Look, we know more than most people that fonts are serious business. Sometimes emotional business. Good typography can spark joy, whereas an inappropriate font choice or dodgy kerning can absolutely ruin a day. So we're not particularly surprised to learn that Instagram's new font is drawing such a heated response.
Named Rosalía, after the Spanish pop star, the inky handwriting font is allegedly based on her handwriting, and is all over Instagram Stories right now. But while Meta claims the font is designed to inspire creativity and risk-taking, it seems plenty of users would happily never see it again.
"We know people value lightweight ways to be creative with features like Close Friends, Stories, Notes and more," Meta announced. "So we’re partnering with Rosalía on a new font in Stories and Reels, inspired by her handwriting, to make things more fun. We’re also introducing a way to share what you’re listening to on Spotify directly in Notes, to easily connect with friends through music."
The font has clearly proven popular – popular enough to warrant a backlash. "What is this hideous new font you're all using on Instagram?" One TikTokker asks in a video with over 2M views (above). Meanwhile, the campaign has spread to Instagram itself (below), with one user going so far as to describe its use as the "next pandemic".
So why's the font so offensive? Perhaps its the faux-messy style that manages to land somewhere between 'punk' and 'life, laugh, love'. Or the sheer illegibility of it – at a distance, this is by no means one of the best accessible fonts.
But ultimately, there probably isn't much science behind it. It's just a bit annoying. And the whole thing goes to show that, perhaps more than most areas of design, a font is capable of provoking a strong gut reaction – for better or worse.
