Wanna’ get an inside look at design and creative on Instagram?
This week, the platform has launched a new profile called @design which will showcase the work of Instagram’s design team, as well as that of emerging artists:
As explained by Instagram:
“On @design, we’ll go behind the scenes with emerging designers and creators at home, in their studios, and at global festivals to learn about their craft. We’ll also explore our creative process at Instagram – from how we define problems, to our prototyping tools, to AR simulations, to weekly team critiques, and more.”
The profile could help users get a better understanding of Instagram’s internal design processes, while also showcasing new, creative ideas, which may help provide inspiration for your own work.
It’s an interesting move from Instagram considering they also recently disbanded their global community team, which has seen content on the official Instagram blog come to a standstill. Reports suggested that the community team, which had been responsible for building engagement with fans, was dissolved in favor of a more business-aligned focus over community under the management of Facebook.
Indeed, speculation indicated that Instagram’s move to an algorithm-defined feed lead to tensions between the community team and the company, with community team members calling for an option to return to chronological listings. Also interesting – Instagram recently softened their approach on their algorithm by announcing that newer posts would see more precedence, somewhat conceding that the community team, if those reports are correct, may have been right.
The @design handle takes a more high level view of Instagram, focusing on the creative elements, as opposed to the community, and it’s not necessarily designed to replace the community team. But it is an interesting correlation between the two, which somewhat supports the line that the platform is now more focused on building its business, as opposed to its former approach.
That makes sense, of course, but it’ll be interesting to see what gets showcased on @design, and how Instagram uses it to build engagement – likely with business users.