Today, Instagram released a significant “brand refresh,” which is primarily a fancy term for updating some marketing materials and making big, vague statements about logos. This “brand refresh” was rolled out globally.
In addition to that, there is an abundance of it here. But there is also another, much more significant change: Instagram has designed its very own typeface, which it calls Instagram Sans, and it intends to use it extensively going forward, both in marketing and within the app itself.
The new typeface, which has been given the name “Instagram Sans,” was designed with the Instagram logo in mind. Instagram mentions that the font’s design was motivated by “squircles,” which are combinations of squares and circles. Additionally, a number of different global scripts are included in the new typeface.
According to the company, Instagram Sans is a modern take on grotesque and geometric font styles mixed together. Instagram Sans Regular, Bold, Light, Medium, Condensed, and Condensed Bold are some of the new fonts that have been added. You are welcome to experiment with the various new fonts that are available.
The majority of the Instagram Sans fonts feature fairly straightforward sans-serif lettering, which makes perfect sense for a brand that caters to a user base that is both widespread and extremely varied. Instagram has stated that it has collaborated with linguists to ensure that the typeface is legible in the greatest number of languages possible, including script languages such as Thai and Japanese.
The fact that the uppercase “Q” in certain fonts has a slight bump at the end of its tail is the only giveaway that the font is not standard. Then there’s Instagram Sans Script, which adds broad brushstroke-like flourishes to practically every letter. This can have either a cool effect (the uppercase “W” looks like the logo of a super hip yoga studio) or a deeply strange effect (the lowercase “r” doesn’t even look like a letter). Instagram Sans Script is available on both iOS and Android.
Instagram, on the other hand, receives a much more recognizable persona as a result of its use of more eccentric fonts. A caption written in Sans Script is not going to look anything like a video that was ripped from TikTok, which is one place where the company is hoping users will experiment with Instagram Sans. Another place is in Stories and Reels. There is a certain sameness permeating the social landscape as vertical video becomes the norm, and while a needlessly wavy “x” may not change everything, it is something.