What Is the Reddit Logo?
The Reddit logo is Snoo, a small white alien with an antenna, set inside an orange-red circle beside the name reddit in lower-case letters. Co-founder Alexis Ohanian first doodled the alien in 2005. Reddit is the online community platform that Steve Huffman and Ohanian, roommates at the University of Virginia, launched in June 2005; it is based in San Francisco.
Snoo also appears on its own as the app icon, and Reddit draws it in many poses for its communities and events. The alien in its circle with the name is available as the Reddit logo SVG.
Reddit Logo Facts
| Designer | Alexis Ohanian (the original Snoo) |
| Introduced | 2005; redrawn in 3D in November 2023 |
| Symbol | Snoo, an alien with an antenna |
| Logo type | Combination mark: wordmark and symbol |
| Owner | Reddit, Inc. |
What the Reddit Logo Means
The name is a play on "read it", as in "I read it on Reddit". The alien has no fixed backstory, which is part of its appeal: Snoo has no gender, so anyone can see themselves in it. Ohanian first wanted to call the character "S'new", a pun on "what's new?" that fitted Reddit's pitch as the front page of the internet. The shorter name Snoo stuck.
The orange-red behind the alien has its own name inside the company: OrangeRed. When Reddit refreshed its brand in 2023 it kept OrangeRed as its signature colour and added a small set of supporting colours such as GuavaPink and JuniperBlue.
Reddit Logo History
Ohanian drew the alien in the margins of his notebook during a marketing class in his final year at the University of Virginia. The first Reddit logo spelled the name with two Ts and only half the Ds, and used a lot of red. In August 2011 Ohanian shared a timeline of these early logos online, after returning to Reddit following two years away. Before he left in 2009 he had also drawn special versions of the logo for holidays and events.
The original wordmark served Reddit from 2005 until its 2018 redesign, and it lives on in the "old Reddit" interface. When the redesigned site rolled out in April 2018, Reddit tightened the rules for drawing Snoo: a blank, neutral face, orange-red eyes and no fingers.
On 29 November 2023 Reddit unveiled a full rebrand, led by Pentagram partner Natasha Jen. The flat alien became a three-dimensional character with an open-mouthed smile and opposable thumbs, and the logo placed Snoo's head inside a chat bubble. Pentagram reworked the Reddit Sans typeface so that the counters of its lower-case letters echo speech bubbles, and cut Reddit's palette from about 100 colours to 15.
Reddit and Its Mascot
Snoo sits at the centre of Reddit's identity. Pentagram said it saw in Snoo a figure that could become "as iconic as Mario", and the 2023 work produced a family of emoji-like Snoos as well as a logo. Compare the single letter of the X logo or the butterfly of the Bluesky logo.
For more brands like Reddit, browse our social media logos.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Reddit alien called?
Snoo. Alexis Ohanian first wanted to call it "S'new", a pun on "what's new?".
Who designed the Reddit logo?
Co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who doodled the alien in a notebook during a marketing class at the University of Virginia in 2005.
When did the Reddit logo change?
Reddit's biggest change came on 29 November 2023, when Pentagram turned Snoo into a 3D character and placed its head in a chat bubble.
What is the colour of the Reddit logo called?
An orange-red that Reddit calls OrangeRed, which it kept as its signature colour in the 2023 rebrand.