On Wednesday, Instagram changed its beloved app icon from a familiar-looking retro camera to what you see here. If you are freaking out about the change, you're not the only one.
"OMG I do not like that," The New York Times ' Farhad Manjoo wrote of the change. “It’s not that I hate the new one — it’s passable, if a little generic — but more that I was head-over-heels in love with the old Instagram icon.”
People on Twitter are also (unsurprisingly) decrying the change. A survey on The Tylt finds that 63% of respondents think the design is "ugly" as opposed to "cute."
But let's get real: We freak out every time a beloved app changes its look. Like when your boyfriend suddenly shaves off the beard he's had for the past six months and now you're basically dating a different person, you've just got to look past it, get used to it, and get over it. (Although unlike your boyfriend's beard, the old app design is probably never, ever coming back.)
If you're still disconcerted by Instagram's new icon, why not take a quick trip back in time to look at seven other redesigns that made the internet explode.
Instagram's New Icon
Of course, the latest app change outcry is over Instagram's new, more minimalist icon. Instagram reportedly kicked off the year-long design process by tasking folks with drawing the company's icon from memory in 10 seconds or less. (Although this funny video suggests designers went back to 1995 and created it in a program such as MS Paint.)
Photo: Courtesy Instagram.
Google's Sans Serif Logo
Google abandoned its decades-old logo in favour of a sans serif version in September last year. While in some ways, the serif-free version is more "modern," it also feels more elementary and playful. But Googlers do go for the work hard, play hard mentality, right?
GIF: Courtesy Google.
Uber's Redesigned Icon
We're still not used to seeing Uber's new app icon, which it revealed in February. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick likened the old icon to looking "at someone’s hairstyle and [thinking], ' O h my, you peaked in the 1990s. '" We definitely didn't get that vibe, Travis.
Photo: Courtesy Uber.
Airbnb's Vagina Logo
When Airbnb changed its logo in 2014 to this upside down heart-teepee-curly cue thing, the internet had one collective thought: This looks like a vagina. Nearly two years later, we don't bat an eye at this logo and are also entirely comfortable with its feminine imagery.
Photo: Courtesy Airbnb.
iOS 7's "Flattened" App Icons (& Interface Overhaul)
In 2013, Apple flipped our iPhone world upside down by completely redesigning most of its app logos with a new "flat" design aesthetic. Like we see with Instagram's new logo, a flat aesthetic is minimalist. It abandons the skeuomorphic look of earlier interface design ("skeuomorphism" features lots of texture and detail and tries to mimic what an object would look like in real life).
Photo: Courtesy Cult of Mac.
Yahoo's Logo Change
Yahoo told us it was coming, but when the day finally came, we still weren't prepared. Like Google would do two years later, Yahoo dropped its original serif font for a cleaner sans serif style, tweaked its purple colouring, and sent Yahoo users into a tizzy.
Photo: Courtesy Yahoo.
When Twitter Changed Its Bird Icon
We bet you forgot all about this drama. In 2012, Twitter dropped the lowercase T as its logo and made its official logo just a bird (specifically, the bird on the right). The Twitterati could not handle this. Not. At. All.
Photo: Courtesy Twitter.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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