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Ceci n'est pas une carton. · Oct 25, 02:54 PM

Depending on your political views, Blackwater USA is either a private military company, a security contractor, or a mercenary organization. They are a privately-held company that publishes almost no information about their internal affairs.

We do know that recently they changed their corporate logo from the one on the t-shirt above (available in adult and child sizes in their online Blackwater Pro Shop) to a new coprorate identity below:


New Blackwater logo

Paul Von Zielbauer summed up the changes in the 10/22 NY Times this way:

“The rifle-scope crosshairs so obvious in the old Blackwater logo have been reduced to a set of horizontal elipses that bracket, but no longer enclose, the paw print, which has also changed to more closely resemble an actual bear-paw imprint. The original Blackwater logo had thick white serif lettering draped over the crosshairs on a menacing black field. The new logo separates the image and the letters, which now appear in buttoned-down sans-serif black and slightly italicized on a white field.”

So, we know they understand something about semiotics of logo design, but what motivated the change? Why now?

The following tidbits of information might shed some light:

They are currently contracted by the United States government to provide security services in the Iraq War.

At least 90 percent of its revenue comes from government contracts, two-thirds of which are no-bid contracts.

The cost for each Blackwater guard in Iraq, $445,000 per year. The entry-level base salary for US commissioned officers, such as soldiers with a rank of second lieutenant, is $26,200 a year.

Between 2005 and September 2007, Blackwater security staff was involved in 195 shooting incidents; in 163 of those cases, Blackwater personnel fired first.

Guess it was time to soften up their image. To that end, they now also offer infant onesies with the logo in both pink and blue.

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