InstacartCopied

Instacart grew steadily from 2012 into the leading grocery technology company in the US and Canada, and by 2022 it wanted to be seen as more than a grocery delivery app. The rebrand was built on a positioning its designers call Shop+Savor: the practical act of shopping, and the emotional value of what you bring home.

The business case was breadth. By March 2022 Instacart served more than 750 retail partners and 5,000 consumer brands, selling beauty, pharmacy, electronics and hardware alongside groceries. Laura Jones, who led brand and marketing, said the business had evolved and now the brand needed to; she told Brand Innovators the carrot could be shown whole, planted in the wordmark or plucked from it, and its arrow used as a cursor connecting retailer brands.

The carrot stays but is transformed. Its leafy top is streamlined into a shape that doubles as an arrow, a hint that the cart is now for more than food, while the rounded root carries the savouring side. Around it comes appetising typography in a large variable family split into Instacart Sans and Instacart Contrast, plus a palette with food-inspired names such as Kale, Turmeric and Guava.

Adweek read the launch as the brand burying the orange carrot in favour of the green arrow. The rollout ran across the consumer and shopper apps, app stores, advertising products and the corporate site over the following weeks.

Instacart's brand team and creative studio worked with an outside agency on the system.

The carrot-as-arrow is the kind of double meaning that usually feels forced, but here it is subtle enough to work, and the mark remains friendly and simple. The agency behind it reports a strong commercial response, with more site visits and online mentions after launch. As design, it is a rare logo evolution that adds an idea without adding complexity.