and why the app made the change, noting that the IG mark has not changed in the last decade.

“It’s been 10 years, and the platform has evolved enormously — it was time for a refresh,” Probst said. “The new mark moves us forward while keeping the same warmth and familiarity people love.”

According to Probst, the new logo is “simpler and bolder” while “it still has a handmade feel. … Our goal was to create something that felt familiar to Instagram, but sharper and more modern — to meet the community where they are now.”

Said Probst: “It’s important for us to embrace the future, while remembering our values.”

Asked about complaints about the readability of the new wordmark, Probst was diplomatic: “We’ve truly enjoyed seeing the response from people and other brands — whether it’s memes, someone updating their wordmark to connect with ours, or user reactions. We’re proud of our work here and glad it’s out in the world.”

Instagram went through several rounds to gather external feedback, Probst says, “and we very much take input to heart.” That said, she adds, “It’s also important to balance research with creative conviction, and the feedback helped us build clarity in the choices we made.”

The emotional attributes the team was trying to impart with the new IG logo, according to Probst, were “creative expression, quiet confidence, the warmth of something crafted with care.”

Probst led the redesign initiative alongside May Hartono, Instagram’s director of brand design. A small core team of Instagram internal designers worked on both wordmark and the brand system, together with a few core cross-functional day-to-day partners. “Our setup gave us flexibility to have different design teams driving different parts of the work in parallel, while staying in lockstep creatively, which is pretty special,” Probst said. “We have a very wide span of consulted and approving partners, and our agency partners as well.”

As for whether part of the goal was to align Instagram with the sans-serif fonts of the Meta and Facebook wordmarks, Probst said that across Meta, “the wordmarks all aim to reflect both individual apps, and work comfortably as a larger brand family. The Instagram refresh was focused on the Instagram community, and fits well in concert with the broader Meta ethos.”

Pictured above: Instagram’s previous wordmark (left) and the new one introduced on Aug. 13