The Culinary Institute of America
The Culinary Institute of America is the world’s premier institution of higher education dedicated to food. From its post-WWII origins as a technical school for training returning US veterans as cooks, today the C.I.A. boasts a multitude of undergraduate and graduate degrees in cooking, hospitality, food science, business, and the liberal arts. With campuses in New York, California, Texas, and Singapore, the C.I.A. offers a diversity of programs, certifications, public classes, and onsite dining options open to the public. The alumni are a veritable who’s who of the food world, including Anthony Bourdain, Geoffrey Zakarian, Maneet Chauhan, Michael Symons, Anne Burrell, and many more.
The overarching strategic imperative for the C.I.A.’s president, Dr. Tim Ryan, has long been to continuously elevate the school’s reputation and appeal as the world’s best university for food, and to nurture the traditions and loyalties of a liberal arts university.
The redesign of the C.I.A.’s visual identity was an essential step in this process. The previous identity, designed in the 1980s, had some recognition, but not only was the identity configuration unwieldy, the character was also not appropriate for the prestige the institute had built as a leading international institution of higher education.
The new symbol for the Culinary Institute of America grows out of the historic identity and its core concept of a sheaf of wheat—a centuries-old representation of food in many cultures around the world. To this foundation, the new image adds allusions to the light of knowledge, an open book, and other appropriate associations to common culinary and hospitality traditions. Combined with a slab serif wordmark and rendered in Fire Orange and Sage Green, the identity balances seriousness and vibrancy to represent this dynamic institution.
The independent symbol can now be separated from the long name in the modular configurations needed for the C.I.A.’s many applications—from uniforms to flags, from cakes to diplomas.
“Since the C.I.A.’s founding eight decades ago, the role of food has become increasingly important, touching every facet of our lives. Likewise, the C.I.A.’s educational programs have expanded to prepare students to lead in careers from the kitchen to the R&D lab to the boardroom. As we thought about the C.I.A.’s role and the awesome privilege and responsibility it carries, it seemed only fitting that we have a brand identity that reflects our evolution and future direction.“
