Department of Information
Graphic Standards Manual

Issued by the Office of Public Awareness.
Department of Information Graphic Standards

Olfactory ConsiderationsGraphic Standards Manual

Olfactory

The original Department of Information illegally occupied the abandoned first floor of a 19th-century graphite and pencil factory. The smell stained the walls, and the minds of early personnel, so thoroughly that it has shaped the brand.

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Scent Nº 01: Abandoned Pencil Factory

The metallic smell of graphite, sawdust and the shavings of cedar and other soft woods, used to make millions of pencils over more than a century.

Base notes
  • Graphite
  • Red cedar and incense cedar
  • Sawdust
Middle notes
  • Rubber
  • Stale air
  • Dirt
Top notes
  • Wood polish
  • Glue
  • Ink

Satellite offices and home workstations are encouraged to spread loose pencil shavings around the working space, to embody the essence of the brand and to put oneself in the proper mindset for conducting official business.

A dropper bottle labelled Scent Nº 01, Abandoned Pencil Factory, and its black box with a line drawing of a factory.
Scent Nº 01 bottle and box.p. 67
Black-and-white photograph of a derelict factory floor with a black Department banner hanging from the ceiling.
The abandoned pencil factory that housed the first Department. Undisclosed location and date.pp. 68–69