A careful selection of typographical illustrations extracted from Cryptolog: The Journal of Technical Health, a magazine internally produced by and for employees of the National Security Agency (NSA), the biggest intelligence service of the USA.

The magazine was published quarterly from 1974 until 1997 and has been declassified since 2010. As the issues contained articles about operation procedures, profiles, new technical achievements alongside book reviews and top secret classified materials, much of the content remains redacted/censored. However, looking through the archive of roughly one hundred magazines provides interesting insights—the nature of the NSA organization itself and its operations remain largely hidden, but intelligence is compellingly revealed as shaped by a visual language that introduces the secret and abstract information in a human, almost amateurish way. Publishers IAMGOD (German designers Robin Coenen and André van Rueth) discovered the mostly playful and handmade illustrated headlines and illustrations that introduced the NSA's intelligence materials. The hand-drawn images and type provide a jarring juxtaposition, evoking a tension between the visible and the (publicly) invisible

Designed by Robin Coenen and André van Rueth

Published by IAMGOD

In English

Softcover, 104 pages, open thread binding, black and white, 5.75 × 8.25 inches