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Photo credit: Reddit
In case you haven’t followed the Reddit IPO rumors yet, the beating heart of the internet’s niche microcultures just rebranded, refreshing its iconic logo and introducing some new visual vibes.
Reddit’s most obvious visual update is a new design for Snoo, the anthropomorphic red-and-white robot mascot that has been synonymous with Reddit since its inception.
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“/>Photo credit: Reddit
Compared to the now ancient first version of Snoo, the new Snoo looks very stylish. The new mascot replaces the previous Snoo’s flat design with a three-dimensional version of the character that could fit into a Pixar film. Snoo, who has no gender, scored points in the redesign process with opposable thumbs and an open smile.
The new logo – a disembodied Snoo head in a red chat bubble – is already live as a logo and favicon on Reddit’s corporate website. We’re also starting to see the new logo on Reddit.com, along with some strange behavior like broken comments. (TechCrunch reached out to the company to ask if the issues were related to the rebranding rollout.)
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, also known as /u/kn0thing, originally created Snoo as a sketch while he was a student at the University of Virginia. (Ohanian, who was previously Reddit’s chairman, stepped down from the company’s board three years ago to open it up to more racial diversity.)
Beyond the Snoo sheen, Reddit is also refreshing its fonts with a new set of original fonts designed to resemble chat bubbles – a visual nod to Reddit’s self-proclaimed identity as a place for “conversations.” One of the fonts, Reddit Sans, will be open source and widely available online.
“As we expand our global footprint into new markets and reach more audiences, from advertisers and creators to Redditors and moderators, we need to strengthen our brand base to enable more creative and consistent expression,” said Roxy Young, Chief Marketing and Consumer Experience Officer from Reddit said. “Our goal remains to focus on the needs of Redditors and make it easier to provide community, belonging and empowerment to everyone in the world.”
The company is also expanding its color horizons beyond the classic reddish-orange (apparently known as OrangeRed) that Reddit is known for. A range of new colors called GuavaPink, LimeGreen, BananaYellow and JuniperBlue will appear in the designs, bringing more color to the platform and its apps.
The timing should not be a coincidence. It’s easy to forget that Reddit, a long-serving corner of the social internet, isn’t already a publicly traded company like many of its competitors. Reddit endured a difficult 2023 after waging war with its own developer community, a protracted battle that saw many subreddits – Reddit’s main interest-based communities – go dark in protest.
Now that the drama has cooled, Bloomberg reports that Reddit may be on track for an IPO, which could happen as early as the first quarter of 2024. The company’s interest in an IPO has been growing for years, so take this with a grain of salt, but a conspicuously timed brand refresh certainly suggests big news could be imminent for Reddit.
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