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Saudi National Day 2022 To Be Held In The Metaverse

Developed by creative agency The Bold Group, Saudi Arabia will host its first ever National Day as a virtual event, complete with collectable NFT wearables.

Published

4 years ago

September 19, 2022

Nour Nasir

saudi national day 2022 to be held in the metaverse

The concept behind the metaverse is that of a persistent, 3D online world combining multiple virtual spaces. The metaverse will be a place where users can work, game, and socialize together in a digital environment. On the 22-24th of September 2022, the online universe will edge closer to the mainstream, hosting the first ever Saudi National Day as a virtual event.

The pioneering online festival has been organized and developed by The Bold Group in collaboration with the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah). The event will showcase immersive 3D spaces, enabling visitors to tour the Kingdom and soak up the local heritage, landmarks, food, culture, music, and more.

saudi national day 2022 metaverse

As well as the experience of a virtual visit to Saudi Arabia, the Bold Group’s decentralized platform will feature iconic wearable national attire in the form of NFTs. The organizers will also provide POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) as a limited edition collectible NFT so virtual tourists can show off their participation in the world’s first virtual Saudi National Day.

“We’re witnessing a major transformation in the Saudi digital industry where Saudi Arabia is being increasingly recognized as a key player in the global technology scene […] Disruptive technologies like the metaverse is the future, and we at The Bold Group aim to be a key player in that evolution. The idea to usher in the Saudi National Day […] was inspired by the challenge of convening people across the Kingdom’s 13 different regions to celebrate Saudi Arabia in one virtual space,” says Ziad AbuRjaily, Creative Technology Director in the Bold Experience Unit.

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Saudi Arabia is currently at the cutting edge of the world’s digital transformation and aims to become a global technology hub. Groundbreaking events like the Saudi National Day will further highlight the region as a place where innovation and creativity flourish, putting the Kingdom at the center of the rapidly expanding metaverse.

News

Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”

Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.

Published

4 days ago

August 14, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.

“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.

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The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.

Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.