Inside ProPublica’s major brand overhaul

Tyson Evans is ProPublica’s chief product and brand officer. (Photo courtesy of ProPublica)

People know us not because of our name or because of our logo — they know us because of the reporting that we’ve done and [its] impact on the world. The website [and] the brand are in support and in service of that. We knew that from the outset, and it’s how we approach all our work.”

Tyson Evans

You can’t spell investigation without “invest.” In May, ProPublica rolled out a new look for its site, featuring updated logos and typefaces, as the famed nonprofit newsroom leans into its growing brand, nearly two decades in the making.

“It’s definitely a long arc of a project. ProPublica’s origin story [in] 2007-2008 was just forged in such a different era,” said Chief Product and Brand Officer Tyson Evans. “The dawn of the iPhone. No real social media [or] video.” It was a time when there was less of a direct relationship with ProPublica’s audience.

“So much of the early work was really through these big partnerships with other magazines, and over the years ProPublica has really learned that people want to have a direct relationship with us,” Evans said.

As ProPublica’s journalism further expands into multimedia — for example, its new “Paper Trail” podcast — it was time to reimagine its branding and site design. For expert help, the nine-time Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit enlisted Gretel, a Brooklyn, New York-based design and branding agency.

ProPublica Design Director Allen Tan noted a shift from the publication’s earliest days as a “scrappy underdog." They wanted the branding to reflect its evolution — a more monolithic identity, presented uniformly across platforms.

Allen Tan is ProPublica’s design director. (Photo courtesy of ProPublica)

Tan recalled deliberations about whether ProPublica should employ a full wordmark or a boxed “P” logo with a magnifying glass. The team ultimately committed to the text-only wordmark. He calls the entire rebrand process an “exploratory” exercise.

“We talked to everyone in the organization, from leadership to individual teams,” said Tan. “Something we were very intentional about was: how can we provide a simple set of tools for many teams to work with, but also build in some room for experimentation or expression for the teams that really need it, [like our] custom story design team, who often tries working with new colors or new typefaces.”

While the ProPublica team likely knows better than anyone not to extrapolate results from early data, the initial reception to the rebrand seems promising. Evans points to positive audience behavior around “Paper Trail” listens, plus more homepage engagement. The cleaner homepage and a fresh look also went over well with the ProPublica staff, according to Tan.

The top row in this image shows the redesign of ProPublica’s social posts, compared to the former design seen in the bottom row.

Long-term, the visual overhaul may better compete for the public’s attention with aggregators, like Apple News, or content found at film festivals or streamed over podcast-hosting platforms. Additionally, reusing the branding tools will save on costs otherwise spent on bringing in third-party agencies to design new initiatives. And embracing simplicity allows readers to grapple with often complex, long-form work with minimal distraction.

Still, a shiny new coat is nothing without the credibility behind it.

“People know us not because of our name or because of our logo — they know us because of the reporting that we’ve done and [its] impact on the world,” said Evans. “The website [and] the brand are in support and in service of that. We knew that from the outset, and it’s how we approach all our work.”

Tandy Lau is an award-winning journalist currently based in Jersey City. He currently works as a staff reporter covering public safety for the New York Amsterdam News in Harlem. He can be contacted at tandylau1995@gmail.com.