Visual Design in a Commercial: CIA approved

The digital age has transformed the field of design and the elements that are used to create compositions in print and for the web. In order to fully analyze the visual rhetoric and design of a piece, one must take into consideration the layout, color, shape, focal point, theme,balance and contrast to name a few.

I chose to take a look at a commercial created by the CIA as a recruitment advertisement for a younger audience. It aired on the Discovery Channel and was intended to persuade a younger audience to consider careers with the CIA. The surface area of the composition is a television screen and it uses many cartoon elements to appeal to the younger audience rather than adults who are looking to start their careers after college or switch jobs.



The focal point of the video is an interactive "bug"which moves throughout the different screens guiding the viewer in and out of the various places described by the narrator. These involve screens where mock CIA employees are shown solving problems and designing devices. There is also an employee shown drawing a fictitious gadget which is shown to exhibit the type of projects that are created by scientists and engineers. The bug acts as a tour guide around the different images in the ad.

There is a scientific theme to the advertisement evoking emotions of creativity, imagination, and design.

The juxtaposition of colors in the piece promotes contrast and contribute to the changing layout of elements in the space. There is a shape in the video that has shades of light and dark purple together and another of a yellow square with black polka dots.

The fly is the main focal point in the beginning of the video, but while the fly is in motion, it is the foreground elements are scaled down. These elements are scaled down to place emphasis on the fly and then the space alternates where the scientists take center stage and fly fades into the background.

The bodies of the scientists and engineers in the video are dis-proportioned to resemble cartoon characters with large heads, smaller torsos, and really thin arms. There are various portions of the video that resemble the inner workings of a machine which are displayed with great texture. Some of the screens resemble paintings from the Bauhaus. There are a lot of elements displayed in the space giving the eye many options to look at. This video is very interesting in the use of colors and I think it was a great idea to appeal to kids about considering the CIA as a career option.