Inna by Design

Themed “Empowering Women in Cyber”, Synack and Nasdaq hosted a networking event at the Nasdaq Marketplace in New York City focused on elevating women in the cybersecurity industry. The influential women cyber leaders shared their experiences. The onstage discussions featured leadership takeaways, advice, and insights into current cyber trends.

Objectives:
- Provide a platform for women to expand their networking and career opportunities in cybersecurity
- Encourage the next generation of women to take on leadership roles
- Strengthen the Synack brand awareness

Solution: I wanted to create a powerful yet elegant visual theme. My challenge was to make it look fresh and aspiring without stereotypical “cyber” graphical elements. I knew the color must be a key player in this art. I chose to experiment with a variety of reds—from strong pink to dark purple. The gold scripted type added freshness and elegance. The expression on the gorgeous young model’s face added an aspirational feel.

Synack also had an opportunity to feature a video ad on the Nasdaq Tower at Times Square. Times Square is the #1 most Instagrammed intersection in the world. I took this opportunity to elevate Synack’s brand awareness. The ad must say what Synack is and what it does. I had to carefully plan the positions of all elements around the tower windows. A huge Synack logo appears on the entire tower followed by our brand promise on the background of our “signature” waves. The phrase continuously rotating at the base of the tower explains what Synack is.

My role: Concept, design, and creative direction of the video

Video production: Salvador Vanegas

Synack has partnered with Firstboard.io to bring together thought leadership on how cybersecurity shapes boardroom discussions.

Goal: This paper aims to provide opinions from savvy technology and security executives from companies like Okta, Juniper Networks, and HP on handling board-level conversations and prioritizing cybersecurity.

Solution: I chose the typography approach for the cover to emphasize the importance of acting quickly on cyber risks. The Synack brand colors are combined into a gradient to highlight the word “act”. I also used these colors for each section of the brochure. In collaboration with the editor, I ensured the content was brief and spotlighted the quotes from interviewed contributors.

This brochure was printed and distributed at the “Empowering Women in Cyber” event at Nasdaq as well as promoted on social media.

My role: Creative concept and design.

The Black Hat Conference is a highly technical information security conference that brings together thought leaders from all facets of the infosec world – from the corporate and government sectors to academic and even underground researchers. The event is focused on the sharing of practical insights and timely, actionable knowledge. Black Hat is the biggest event of its kind, unique in its ability to define tomorrow’s information security landscape.

Goal: The goal was to create an engaging fun experience to attract new customers and researchers.

Solution: The theme of the Synack booth was “It’s a Jungle Out There”. To build an immersive experience on the show floor, we decided to touch the users’ all five senses. The 12-foot walls were covered with live plants as well as many potted plants were placed around the booth. Either passing through the booth or sitting in the Presentation Cave, people were touched by the plants. Some artificial plants were hanging throughout to add to the feel of a lush jungle. When visitors stood inside the booth, the hanging canopy with an image of tall trees against the sky made an illusion of a complete forest enclosure. The defusers exuded a blend of fresh flowers and wood. From time to time, users could hear the roars of the lions and the screaming of parrots or monkeys. The sound of the waterfall was complementing the video at the registration desk. For a sense of taste, the Jungle Bar served tropical cocktails.

We definitely generated new leads and attracted researchers. But also, the Black Hat buzzed about our booth. People were coming to just experience being in a jungle. The exhibit houses were asking to work with Synack on future events.

My role: Creative concept, design lead, and supervision of production.

Designer: Britton Smith

Production: ProExhibits

The booth has received the status of a “Finalist of Portable Modular Awards” by Exhibitor Magazine.

Synack is a cybersecurity company that provides penetration testing and vulnerability management. Synack uses a crowdsourced network of ethical hackers to find exploitable vulnerabilities. Synack Red Team (SRT) unites over 1,500 of the world’s most skilled and trusted security researchers, who work with patented technology to deliver best-in-class offensive security testing.

Synack Acropolis is a program for recognition of researchers that produce sustained exceptional quality work for customers.

