Maybe the intent of the writer was to make the new hires feel welcome aboard to their new company.

That's also not mutually exclusive of the emotive intent you are describing. What makes that Orwellian though?

Github has a cartoon cat-octopus all over the site I would expect as a baby toy. Clearly linked to "emotional intent" "Github is so fun, guys!" I think they've outgrown that style (the black and white one in the header is ok)