BRAND STUDY 27 / 64

Reddit Orangered

Reddit · Social (2005)

#FF4500 Brand Tone round

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Color anatomy

The exact scoring color for this Brand Tone card.

HEX: #FF4500

RGB: 255, 69, 0

HSB: 16°, 100%, 100%

HSL: 16°, 100%, 50%

Nearby tones to compare against

#FF6600

#FF2200

#FF5A1F

#FF4400

#DB3A00

Why this color matters

Reddit's colour comes with its own argument: is it orange or red? The official name, OrangeRed, keeps both halves. That matters when recalling the patch around Snoo: remembering only “orange” can send a guess towards a fruit peel, while remembering only “red” loses the warmth. The target is #FF4500, an intense orange-red with no blue in its RGB mix.

The colour that survived the makeover

On 29 November 2023, Reddit announced a new visual identity: new typefaces, conversation bubbles and a 3D Snoo, complete with opposable thumbs. The expanded palette introduced GuavaPink, LimeGreen, BananaYellow and JuniperBlue. But the company explicitly kept OrangeRed as its signature. A makeover could change Snoo's shape and add a whole set of colours while retaining the shade that identified Reddit itself.

OrangeRed will remain the signature color for Reddit itself and, paired with our new dynamic hues, will create a more distinct look for the brand.
Reddit, brand update, 29 November 2023

A colour your browser already knows

There is a small surprise behind that brand name: the CSS named colour orangered is also exactly #FF4500, RGB 255/69/0. Reddit's official brand page and the web standard therefore point to the same digital swatch. That match establishes a colour value; it does not establish why Reddit originally chose it. No proprietary colour converter is needed to reproduce this particular shade on the web.

Sixteen degrees from red

The scoring target, #FF4500, is HSB(16°, 100%, 100%), rounded to whole numbers. Red is at 0° and yellow at 60°, so this hue has moved about 16° from red towards yellow. Red is at 255, green at 69 and blue at 0: enough green to make the red distinctly warm, with saturation and HSB brightness already at their maximum. A coral guess adds a pastel softness that this colour does not have. The YouTube and Amazon cards below mark two familiar directions in which memory can drift.

Snoo gives the heat a face

Reddit describes its logo as a Snoo head inside an OrangeRed conversation bubble, and calls the mascot a curious visitor and community ambassador. The bubble makes the colour part of a conversation, while Snoo supplies the friendly expression. Against that context, a forceful orange-red can read as participation and shared enthusiasm. For this card, the useful memory is the whole Reddit symbol: the warm colour, the face and the conversation around it.