The Synack Acropolis microsite is developed to feature the researchers who have earned distinguished recognition. This speaks to the trust we build with the SRT, and the new design elevates their accomplishments with the bold new brand of the SRT. Not only researchers are proud to be spotlighted, but also the customers can see who they are going to work with.

Goal: The goal of this project was to redesign the website with Synack’s new branding, refresh the content, and improve user experience.

Solution: The modern elegance of the new website aligns with Synack’s new brand identity. The silhouette of the Parthenon and the font used in the top banners emphasize the metaphoric meaning of the program name. Visit the website to watch the animation on the home page. Each page has a unique top banner with an icon recognized by the SRT members, which identifies the achievement level. The descriptions of each program level are clear and concise and are now “above the fold”. For a uniform and sophisticated look, I made all portraits grayscale. I’ve decided to apply a soft background to photographs to give the researchers a more natural look in contrast to a stereotypical image of hackers in black hoodies on a black background.

Make sure to visit the website to see all the pages, watch animations, and experience interactivity.

My role: Concept and design.

Web developer: Orange Labs

Synack held its Advisory Summit at the gorgeous Estelle Manor, a country club and hotel in Oxfordshire, UK. Set on a 85-acre estate, Estelle Manor is a Grande II-listed landmark house, surrounded by over 3,000 acres of beautiful parkland and lush gardens.

Goal: A two-day event was supposed to create an immersive, memorable experience, offering our customers and prospects the chance to connect directly with Synack’s senior leadership, share feedback on our solutions, provide input on Synack's strategic direction, and discuss trends in security.

My intention for this event’s look and feel was to reflect the personality of the Estelle Manor. The invitation should have created a desire to participate in this exclusive event.

Solution: The remote and luxurious setting away from the city offered a relaxed atmosphere. The panel discussion, workshop, activities around the estate, food, and drinks created a meaningful and memorable experience for the guests.

The estate's stunning beauty, opulent hotel bedrooms and suites, soft lighting, and vintage furnishings with intricate details and gold embellishments, inspired me to design the event identity that would reflect the place's ambiance.

I chose a script typeface for the word Summit to reflect the sumptuous setting, while the words Synack Advisory are in the standard font, connecting the logo to the Synack brand. I selected the photo of the main building as the hero image. The mirrors in golden frames in hotel rooms influenced the design of the frame for the elegant look of all the materials.

Feedback from a customer:
“I just wanted to send the Synack team a personal thank you. It was a really good couple of days that struck a great balance between serious thought and relaxed space.”

“Just wanted to thank you for the great event and hospitality.”

“I want to express my gratitude to everyone involved for making it happen. Your hard work and dedication truly paid off.”

My role: Creative concept, design, and production.

Polycom was a company, which provided video, voice, and content sharing solutions to companies and institutions worldwide. Defy Distance campaign was a thought leadership campaign.

Goal: The goal was to reach out to a variety of audiences to show that secure, ubiquitous, video-based, cloud-driven collaboration is an essential part of their business process.

Solution: Nine personas were created. The content and visuals were developed to address their specific business challenges in an engaging way. Compelling and relatable stories were expressed in infographics, interactive microsite, etc. to provide context on how Polycom innovation already helps the world defy distance and draw parallels between those stories and the selected personas. The target audience was driven to the microsite through banners, ads, and EDMs. There were two phases in this campaign: Phase I was based on personas and Phase II was based on industries.

My role: Art Direction and Design

Concept: John McNeil Studios (JMS).
JMS, the Polycom agency of record, developed the concepts for this campaign. My team and I worked with the concept to create a myriad of campaign assets.

Design: Chandra Spense, Nervin Siasoco

Award: Sirius Decision ROI

Objective: Drive awareness about Polycom and Microsoft partnership.

Solution: The idea was to illustrate the partnership as a unity that brings an endless variety of collaboration solutions. Two spherical forms represent two companies connecting and forming an infinity-like symbol. The soft hand-written font added a “human touch” to the creative. It was the first time Polycom introduced warm colors in their creative. It’s been an exciting challenge to persuade the client to use these colors at the Enterprise Connect (the biggest event of the year) to stand out from the surrounding companies’ booths.

