vCISOs United Logo

Logos are super important for companies when they are thinking about branding and marketing. Besides an initial original design, designers need to think about color and font presentation as well. This week was interesting because my boss proposed an idea to create a LinkedIn page for Virtual Chief Information Security Officers (vCISOs) and we wanted to create a unique logo for the page. As Robert Landa said in his book “Graphic Design Solutions,” “A brand is not one thing. It is not just a logo or a package. It is a complex set of visual, verbal, and experiential cues supported by media messages.” I work for a cybersecurity company called TrustMAPP that provides security assessments for companies who handle thousands of people’s personal information. vCISOs are responsible for keeping all this information safe and my company works almost exclusively with them to sell them this security assessment software. We wanted to create this group so vCISOs from all over the world could share tips and tricks with each other in an exclusive environment that is sponsored by TrustMAPP.

I initially discussed with my boss the concept of a shield being the base of the entire logo. Our idea of vCISOs are the superheroes of the tech world so we wanted to have a logo that said as much. They are the ones that keep everyone safe from hackers on the internet! vCISOs work primarily online considering part of their title is “virtual” so I added a spiderweb as a representation of this virtual aspect of their job.

I struggled with the last element because I didn’t want the logo to be crowded. I thought about adding a spider with a lock hole on its back (like a black widow) but my boss thought it might be too much for such a small space. So I reworked the idea on my own and came up with just a lock hole in the middle of the web. It represents this information that normal people give websites access to and how vCISOs keep it locked away and safe.

While I wish I did an initial sketch of my own, my boss moved some different elements of this design around on his computer when we were talking on Microsoft Teams so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to create going into this project. I first created a basic black outline with all the elements I wanted to combine in this logo and then pasted nine different prototypes on a sheet and made 9 different logos with the four TrustMAPP colors and tried different combinations of the colors so I could see which version I liked best.

While it was really difficult choosing just one for this project, I really resonated with the blue and white option I created. To begin, this color was sponsored heavily on TrustMAPP’s website and I thought it would match TrustMAPP’s simplistic theme. I didn’t want the logo to be too loud and I thought the red and yellow logos were a little too much for a logo being displayed on LinkedIn. While we do want the members to know the group is sponsored by TrustMAPP, it’s also important that it’s not too obvious or obnoxious. The primary focus of this group is to promote and support vCISOs and possibly sell our software on the side.

Lastly, when I was playing around with the text around the logo, I ended up deciding it looked a lot cleaner without it. I was thinking about the target audience and where this would be seen and when I was considering the small circular box the logo would be in, I thought it would look too crammed if I tried to add text. I really like how this turned out and am really excited to see what my boss thinks.