01Cybersecurity · 2017 to 2021 · Brand, web, video, print, events
Four years of making security legible.
Accellion sold secure content communication to banks, governments and hospitals, and later took the name of its platform, Kiteworks. For four years DarkSquare was the brand and marketing studio behind it: the identity system, the website, six product films, a decade’s worth of ebooks and storybooks in one, the trade show program, and a community brand for CISOs that outgrew the company that started it.
- 4 yrsContinuous, from the first brand guide to the Kiteworks name
- 170+Numbered jobs, brand to booth, each one on the same system
- 6Product films, scripted, storyboarded and animated
- 1Community brand built from nothing: CISO Street
Where it started
Secure file transfer is a hard product to picture. The buyer is a CISO with no patience for decoration, the competition is a wall of blue logos, and every piece has to survive legal, compliance and a partner channel. Accellion needed a studio that could hold a brand system across all of it and produce at the pace a security company ships.
What we did
We built the brand guide, then the drawing that explains the platform, then everything that drawing became: the website, the films, the ebooks, the storybooks, the booths, the mailers. When the company needed to reach CISOs directly we built CISO Street, a media brand with its own look, its own podcast and its own webinar series. When Accellion became Kiteworks, the system was ready for the name.
- 01SystemBrand guide, palette, iconography, the platform drawing.
- 02SiteAccellion.com, the homepage and the product pages.
- 03FilmsSix explainers, script to screen, one style.
- 04FeedEbooks, storybooks, brochures, booths, every quarter.
One studio for all of it.
Brand system and standards. The website, designed and built. Six product films. The ebooks, storybooks, brochures and datasheets a security company publishes every quarter. Trade show stands, back walls, banners and the invitations that fill them. Packaging, sales decks, email, social. And CISO Street, a media brand of its own. Four years, one system, one studio to call.
Trade show flyer
Print ad
RSA invitation
The homepage, and the product pages under it.
The redesigned homepage put one question at the top, where do you want to start, and eight doors under it. Product pages carried the same system down into each use case, so a visitor who had seen the booth or the brochure would know where they were.
The homepage redesignHover to scroll
A product pageHover to scroll
DarkSquare really understands our business. They’re not a group of outsourced freelancers and they’re not a one and done creative firm chasing after the next big project. They take the time to understand our objectives and work closely with us to achieve them. DarkSquare is a close associate and trusted partner in building our brand.
Six product films, one drawing style.
Accellion’s scripts became storyboards, the storyboards became animation, and three scores were composed so the films would sound like a family without sounding like one film played six times. Isometric when the story is a system, flat when it is a screen. Two of them are here.
What a security company publishes in four years.
Use case ebooks for OneDrive, SFTP, email and FedRAMP. The CISO series on privacy and security. Customer storybooks for federal agencies and channel partners. The brochure, rebuilt twice. All from one guide, so a reader who picked up any two would know they came from the same place.
Federal storybook, 2021
The brochure, 2021
A media brand for the people who buy security.
Accellion wanted a direct line to CISOs that did not read as an ad. CISO Street was the answer: a name, a mark, a neon-and-violet look nothing like the parent brand on purpose, then the webinar series, the masterclass covers, the Women in Cybersecurity podcast and the blog imagery that kept it running week after week.
The mark
Channel art
I can’t say enough about DarkSquare. I can’t imagine developing this brand and this site without them. From start to finish they were there with us every step of the way with new concepts we never would have thought of. They’re an invaluable resource and they’ve become important and closely involved members of our team.
The rest of the work.
A brand engineered for growthCase study 
Eight logos, one brandCase study 
Branding an artist the Smithsonian collectsCase study 
Three companies, one brand, and a character to carry itCase study
The Simpro for Security campaignCase study 
Event keepsakes, a custom deck of cardsCase study 
Ten years of brand, web, video and campaignsCase study 
Branding legal AICase study 
Four years of brand, web, film and printYou are here
Start with a conversation.
One call and we'll tell you if this is a fit. If it isn't, we'll say so and point you somewhere better.