My role: Creative Direction
Design: Nervin Siasoco

Objective: To develop a campaign for a new product launch. The idea was to demonstrate how the Polycom content sharing technology would significantly enhance business collaboration.

Solution: Using vibrant colors and images of jumping people created exciting and engaging images. Combined with compelling messages, the global campaign assets drove users to learn more about the new product. This product’s hardware is just a small black box. The challenge was not to show the box, but rather focus on the emotional benefit of this product. In addition, the budget for photography was not available. The entire global campaign was developed with stock photography, which resulted in a Graphic Design USA award.

My role: Creative Direction
Design: Nervin Siasoco

Award: Graphic Design USA

Objective: The client’s objective was to create images demonstrating how Poly products could be deployed in any room (from the huddle to training size) in the office. All featured products work on the Zoom platform.

Solution: To create continuity, the rooms are consistently outfitted with contemporary furniture. Bright natural lighting adds to the inviting modern look. To make the visuals more compelling, in addition to the static images, we created a video. It takes the viewer from room to room showcasing the products in a variety of meeting rooms. The static images and the video were used on the website, sales presentations, and social media.

My role: Concept and Creative Direction

Design: Wesley Meeks

Objective: Polycom Trio conference phone works on any platform. Whether it’s Cisco, BlueJeans, Zoom, or any other platform, Polycom Trio works seamlessly. The campaign was developed to drive awareness and increase the pipeline.

Solution: The legendary triangular shape of the conference phone was featured since it’s very recognizable. Names of platforms, as well as a variety of furniture, were placed inside the phone and “unvailed” with a flap to illustrate the compatibility. One of the brightest brand colors was used as a dominant color to draw attention.

My role: Art Direction

Design: Sari Miller

Polycom held an annual conference for Sales and Partners.

Objective: In 2016, the theme of the conference was “Change the Game”. The client was looking for a concept that had an “upward” movement.

Solution: A strong typography was established for the theme. A bright-colored arrow is placed inside the word CHANGE to resemble a letter A. The emphasis is on the word CHANGE, therefore it’s set in the heaviest font’s weight. The arrow in the type combined with the light-moving image on the background gives a feeling of energy and a positive rapid change. This art won an In-house Graphic Design Award from Graphic Design USA Magazine.

My role: Art Direction

Design: Nervin Siasoco

Award: Graphic Design USA

Polycom has participated in multiple global industry conferences and tradeshows. Every year the new fresh art was developed for the upcoming events starting with Enterprise Connect.

Objective: To create art for the year that would well represent Polycom and will be flexible and trendy worldwide.

Solution: We have developed a system of waves that illustrate both the flexibility of the Polycom solutions and resemble the sound waves subtly “weaving” the idea of exceptional audio. Highly saturated colors allowed the booth to stand out on the events’ floor.

My role: Art Direction and Design

Design: Nervin Siasoco

CEO Circle is an annual sales achievement event. Polycom’s top sales performers of the year were celebrated and awarded at this exclusive event. Every year it was held at a different destination. In 2015, it was at the St. Regis Puerto Mita Resort, Mexico.

Objective: The goal was to create an event brochure to get employees excited and inform them about the venue and activities.

Solution: We decided for the brochure to have Mexican motifs to give an immediate flavor of the destination. Beautiful images of the amazing venue were placed on every page to build excitement and anticipation of a luxurious place. To create a sense of a fun event, we’ve selected the script font, which added personality and playfulness to the design. This brochure won an In-house Design Award from Graphic Design USA in 2016.

My role: Creative Direction

Design: Nervin Siasoco

Award: Graphic Design USA

Polycom delivered audio, video, and content-sharing experiences to companies that help human collaboration.

Objective: The goal of photography is to depict Polycom technology in relevant settings. Photos should be artful but realistic and feature real people using Polycom technology in real situations.

