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So the CIA rebranded because it decided public Ivies are good enough wants to attract more diverse talent. “The days of all American spies being white male graduates from Ivy League schools are long gone,” per the AP.
But how does a logo that looks tailor-made for Grimes fans accomplish that task?
Hot takes abound
Mine is that the bolded sans serif font and simple color palette might look more attractive to liberal arts grads looking to work somewhere other than a good ol’ boys’ club.
But here’s the hottest take of all: The logo doesn’t matter as much as other elements in the grand scheme of a brand.
- “A brand is not a logo. It is the emotional and collective space your organization holds within your audience’s mind. The logo is merely a spoke in a larger wheel and acts as a springboard to a larger brand story [and] richer brand experience,” Sunny Bonnell, founder and CEO of branding agency Motto, told Marketing Brew.
- Bonnell cited the CIA’s new website and surrounding messaging as the more important factor in its new branding goal. One example of that messaging: “We are looking for people from all backgrounds and walks of life to carry out the work of a nation.”
An Urban Outfitters pop-up shop
...is just one of the things Twitter thought the CIA’s new logo looked like. Here are some of my other favorite comparisons by the wittier-than-me internet:
- The biggest Detroit techno party since 1997
- A hungry independent ad agency focused on their culture as much as their work
- A modular synthesizer festival in Berlin
- A cross-disciplinary journal created by makers working across mediums exploring the intersection of art, text, identity, and space. The first issue is $1,000
- That one Neutral Milk Hotel album cover