About the client:

FBI, short for Federal Bureau of Investigation, is the premier U.S. law enforcement agency.

They permanently hire from Special Agents to Psychologists, Paramedics, Linguists, Biologists, IT Professionals, Art Historians and more, and they needed iconography to help inform and communicate with the potential candidates and to represents all of the fields and job roles.

I was commissioned by Horne Creative Group to help them by creating a new library of icons as part of the rebranding process for the recruitment arm of the Bureau.

Our rebrand will be giving them a much-needed facelift with a minimal, clean, bold look and feel (think dramatic photography and rich yellow and gray typography on black). We’re looking for fresh, minimal icons in blacks, grays and/or dark metallic, possibly with hints of rich yellow (we can share some examples of some directions we’re digging). And we would need these icons to work on both white and black backgrounds, in print and online use. We will be completely redesigning an existing library of icons and possibly adding some more for a total of 80-100 icons to go with a full brand redesign.

My approach:

We faced 2 challenges. First, to define the visual style for the whole pack and second to create an abstract individual representation for each icon task / message.

In order to define the style, since many of the icons subjects were rather abstract, we decided to focus on something common, something familiar, popular and easy to recognize – the social media icons.

My inspiration and one of the included themes in the brief was none other than Batman! With a similar color palette with the Bureau, this gave me the idea to play with lights and shadows. To make it more specific to the Bureau activity I have also explored flashlights or UV lights imagining the special agents searching for clues and evidences.

The approved direction combined some of the explorations, using 2 yellow tones for the icon subject and a long dark shadow for the obtained shape, everything being contained in a circle that plays again with some shadows. Quite a complex results, a fine representation of the hard complex work required from the candidates and special agents. Once we had an approved style for them we went to the second phase and created minimalist representations for each needed icon.

Image 01:
Career path icons: • Special agents (represented by the FBI badge shape) • Intelligence (a chess board) • STEM – Science + Technology + Engineering + Math (abstract interacting / revolving elements) • Science (lab tube) • Technology (t + nodes between elements) • Engineering (a gear wheel) • Math (calculator) • Foreign languages (globe shape) • Communications and arts (chat + painter pallet)

Image 02:
• Business (represented by an analytics graph) • Facilities and logistics (box + building) • Legal (justice scale) • Medical and counseling (medical bag + chat box) • Security and police (sheriff star with key hole) • Students (academic cap) • Veterans (a medal) // Training guide: • Important (exclamation mark) • All you need to know to apply (i for information)

Image 03:
• Testing overview (represented by a magnifier for overview, check mark for testing) • Physical fitness test (PFT) training tips (fitness chronometer + tips / text within) • Basic field training course (BTFC) guide (target) // Special Agent Selection System (SASS)/ Intelligence Analyst Selection (IAS) processes: • Online application (person silhouette on laptop screen) • Proctored computer test (person silhouette on laptop + silhouette in front of it) • Additional information submitted online (i for information + @ for online) • In-person review/interview (dialogue between 2 persons) • Fitness test (sports timer / chronometer) • Conditional offer (paper + seal on it)

Image 04:
• Background investigation (represented by a person silhouette under magnifier) • Basic field training course (target) • Preliminary screening (of online application) (paperclip) • Onboarding seminar (person + blackboard) // Core competencies: • Collaboration (group of people) • Communication (chat bubbles overlapping) • Flexibility / Adaptability (curved-straight-curved lines) • Initiative (a spark) • Interpersonal ability (bond between persons)

Image 05:
• Leadership (represented by a flag) • Organizing / planning (tasks list) • Problem solving / judgment (puzzle element) // Social media icons: • Facebook • LinkedIn • Twitter • Instagram • YouTube

Some of the initial explorations included exploring darker, lighter or even muted shadows, flashlight yellow light – searching for clues, UV lamp light – searching for evidences.

Client:

FBI Jobs

Agency:

Horne Creative Group

Deliverables:

Icons set

Status:

Implemented

Year:

2020

Tags:

FBI, jobs, careers, icon, icons, set, library, family, pack

Related links:

– https://www.fbijobs.gov/
– more, soon