Solution: We’ve scouted and selected the venues with a lot of natural light, which provided the contemporary feeling of the open office spaces where Polycom technology could be used. In some cases, we had to create sets, if they were not available on locations. For example, we never had an opportunity to get into a call center. We’ve set a hallway in the Polycom office as a call center. The images were shot in a photojournalistic style to more accurately reflect the people who buy and use Polycom’s solutions. Actors were chosen to portray a variety of end-users. There is always a place for formal business attire, but with people now able to work from everywhere, I made the wardrobe choices that reflect the reality of how people collaborate today—casual but neat and professional.

Product photography had to show all angles of the hardware with a beauty shot of the most flattering angle as a hero shot on the website. I made sure product photography had impeccable focus, lighting, and details.

My role: Creative Direction

Lifestyle photography: Brandon McGanty, Mark Compton
Product photography: Nervin Siasoco

Design of workspaces in global offices.

Objective: After Polycom went through the rebrand, all the offices needed to be updated to reflect the new design.

Solution: I have worked with all global offices to implement the changes in the brand. The logo, the furniture, glass frosting, wall murals, wall colors, etc. became consistent worldwide.

My role: Creative Direction and Design

Product branding.

Objective: The Polycom logo has to be present on the hardware.

Solution: I have worked with hardware engineers, product marketing managers, and operations managers to make sure the logo is positioned prominently, sized tastefully, and implemented correctly. I have developed the guidelines documenting all Polycom products for future styles references.

My role: Art Direction

As a result of Polycom acquisition by Plantronics, a new company was born called Poly. Two industry pioneers came together to embark on a mission to power rich, human connections. Poly’s brand manifesto: The power of many.

Technology that brings people together then gets out of the way. There are amazing new ways to hear, to see, to work, and to work together: collaboration at the touch of a button. One to one. One to many. Many to many.

The visual identity emphasizes the people's connection, the emotions it brings, the story it tells. Products and technology are considered as mere tools of human connections.

These extensive brand guidelines cover the brand visual identity.

A design agency in collaboration with Poly marketing established the Poly brand and created the guidelines. My role was to embrace the brand identity and become the brand leader. I’ve led numerous brand trainings for both employees and creative agencies. I spearheaded the development of all marketing assets globally. I led the development of the collateral system, PowerPoint template and style guide, marketing campaigns, product launches, digital ads, tradeshows signage, and more. I conducted photoshoots to create a unique Poly image library. After applying these guidelines to the development of the real assets, I had to modify some of them for better accuracy. As a result, the brand was globally aligned and all assets were consistent.

Objective: Create collateral templates for the new brand.

Solution: We have created a system for all collateral materials. Overall layout and typography are critical parts of consistency. Each and every template has a unique layout based on the content. However, the consistent use of grids and typography creates a cohesive system. Airy and clean layouts make information accessible. Relevant photography is used to support the content.

My role: Creative Direction

Designers: Nervin Siasoco and Tiffany Lee

Objective: Create a guide for Poly employees to help effectively and efficiently working from home.

Solution: This internal guide uses warm brand colors for the soft “homey” feel. The information is organized in an easy friendly accessible manner. An ample amount of clear space is used for a contemporary look. Relevant photography supports the information on each page.

My role: Creative Direction

Designer: Dora Wong

Objective: Create templates for digital ads to promote products.

Solution: Clean layout with product photography and short headlines make these ads easily scannable. A clear hierarchy of design elements helps to navigate through the information. The templates were set up in InDesign for production optimization.

My role: Creative Direction and Design

Designer: Nervin Siasoco

Objective: Create a guide for small and medium businesses to help in making buying decisions.

Solution: In tight collaboration with the client, we developed an interactive guide. A user can navigate through the guide in two convenient ways depending on their needs—by the workstyles or by workspaces. Two brand colors are used to differentiate these paths. Only top-level key information is used on the pages for an easy scan. Photography is tastefully used to support the information. The brand consistent ample amount of clear space gives the contemporary feel.

My role: Creative Direction

Designer: Nervin Siasoco