Design studio Pentagram has rebranded social media platform Reddit, including a 3D rendering of the brand’s alien mascot, Snoo.
Pentagram’s New York office worked to create branding materials that captured the website’s “utopian spirit,” revamping the presentation of the logo, mascot, typeface, and conversation threads.
One of the main goals of this rebrand, led by Pentagram partner Natasha Jen, was to organize and unify the various visual elements of Reddit that have grown organically over time.
“A utopian spirit runs throughout the brand, as both our employees and community contribute to the company’s visual identity,” Pentagram said.
“Reddit’s beloved mascot, Snoo, has gone through thousands of iterations. The company’s unique terminology, such as ‘r/’ for subreddits and upvote and downvote mechanisms, has become complicated. It was a contributing factor.”
The studio focused its rebrand around four characteristics it believes will define the platform: “Inherently Eclectic, Actively Different, Delightfully Ridiculous, and Truly Candid.”
Pentagram took Snoo to the “next act” by rendering the character in 3D and creating different emojis with different facial expressions.
The Alien mascot is a small white figure with a round belly, bear-like ears, orange eyes, one antennae, and a wide smile. It features 3D evolved matte skin.
To unify the different styles that make up Reddit conversation threads, Pentagram created colorful bubbles that surround conversation titles, tags, and other elements, creating a common visual thread across the website. .
“Beyond typography, bubbles have become an important element of compositional strategy,” Pentagram said.
“Designed as a dynamic content device, bubbles nicely frame both text and images and serve as the basic graphical element.”
An animation language has also been created for bubbles that move and stretch to display “subreddits” (conversation threads) and other visual elements on the platform.
As a typeface for the website, the studio created Reddit Display. It includes rounded lowercase letters and a circular element with a small conversation bubble inside the bowl.
The studio also streamlined Reddit’s color palette, which previously included more than 100 colors, to 15 bright, bold hues featuring magenta, orange, and neon green.
“Reddit clearly has an authentic sensibility, expressed in the unique features on the platform and the alien mascot,” Pentagram said.
“These key improvements – the strategic integration of Snoo’s evolved format and presentation, the introduction of bubbles, the creation of Reddit displays, codified motion behavior, and streamlined color palette – define Reddit’s unique brand. Collectively reflect your attributes and empower your company to: Move into your next chapter with confidence.”
Pentagram recently collaborated with refugee children to create flashlight kits and create a new visual identity for the Moholy-Nagy Foundation.
Image courtesy of Pentagram.
Project credits:
pentagram team
Lead designer: Natasha Jen
team: Whitney Budge, Kyle Baron-Cohen, Eva Green, Edgar Ferrer. Supported by Justin Zhang, Jack Fahnestock, Max Zimmerer, Weronika Rafa, Juliette Lespérance, Mason Lin, and project managers Madeleine Golden and Zoë Thompson.
Reddit team: Roxy Young, EK Chan, Tavish McClellan, Monica Benson, Jen Gillis, Troise Robinson, Dave Carr, Andrew Prinz, Christopher Potts, David Benham, Alexa Rand, Amber Dee, Beverly Galipeau , Michael Dillingham, Marie Carre, Skylar Muench, Andon Espeses
