The Huffington Post has officially rebranded to HuffPost, revealing a new visual identity designed to better reflect its position as a platform for the people.

The first online news outlet to win a Pulitzer Prize has unveiled its first rebrand after 12 years of operation. The Huffington Post is now officially called HuffPost and has redesigned its logo and visual system to feature forward slashes and a new, brighter shade of teal.

It’s a deliberate move towards a tabloid aesthetic with editorial, as well as visual, angles positioning the brand as a people’s platform.

“HuffPost’s new editorial mission is to provide a platform that presents news in an inclusive and expansive manner,” says the agency behind the redesign, Work-Order. “Its goal is to listen to the people and inform both sides. The new logo puts the focus on the space in between and extending its reach further out into the margins.”

Original logotype/masthead:

New symbol and logotype/masthead, including signature animation:

HuffPost’s editor-in-chief, Lydia Polgreen, said the name change makes sense because it’s what readers call the brand anyway. “Sometimes it’s a good idea just to embrace the name that your audience has chosen. It’s shorter, it’s snappier and gets us a more compact look,” she was quoted as saying in a HuffPost article.

Polgreen became editor-in-chief following the departure of founder Ariana Huffington early this year, but she points out that the name change is not meant to distance the brand from Huffington. “Everything that HuffPost is today stands on the shoulders of what Arianna Huffington built. So I think that it’s in no way meant to diminish or distance us from that legacy because we’re incredibly proud of it. But I think it’s just trying to catch up with the times and how people now think of us,” she said.

Work-Order says in its rationale that the new visual identity reflects the publication’s editorial positioning.

“The editorial switch is echoed in the update from the original ersatz masthead to the bold italic ‘tabloid’ logo with its plain-speaking empathy, urgency and outrage. The green slashes that bracket the logo send the brand in a forward moving direction and pays homage to HuffPost being the first digital-only news brand.”

(Remember, the italicised type represents forward motion – don’t call it right-leaning!)

“The logo expands to encompass the signature no-holds-barred headlines. The green forward slashes bracket the headlines, then close coming together to form the H icon.”

“The social icon for HuffPost collapses the name down to a green square forming an abstract forward slash ‘H’. The slash is also incorporated into the headline/image ‘splash pages’ that allow stories to travel to social media.”

“In motion, the H icon is the driving force behind all of the movement– it’s the bookends opening to reveal content.”

Founder Ariana Huffington, who left the company earlier this year, praised the new identity. “Love HuffPost’s new look. As it turns 12, great to see it growing up, continuing to evolve, but staying playful,” she said in a tweet.

The Huffington Post was founded in 2005 in the wake of George Bush’s reelection as a liberal alternative to right-wing news sites such as the Drudge Report.