The United States federal intelligence service, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), recently unveiled a new look logo and website aimed at attracting talented and more diverse candidates.
It now sports a black-and-white circular logo, which shows “CIA” and “Central Intelligence Agency” against weaving and parallel lines. The website sports the same tagline as the agency’s Twitter page, stating: “We are the Nation’s first line of defense”.
In addition, rotating images of diverse individuals are also shown and have been promoted on social media, inviting visitors to “Find your calling”, while providing ways for candidates to contact the CIA. It also lists open jobs and starting salaries.
New opportunities are approaching. #DiscoverCIA pic.twitter.com/C5QWxXzI2Q
— CIA (@CIA) January 2, 2021
CIA Director Gina Haspel, the agency’s first-ever female director, told the Associated Press that she hopes the new website will give potential recruits a sense of the “dynamic environment that awaits them here”.
“We’ve come a long way since I applied by simply mailing a letter marked ‘CIA, Washington, D.C.,’” Haspel said.
As the Associated Press reports, the days of all American spies being “white male graduates from Ivy League schools” are long gone. Women now head all five of the agency’s branches, including the directorates of science and technology, operations, and digital innovation.
However, the CIA still reportedly lags in its number of minority employees, with 26.5 per cent compared to 37 per cent in the federal workforce and 37.4 per cent in the civilian workforce.
The move to rebrand the CIA comes after Haspel, following her employment in 2018, began making recruitment a priority at the agency.
The CIA has also started advertising on streaming services, launched an Instagram account and an online “onion site”, a feature, the AP reports, which makes both the information provider and the person accessing information more difficult to trace.
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However, Twitter users are having plenty of fun with the new rebrand, with some describing it as resembling music festivals, pop-up shops, literary journals, and The Intercept.
It even drew the attention of a few notable creatives.
“The CIA just rebranded to look like ‘hungry independent ad agency focused on their culture as much as their work’,” R/GA creative director Zachary Roif tweeted.
CIA rebranding as a modular synthesizer festival in Berlin pic.twitter.com/3PQwejMGUq
— SARAH SQUIRM (@SarahSquirm) January 4, 2021
CIA is a cross-disciplinary journal created by makers working across mediums. We explore the intersection of art, text, identity, and space and our first issue is $1000 pic.twitter.com/uCy3tcG7Qz
— Gabi Shiner (@gabishiner) January 4, 2021
The CIA just rebranded to look like “hungry independent ad agency focused on their culture as much as their work” pic.twitter.com/XCnn6FGuDg
— Zack Roif (@zckrf) January 4, 2021
