3d Instagram logo and app icon

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week or so, you’ve no doubt heard about Facebook’s $1B acquisition of Instagram. The moment I heard that took me right back to the dot com days of 1999 and 2000 when I was working as a co-founder of a web and multimedia design firm that was so close to cashing in on the hype. We were just about to do our IPO when the bubble burst. Oh what could have been…

But wow. A billion dollars for Instagram! Really?!? I’m not a user, and I really had no idea that it was so popular. After all the news of this purchase broke a couple weeks ago, I considered signing up to see what all the hype was about – but I did a little research and I just couldn’t see any value in doing so. That’s not to say that I don’t think they have a great product. It is kinda neat – but I just don’t see a use for it in my own personal life. Congrats to the entire Instagram team for building a product so many people enjoy.

Anyway, I decided to build a 3d model of their app icon and logo. Truth be told, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. If I were to build a 3d model to replicate all of the shadows and shading in their app icon, it would have been very soft and almost pillow-like. That would have made it difficult to add in some of the details, so I decided to simplify it a bit and make the front face a bit more flat. That seemed to work – but it comes at the cost of not being exactly true to their app icon.  That’s not such a big deal though because I think this icon still maintain’s Instagram’s original design intent.

Here’s a detailed description of this set:

• A large Instagram logo sitting on a silver hand truck over a dark red reflective surface
• A large brass key protruding out of the lens of a big Instagram app icon over a white reflective surface
• A large Instagram logo over a white reflective surface
• A large red push pin stuck into the lens of a big Instagram logo icon over a white reflective surface
• Two large gears sitting on top of the Instagram app icon over a dark gray reflective surface
• The Instagram logo sitting on a large red SOLD sticker over a dark red reflective surface