Cisco

Security Explainers

Animation

Even though network security is no joke, Cisco embraced the staying power of humor to convey abstract security concepts in a series of animated shorts I directed at First Person.

Zero Trust

The Cisco visual design scheme lent itself to a colorful and playful direction animators were eager to get their hands on. Icons like the malware skull easily became irreverant troublemakers and helped drive the narrative of each video.

In Zero Trust, I had to design a visual model of how the continuous verification model works. A clock-based visualization made the most sense as continuous verification literally means checking a user's credentials around-the-clock as opposed to at just one point in time. Zero trust can best be defined as a "healthy paranoia" about the who/what/when/where of users on a network.

Machine Learning

As art director, I storyboarded each video in the series and built/designed various visual models for how to explain the concepts. Then, I would work closely with an animator who brought the visuals to life with their own humerous and creative touch. It was important not to be overly prescriptive to the animators but rather to step back and let them interpret the tone, pace and rhythm of the moments in their own way.

For Machine Learning, we consciously drew attention to the overuse of that phrase as a tech buzzword. It was important to break down the core concepts of how machine learning worked and convey it in a way that was relatable, understandable, humerous and clear, but that also had solid science and information behind it. We worked closely with our clients at Cisco to verify the approach and ensure we hit the mark.

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Threat Response

One of the most enjoyable parts of this project was having the freedom to inject irreverent humor in the form of visual and text gags. The voice-over plays it straight, and we made a conscious effort to keep the tone of both the VO and music dry while the visuals took on the persona of, well, a bit of a smartass (industry term). Our client's enthusiasm for this approach encouraged us to break out of the mold of antiseptic tech explainers and give this series a bit of a bite.

Threat Response dove into the mess that often gets created when admins layer too many inconsistent security measures on top of each other. We wanted to convey the idea that while these security measures have grown increasingly complex, there was a sense that nobody really knew what was going on and it was something of a "clusterf---" (again, industry term).

Sometimes it helps to find the humor in chaos. Our clients at Cisco were thrilled with the series and went on to commission more from First Person. New animators and art directors are now bringing their own fresh, funny approach to the template we established, and we played a key role in developing the 'voice' of Cisco Security Explainers.