Content creators are the lifeblood of social media. Not only does user engagement follow good content, but creators themselves are drawn to platforms that feature and support interesting, innovative content. Instagram understood this insight and developed an initiative to celebrate the best creativity on Instagram, which would in turn inspire even more content to be generated ©. Combo was brought in to develop the identity of the creators platform.

This project came to life as the Instagram profile @creators. The Combo team developed an approach that allowed @creators to function like an online magazine all about content creation. Guided by the needs of content creators, the profile was a way to spotlight individual creators and increase their followers. Taking it a step further, it also functioned as an instruction manual with pro tips and best practices for showcasing one’s creativity through Instagram. Strategy and design worked to strike a balance between reflecting the vast array of content that already existed on the platform and inspiring people to create more.

The visual identity aimed for agility between bold statements and supporting frameworks. Typography was chosen to be minimalist and simple to deliver clear language during moments of instruction and scale for boldness when celebrating people’s work. The brand needed to highlight an eclectic mix of creators, so the design team put together graphic layouts that could act as containers for the best content on Instagram and let the creators shine, while also being recognizable with the platform’s distinct look and feel.

To express @creator’s mission of boosting the most creative content back out to the wider Instagram usership, the design team conceived a new iteration of the Instagram logo. Combo designers reskinned the logo into a reflective version of itself. The constantly moving graphic represented a mirror reflecting the work being done all throughout the platform. Designers also put together a series of plug-and-play templates that the Instagram team could use for posts, stories and reels. The ability to quickly create different pieces of brand-aligned content enabled them to present a set of instructions that resonated with most creative people online.