Manychat’s Instagram Summit identity treats shapes as social beings

The Brand Identity: A square that behaves like a person might sound like an abstract concept, but for Manychat’s in-house brand studio, it became the organising principle behind Instagram Summit’s identity. The two-part global event brings together creators, marketers and agencies navigating the social economy, and the visual system needed to capture something essential about how people actually behave when they gather – merging, aligning, colliding and moving in rhythm with one another.

Rather than treat the square as a static graphic element, the team redefined it as what they call a “behavioural unit,” each one representing an individual participant whose movements and interactions form the emotional core of the entire identity. The Instagram Summit logo already contained the seeds of this approach. Its visual DNA emerged from the overlap between a sharp, rigid square and a softer chat bubble – a tension between technological precision and conversational warmth that has defined the event’s identity since its inception.

Sergey Andronov, Director of Brand Design at Manychat, describes the challenge as one of evolution rather than reinvention: “As the event grew and became more creator-focused, we needed a system that could feel more alive and socially dynamic while still staying rooted in Manychat’s technological clarity.” The question of how to represent human interaction without sacrificing structural rigour became central to the project, forcing the team to reconcile fluidity and unpredictability with geometric precision. The resulting modular framework is built around movement and composition rather than decorative embellishment.

Art Director Dima Bertoluchi explains the systematic thinking: “We developed a framework where the same primitive shape could generate multiple scenarios of interaction. Different densities, directions and spatial relationships allow us to express themes like collaboration, integration and influence consistently across static and motion applications.” The squares merge and overlap in ways that feel genuinely social, their arrangements suggesting the natural clustering and dispersal of conference attendees finding their people in a crowded room. Animation proved essential in transforming these geometric compositions from static arrangements in

to something that feels alive. Senior Motion Designer Nikita Shabalin notes that while “static compositions establish structure, animation reveals behaviour,” with controlled movement, timing and rhythm turning the squares from abstract geometry into active participants.

The motion work makes the system feel experiential rather than purely graphic – you watch the squares and recognise something of your own behaviour reflected back, the way you might drift toward a conversation or step back to let someone else speak. The decision to maintain Manychat’s existing typography and colour system – including Manychat Gravity by Dinamo alongside CoFo Sans and Rooftop – ensured that Instagram Summit remained clear as a sub-brand. The differentiation comes entirely from the behavioural language the team introduced within those existing parameters.

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This article discusses an innovative approach to brand identity that emphasizes emotional engagement through design, which is significant for the industry and offers actionable insights for brand strategy professionals.