Instagram reveals its first brand refresh in 10 years, with a new wordmark and three typefaces

Instagram has surprised us all with its first brand refresh in a decade. That's a long time to live with your own handwriting. Its cursive wordmark has remained unchanged since 2016, while everything beneath it – Stories, Reels, the feed – has been pulled apart in every direction since.

The announcement was made yesterday afternoon, just as we were wrapping up the day. Instagram's Head, Adam Mosseri, was behind the big reveal, merely posting an image of the new identity. In his caption, he explained it was time for a refresh. "Cleaner and more modern, with references to the original and the simplicity and craft that's always made it Instagram," he writes.

It was funny that the first commenter wrote, "Here for the comments", as that's exactly where I immediately went, too. The design community can be brutal. I should know; I've supported it for almost two decades.

As he suggests, the new mark is still a script, but it feels more modern. The loops are tighter, and the letters still hold hands. The flourishes now exist mainly on the 's', 'r ', and 'g', whereas everything else has been squared up.

Which is interesting because Jasmine Probst, director of product design at Instagram, says the team explored hundreds of directions before landing on this one. "Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right," she says. "The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness."

But that's just the logo. The wider brand system, revealed on Meta's design blog, brings an updated Instagram Sans, plus two new typefaces: Instagram Pen (a handwriting face) and Instagram Mono. The motion, layout and UI have all been refreshed, too, and they now have more room to breathe. The famous gradient hasn't changed and is still core to the brand, just used with a lighter touch.

"The refreshed brand system puts our community's creativity and self-expression front and centre," says May Hartono, director of brand design at Meta. "It's designed to spark courageous action and give people the confidence to create and show up as themselves, freely and fully."

One thing that hasn't changed is the camera glyph. The famous app icon on your phone's home screen is exactly the same as yesterday. Although Instagram has been playing with it elsewhere. It did a lovely campaign in June, allowing six artists to reimagine the glyph as alternative icons. Names included Zipeng Zhu (a Creative Boom podcast favourite), Uzo Njoku, Haruko Hayakawa, Humberto Cruz, Pablo Rochat and Felipe Pantone.

As with all these big rebrand announcements, reactions have been mixed and passionate. Mosseri's post on Instagram has had thousands of replies, a good chunk of which point out that the new 'r' can read as a 'z'. Not surprisingly, 'Instagzam' was doing the rounds within hours.

Designers, meanwhile, are actually split on the news: some were relieved to see the wobbly cursive tidied up, while others were left unconvinced by a mark that's "half script, half sans".

The wordmark will now roll out globally, with the rest of the system catching up later. So there's more to come. I'm really looking forward to the reaction on LinkedIn.