I was pointed to this redesign thru a Tweet from Jürgen Siebert and my reaction was: bad design, too mechanical, too thought–thru. Mr Siebert disagreed at first, but then changed his opinion (after some explanation from me).

In the discussion on the site there is a Mr Marchington who has put my opinion perfectly into words:

I really have to disagree with the consensus here. The new design loses all of the character of the original. it is so sanitized and dull. The designers could have done so much with the character and playfulness of the original. The uniformity of the x-height in the new version is boring, beige and bloody ugly. Ugh! Couldn't be more white bread if they tried. They should be ashamed of themselves given the opportunity.

It IS always noticeable when something has been designed by committee… (And on a side note: A lot of artwork is too slick because designers don’t draw or sketch but start out with digital tools.)

I really quite enjoy the sterility of it myself, though I wish it'd go a bit towards italic...

Instagram seems to have led to a kind of homogenization of amateur digital imagery on the web. It seems appropriate that its logo be likewise homogenized.

^exactly. Fauxtography.