Instagram's Brand Identity Case Study: How They Visualized Their Brand

Instagram has successfully cultivated as one of the most iconic brands on social media. From its signature rainbow logo to its signature bright, clean, and inviting color scheme.

Instagram’s visual brand identity has helped define them as not only the most popular social media app but also one of the most iconic brands in the world today. Let’s take a look at how they did it.

Brief History of Instagram

There was something magical about how co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger turned what began as a mobile app for sharing photos and video into a visual sensation on social media.

Today, Instagram is one of the most successful social media platforms with over 700 million monthly active users who share more than 80 million photos and videos each day.

 To help you develop your own brand identity, we're taking a look at how Instagram developed theirs to give you some ideas of what works.

We'll talk about how they developed their brand voice, visual style, and iconography to build a lasting brand that has become an essential part of people's daily lives. 

Let's get started!

To start off, let's take a look at some early brand logos and icons. The logo itself was inspired by retro camera designs (check out those rounded edges!) while also working as a nod to instant photography since photos were shared on the go through mobile devices rather than having prints made in photo labs or through developing services like Shutterfly or CVS.

Instagram logo

In case you're not familiar with Instagram, it’s a social network for both iPhone and Android smartphones where users can share photos and videos with various filters to change their appearance.

The app was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion in April 2012, about two years after its launch. In January 2013, Instagram had 40 million active users—that’s pretty amazing growth from 10 million active users just seven months earlier! Despite being purchased by Facebook, Instagram still has maintained a strong sense of brand identity; they have a voice that’s easy to identify in other ways as well. 

There are three main pillars of visual brand identity (logo color scheme, logo design/shape, and photo filters) that help Instagram maintain its distinctive appearance.

For example, let’s take a look at how these pillars helped Instagram achieve what it has today. 

By consistently applying their brand color palette throughout all of their marketing efforts, Instagram helps customers visually recognize and recall their brand easily.

A recent study found that 90% of consumers remember brands based on visual cues such as logos, images, or colors. With over 100 million users per month viewing Instagram pictures through mobile devices alone, maintaining a recognizable brand is extremely important for getting noticed amidst so much competition.

Color Palette Used by the Brand

Every brand has a color scheme, and so does Instagram. The evolution of its logo color is worth mentioning because it reflects how its brand evolved. Colors are the focus of the Instagram logo.

The app's creators have never withheld this information from the public. Because their contents come from nature, photos and films are the major sources of color.

The Instagram logo is mostly made up of bright hues that convey enthusiasm and excitement.

| "Color has always been a significant element of Instagram—you see it in the basic app symbol, filters, and the community's photographs and videos," 

Says "Ian Spalter", Instagram's head of design.

We considered more minimalist options while recreating the rainbow, but we finally wanted more warmth and vibrancy to complement the symbol. While the logo provides a bright welcome to the Instagram app, we feel that once inside, the color should come from the community's photographs and videos."

Iconography of Logo

Instagram is no longer only a photo-sharing app. It is one of the most engaging apps in the world since it combines video sharing, social media networking, and advertising. It has become so valuable that celebrities, brands, and advertisers can't seem to get enough of it.

According to all appearances, the Instagram icon retains its design aspect. The old Polaroid camera is still represented by the contemporary distorted square and circle.

This Instagram icon element represents attention, nostalgia, youth, and recollections. Since its inception, the app has focused on sharing vivid experiences with friends and loved ones.

Font and Typeface of Brand

Instagram's brand font is fairly simple and playful, reminiscent of handwriting. The font in their logo is a specially designed custom called Frutiger, while their Instagram handle uses a modified version of another Frutiger font, 'Frutiger Condensed.'

This typeface works well for Instagram because it has that friendly, approachable feel you want to capture with a visual brand identity.

Typefaces like Helvetica or Arial will come across as too cold and sterile for a brand like Instagram—you want your audience to feel like they're engaging with something warm and fun. Helvetica can do that, but Instagram does it much better with its unique font. 

If Instagram were using Helvetica, there would be no way to differentiate them from Facebook or Twitter—their branding would become invisible amidst other social media giants.

Instead, Instagram makes itself stand out by using a unique brand font. That helps their audience quickly identify Instagram as a separate entity on social media.

If Instagram had chosen to use a different font (or no brand at all), we wouldn't be talking about them today! As marketers, we have many resources available for free online that allow us to play around with fonts and logos until we find one that best represents our brand personality.

I'd recommend taking advantage of these tools if you haven't already!

Final Take-Away

Finally, I suggest you take a look above mentioned Instagram’s brand identity elements and consider how it applies to your brand.

• Is your logo a visually engaging icon?
• Does it convey what your company does and how?
• How does your logo appear on other materials such as social media profiles, packaging, print ads, and signage?
• What about color?

With companies like Pinterest making their mark with warm color palettes like red, do you know if yours is consistent across platforms?

Ultimately, knowing that people form associations between colors they see more often and brands they use regularly should be enough to encourage you to make decisions that ensure consistency throughout all of your visual elements. 

Learn how different brand identities are applied within certain industries—and try incorporating these methods into your own branding strategy.