It’s the hottest social network right now, with Facebook hedging its bets on the Systrom-Krieger vehicle. With 300 million+ daily active users (90% of them teens + young adults mind you), it’s no wonder that brands and illustrators have made Instagram their new home due to the staggering popularity that it enjoys.
Here are some of the most coolest and amazing brands that Instagram is home to, making use of the image-based platform’s simple features to showcase their wares to the world at large. Sneak peeks, product endorsements, DIY ideas. Instagrammers are a pretty artistic bunch and it shows.
1. Jon Contino
Jon Contino is a logo design and typography whiz, soaking in some of the NYC-inspired influences and weaving it into his design collection as if he’s having tons of fun. He also does brand and product design with a helpful dose of illustration to keep things interesting and lively.
2. Ryan Bosse
San Francisco-based Ryan Bosse is a freelance brand designer. He has a keen eye for design and can’t resist photographing logo designs that give him an idea or two in his freelance projects. This one is all about soaking up all the artistic influences all around us.
3. Pick Me Up
What do you get when you mash up logo design with t-shirt design? Pick Me Up is that’s what. Though the brand is all about the London-based contemporary arts scene, their annual round up of British design is as good a place as any to know what’s hot and not in UK design scene right now.
4. Hey Studio
The Barcelona-based design collective features a smorgasbord of unique examples for brand identity, editorial design and illustration work done for global giants. A perfect page to check out for the best in professional and commercially-creative work.
5. Riley Cran
Wanted to know a thing or ten about packaging design? As every marketing person will tell you, packaging plays a huge role in how customers perceive their brands. Knowing how brand identity, packaging and illustration gel together is why you might want to keep an eye out on Riley Cran’s Instagram.
6. Mike Perry
Mike Perry is a one man army when it comes to all things graphic design. He’s dabbled in branding, illustration, product design and quite a host of things that nets one some 40,000+ followers on Instagram. His mega-popularity notwithstanding, Mike Perry lives, breathes and eats design.
7. Will Bryant
Will Bryant brings a whimsical but extremely likeable branding sensibility in his work. A family man through and through, he describes himself as a goofball. The good kind of goofball if one goes through his branding creations in Instagram. He makes use of everyday objects to come up with his branding concepts.
8. Lauren Hom
Laurel Hom is a lettering virtuoso. Founder of the DailyDishonesty.com blog, her life reads like one long love letter to the fine art of making typography speak a language of its own. She conveys the nuances and the subtleties that are so much important for brands to convey to their target audience. As a designer, she applies these lessons in her projects with the care and effort they deserve.
9. Chris Rushing
Art director and NYC-based designer, Chris Rushing has done websites, apps, print, book covers and a lot more. He’s living the life with his life imitating art everywhere he goes. Take a look at his Instagram to view his creative jaunts across the American hinterlands.
10. Tad Carpenter
Scrapbooker of quirky design finds, that’s just one way to describe Tad Carpenter’s Instagram feed. But that’s not all he is. If you are looking for inspiration for character design and personal branding, Tad’s your man too.
11. Anna Dorfman
For cool stuff, Anna Dorfman, (a self-professed book cover designer by day and insomniac blogger by night) has a pretty nifty Instagram account that fits the bill. Its got glimpses of her branding prowess at work, dogs, and flashes of the Brooklyn life to perfectly round it off.
12. Sharpie
Few brands do Instagram absolutely right. Like Sharpie. Sharpie’s repertoire of real drawing tools and colors makes it one of those brands that invite their loyal customers to highlight their best work online. At over 114,000+ followers strong base, Sharpie shows others how to do branding on Instagram right.
13. Kate Moross
Kate Moross is well-known for her illustration and graphic designing work inside and outside the UK. Her Instagram account is home to some fun and quirky solo and collaborative work that Kate has done. It’s a peek into what inspires one of the UK’s best brand designers.
Best Brand Designers to Follow on Instagram
Here are some of the most coolest and amazing brands that Instagram is home to, making use of the image-based platform’s simple features to showcase their wares to the world at large. Sneak peeks, product endorsements, DIY ideas. Instagrammers are a pretty artistic bunch and it shows.
14. Gavin Strange
Gavin (also known by his moniker Jam Factory) is one of the senior brand designers at Aardman. His Instagram account is replete with examples of design and bikes, two things that he is absolutely passionate about. He runs a successful Instagram competition under the #freeartFriday hashtag. Be sure to check this Bristol-based designer out.
15. Erik Marinovich
An accomplished designer and co-creator behind FriendsofType.com, Erik Marinovich has made a name for himself as a letterist-par-excellence. He has been hired by high profile clients such as New York Times, Wired and Nike for branding and design-related projects. If there’s one designer that you really need to have on your Instagram timeline, it’s this one.
