Right Here, Right Now, Back Then in 1977

When Instagram was founded, back in 1977, the company seemed destined for failure. Mainly because founder John ‘Clawless Koala’ Jonstontownson (nicknamed so because he once fought a clawless koala*) liked to do things differently. Idiotically, really.

But don’t blame John Jonstontownson. Remember, he was a child of his era and many things went topsy-turvy in the 1970s: ugly became the new beautiful and plastic the new metal. So when newly founded Instagram needed a logo, it wasn’t strange at all that John Jonstontownson thought it best to base the logo on an iconic real world object that did not yet exist. It would have to be a camera, since Instagram was all about sharing photos with friends. Members could (snail-)mail a photo to Instagram, who would then copy it and send it to all the member’s friends. Great fun and convenience, since you no longer had to visit your friends to show them how bigly you were winning at life.

Back to the logo. It would have to be based on an iconic camera, so Instagram’s R&D department (just John Jonstontownson really, as he couldn’t find any other fools to board his seemingly collision-coursing train) went to work and designed just that. A unique affordable dummy-proof camera that developed your photos on the spot, saving valuable time in the whole instagram process. He dubbed it the Polaroid Land Camera 1000. Until Polaroid protested and he had to drop the Polaroid part of the name. Until -a week later- Polaroid realized they could buy the patent and mass-produce the camera, since Instagram had no intention of doing so; all they needed was a model for their logo.

And so John Jonstontownson became the creator of two of the Plastic Age’s great inventions: The instant camera and Instagram. The only reason so few people have ever heard of him is that his name was impossible to remember.


*He lost.

*****

Deco Facts

Regular Deco: 23,891 x 23,891 pixels
Compact Deco: 10,308 x 10,308 pixels

132 parts