So we have a logo that's a shield with wings: https://www.usds.gov/assets/img/usds-logo-horizontal.png . For an off-site last year in the Chesapeake Bay, our designer Ellen Butters came up with a crab made out of the logo. Ellen named the crab Mollie in honor of Mollie Ruskin, the designer who came up with the original USDS logo.
It might sound silly, but we actually got an application from that Slate article. A little whimsy can go a long way in government. We have a lot of crab-themed decorations around the USDS townhouse in DC. I even have a crab drawing my nephew made hanging right next to my desk.
Nice. Thanks. I saw the light saber version is in ASCII in the source for usds.gov, I figured there was a meaningful back story.
One more observation: If I were to want to work for the USDS, there aren't job listings (that I saw) nor would I know what I was applying for by clicking the "Apply Now" button.
I have been out of Fed. Gov. for about a decade, but the hiring process was very complex and confusing back then, the "rule of thumb" was for people to apply to as many as thirty jobs, and expect to wait a month for a response. I'd recommend explaining how (if) USDS is different. I certainly wouldn't fill out the "Apply Now" form not knowing what I'd be interviewed for, in DC, with a response sometime in the next month.
That's good feedback--thanks. We use a special hiring authority, which allows us to avoid a lot of the complex and confusing bits of the Federal hiring process.
The bottom line is that we are always looking for strong designers, engineers, and product managers and we can hire them quickly (in government terms).
Glad you noticed the easter egg in the source code! You know that means you have to apply now. :)
