What Is the Instagram Logo?
The Instagram logo is a simple camera outline, a rounded square with a circle and a small dot inside it, filled with a gradient that runs from yellow and orange through pink to purple. It belongs to Instagram, the photo and video app that Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched from San Francisco on 6 October 2010, and owned by Meta, formerly Facebook, since 2012.
The camera sits above a handwritten-style Instagram wordmark on the app's home screen and in its marketing. The gradient camera is available as the Instagram logo SVG.
Instagram Logo Facts
| Introduced | 11 May 2016; colours refreshed in May 2022 |
| Symbol | A simplified camera |
| Logo type | Pictorial mark: a camera glyph |
| Earlier mark | Cole Rise's brown retro camera icon, 2010 to 2016 |
| Owner | Meta Platforms |
What the Instagram Logo Means
The camera says what the app was built for: taking and sharing photos. When Instagram introduced the flat glyph in 2016, it said the shape was inspired by the previous app icon and represented a simpler camera. The rainbow stripe that ran across the old icon was kept in another form: in Instagram's words, the rainbow "lives on in gradient form".
The 2022 refresh gave that gradient a new meaning. Instagram wanted it to look lit from within, so 3D artist Rose Pilkington built a modelling process that creates the colours from digital light. Instagram says the glowing gradient signals moments of discovery. The team also describes the logo's corners as a "squircle", a shape between a circle and a square.
Instagram Logo History
The first Instagram icon looked like a Polaroid camera. It lasted only around two weeks on the iPhone before Apple asked for a new design. Systrom turned to designer Cole Rise, who had about 45 minutes to produce one. Rise based it on an icon he had already drawn of a 1940s Bell & Howell camera, and his brown camera with its rainbow stripe served as Instagram's icon from 2010 until early 2016.
Facebook agreed to buy Instagram on 9 April 2012. On 11 May 2016 Instagram replaced Rise's detailed camera with the flat outline and the colour gradient.
On 23 May 2022 Instagram announced a visual refresh. The gradient became brighter, and a custom typeface, Instagram Sans, arrived, made with Colophon Foundry and drawing on the logo and wordmark.
On 13 August 2026 Instagram head Adam Mosseri revealed a redrawn wordmark, the first change to the name lettering in about a decade. It keeps the script style with sharper letterforms, and the camera icon did not change.
Instagram and Its Meta Siblings
Meta owns Instagram alongside WhatsApp, whose mark is a telephone inside a green speech bubble (see the WhatsApp logo). Both apps chose an everyday object for their icon: a phone for messaging, a camera for photos. For more brands like Instagram, browse our social media logos.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who designed the original Instagram logo?
The brown camera icon used from 2010 to 2016 was designed by Cole Rise, based on a 1940s Bell & Howell camera.
When did Instagram change its logo to the gradient camera?
On 11 May 2016, when the detailed retro camera gave way to a flat outline filled with a colour gradient.
Why is the Instagram logo a gradient?
The 2016 gradient carried on the rainbow stripe of the old icon. Since 2022 it has been built to look lit from within, which Instagram links to moments of discovery.
Did Instagram change its wordmark in 2026?
Yes. In August 2026 Instagram introduced a redrawn wordmark with sharper letters, while keeping the camera icon unchanged.