The best memes from the CIA’s minimal techno rebrand

The US intelligence service has just dropped the flyer for its monthly night at Printworks, tickets sold exclusively via Resident Advisor

January 62021

We’re just six days into 2021 and the simulation is already broken. Yesterday (January 5), the CIA unveiled its latest rebrand, seemingly designed by your boyfriend via his east London design start-up.

In an attempt to disguise itself as anything other than a government agency, the CIA has accidentally launched a monthly minimal techno night at Printworks. As well as *aesthetic* graphics introducing the intelligence service’s deliberately diverse poster employees, the CIA has dropped a new (very hip) logo, which appears to be inspired by Joy Division’s little-known 1979 album, Unknown Pleasures.

In a bizarre turn of events, Ryder Ripps has claimed responsibility for the rebrand. The artist has previously done the branding for the likes of VFiles and 88Rising, created campaigns for Gucci and Pornhub, and even designed Kanye West and Grimes’ respective album campaigns for Yandhi and Miss Anthropocene. TBC if Ripps is trolling us though, as a Canadian website called Exclaim! claims to have received a statement from the CIA which dismisses the designer’s involvement.

Who knows, and, truthfully, who cares. Anyway, inevitably there are now memes. Here’s some good ones.

Grace Byron’s debut novel is an eerie horror set in an all-trans commune

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Young people and the rise of antifeminism

10 books that are dating red flags

The new CIA logo is literally a Mutek poster pic.twitter.com/3RsPzWzDFt
— snacks pearl (@maxpearl) January 4, 2021

for me, with this rebrand, the CIA has lost all credibility
— ཊལབསརངཧ (@David_Rudnick) January 4, 2021

cia rebrand about to include a clubhouse room https://t.co/jZAGp4E7X2
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) January 5, 2021

CIA rebrand is giving techno festival in Frankfurt pic.twitter.com/tjPWo2AOa2
— cancela lansbury (@gossipbabies) January 4, 2021

CIA rebranding as a modular synthesizer festival in Berlin pic.twitter.com/3PQwejMGUq
— SARAH SQUIRM (@SarahSquirm) January 4, 2021

Now that its declassified, here's my rejected pitch for the CIA rebrand pic.twitter.com/QVZOFTI3CI
— INDISTINCT CHATTER (@Nickmelons) January 5, 2021

The CIA said "black girl magic ✨" https://t.co/VbuO9mF6yk
— Zoé (@ztsamudzi) January 5, 2021

Hello, it's me, the CIA agent assigned to your rebrand. pic.twitter.com/2czclxqhgY
— @henry (@henry) January 5, 2021

Did not have “Ryder ripps redesigns the cia website” on my bingo card and yet it feels horribly inevitable
— joshua caleb weibley (@_living_well) January 5, 2021

DID YOU NOTICE THE CIA IS NOW COPYING MY STYLE? THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I SAID IN MY STRELKA LECTURE WAS WHAT I TRIED TO ACKNOWLEDGE IN MY YALE THESIS AS WELL HENCEFORTH THIS ADOPTION OF DETERRITORIAL AESTHETICS MARKS A NORMATIVE TRANSGRESSION OF HUMAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE pic.twitter.com/OQcUy8sPaA
— neuroticarsehole (@neuroticarsehol) January 5, 2021

As if the actual CIA has rebranded as a monthly night at Sub Club pic.twitter.com/j5nT2lFFD9
— Joelinton Travel Tavern (@2__Benitez1892) January 5, 2021

I kind of dig the CIA rebrand?? pic.twitter.com/kZdDeJuekH
— the worm guy (harasser) (@endlesswario) January 4, 2021

the cia redesigned its website to look like *the intercept* pic.twitter.com/JGVMseTjGn
— Ali Breland (@alibreland) 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