AccessData
How to Uncover Brand Narratives

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Scope
Brand Design
Creative Direction
Event Graphics
Graphic Design
Marketing Collateral
Motion Graphics
Packaging
Sound Design
Web Graphics

Team
AD Marketing Team
R1 Launch Team

AccessData had pioneered digital forensics and litigation support software for more than two decades, serving 130,000 customers across law enforcement, government, corporations, and global law firms. Their flagship product, Forensic Toolkit (FTK), was adopted by the FBI, Secret Service and numerous other law enforcement agencies and had become the industry standard.

The digital forensics and cybersecurity space was growing increasingly competitive. Despite AccessData’s leadership in the field and successful word-of-mouth marketing, the brand had not evolved much since 1987. The brand needed a clearer voice with professionalized marketing materials in order to continue gaining share over similar, cheaper alternatives. As part of the in-house marketing team, I refreshed the visual identity, introduced the company’s first brand guidelines. I also led the design for their annual user conference in Las Vegas.

Brand Strategy

I made two observations that led to a brand strategy: 1 - Cybersecurity branding at the time was a sea of sameness (lots of overused cyber tropes). 2 - the current customers of AccessData were raving fans, proud of their work behind-the-scenes as cyber guardians.

AccessData featured people—actual users of our products— while leveraging some of the more familiar cybersecurity symbols of the day.

Brand Guidelines

ADUC

AccessData’s User Conference (ADUC) was its biggest event of the year, drawing thousands of attendees to network, attend trainings, and get a sneak peek at product roadmaps. I created all branding, marketing collateral, and signage systems for the annual event.