Proofpoint is a leading cybersecurity company providing solutions that protects an organization’s biggest risks and greatest assets: their people. Working in close partnership with our internal brand team and a number of outside brand agencies, I have provided creative direction and design in the development of campaign brand systems that have evolved and fine tuned the company’s people-centric focus.

Creative direction, art direction and design

Protect Your People, Your Data and Your Brand (2015-2016)

In 2015, Proofpoint began a brand refresh project that introduced a cleaner version of the corporate logo along with a new photo library focused on people. The brand direction was to show real-world users working in real-world situations to convey the message that despite all the technology involved, our solutions ultimately protect people. While we developed a number of options on our brand message, the main messaging evolved into “Protect your people, your data and your brand.”

Protection Starts with People (2017)

In the next stage of brand evolution, we began to give more definition to Proofpoint’s brand promise. We created the overarching tagline “Protection Starts with People”. The tagline, photos and messaging all begin to make the association between people’s behavior and cybersecurity strategy. We refined our visuals with the use of bold typography and photography of people looking directly into the camera. To add to the boldness of the graphics, we used neutral backgrounds to keep the focus on the messaging and the subjects.

Anyone Can be a VAP (Very Attacked Person) (2018)

Continuing to fine-tune our people-centric messaging, we introduced the concept of the “Very Attacked Person” or “VAP”. Focusing further on the need to protect all users from risk. By using diverse photography and adding specific job titles such as “Chief Executive Officer”, “Executive Assistant” and “HR Director”, we stressed the fact that every user within an organization is vulnerable to attacks.

Defend Your VAPs (2019)

Taking the VAP story further, the following year, we introduced more color into the visuals along with the graphics illustrating Proofpoint’s VAP index. The VAP index represents the areas that Proofpoint monitors to assess a user’s risk, giving organizations the visibility they need to implement the best strategy to optimize their security solutions.

Protection Starts with People 2.0 (2020-2021)

In the latest phase in our brand evolution, we have taken the people-centric message further to address the reality that attackers no longer target just technology, but are directing their attack strategies to target people directly. To illustrate this we are using photography featuring users in real-world work environments and have integrated a new set of graphics to illustrate the attacks that target them.

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