Nomad provide cyber security company F-Secure with an empathetic update for today’s digital world

Living in digital times means we’re often faced with evolving malicious scenarios that try to trick us, catch us out, or locate the vulnerabilities in our online platforms. After all, we’re only trying to live our online lives to the fullest. By contrast, the online security market can feel like an intimidating space, conjuring images of jargon-filled and tech-heavy software. For an industry that aims to make our lives safer, it doesn’t need to feel cold and inaccessible. This is exactly the mindset that Nomad brought when they were invited to work with F-Secure on their brand. Armed with a strategy of ‘brilliantly simple,’ the London-based studio have created a visual and verbal identity for F-Secure that combines clarity of message with a brand personality that dials into the all-encompassing experience of online life. According to Nomad, the previous F-Secure logo, as a shield, felt arbitrary and out of place in today’s digital landscape. Instead, the studio introduced a new ‘F’ symbol that comes to life in animation, representing F-Secure’s digital products through scanning and protection motion behaviours. The updated logo forms part of a modular graphic system to literally ‘protect’ imagery; using framing devices, to create bold patterns and provide space for typography and messaging. “It actually didn’t start life as an ‘F’ and was intended to be a ‘brilliantly simple’ symbol to represent cyber security,” Creative Director Ash Watkins tells us, reflecting on the development. “The spinning quarter circle felt like it was scanning for online threats, whereas the perimeter shape felt like it was guarding and staying alert. There was a bit of a lightbulb moment when we realised that in static these shapes could also form an ‘F,’ which became the logo. It’s a logo born to move and its motion principles play a really functional role in the brand.”