In late 2022, Reddit reached out to Pentagram for help in streamlining its growing global presence and addressing the increasing complexities of its brand elements.
The accumulation of diverse branding materials and adaptations of its mascot, Snoo, along with unique terminologies like 'r/' for subreddits, had presented a labyrinthine challenge.
With a surplus of brand assets and an expansive global vision, Reddit wanted to revamp its identity for a more seamless, intuitive, and cohesive brand experience while maintaining its inherent sense of friendliness and joy.
Reddit, renowned for its utopian brand ethos and vibrant community contributions, needed a unified strategy to corral its diverse brand elements.
The team at Pentagram has gone deep into the very essence of Reddit to acknowledge the authenticity and the active curiosity of its user base. This exploration helped them to define Reddit's brand around four key traits: inherently eclectic, positively different, delightfully absurd, and genuinely candid.
Reddit is "the heart of the internet" because of its genuine conversations and certain traits. Information is presented logically and concisely with everyday language and the active voice being used.
The design team at Pentagram took on the task of redefining Snoo, Reddit's beloved mascot, by creating a more cohesive and iconic character. The process involved transforming the 2D Snoo icon into a more detailed 3D form, similar to character development in animated films.
This evolution served as the foundation for a refreshed illustration style, transitioning from individual spot illustrations to a more cohesive and unified set of 3D icons, giving Snoo a new and vibrant life.
The team Pentagram introduced conversation bubbles as a key design element to reflect the platform's distinctive user-engaged discussions. To incorporate the bubble motif into Reddit's proprietary typeface - Reddit Sans, they created a unique typography style called Reddit Display. This design approach ensured that the bubble-shaped counters of lowercase letters became an iconic visual element across Reddit's communication channels, promoting a sense of familiarity and recognition among its users.
The bubble on Reddit is more than just a design element. It helps to organize text and images across the site, highlighting diverse content and communities. The bubble also moves and changes shape to help present content in a clear and easy-to-navigate way. This makes it easier for Reddit users to find what they want.
To ensure that Reddit users have a clear and easy experience, the brand's colour palette needed to be simplified. They used the signature OrangeRed as the main colour and added 15 more colours in a refined secondary palette, which was much less than before. This simplification allowed moderators to choose brand-specific colours while keeping the community's voice and organization.
