LevelBlue
erging two security brands into one — and keeping both teams shipping while it happened.
The situation
When LevelBlue acquired Trustwave, two established security brands became one organization overnight, with two visual systems, two sets of standards, two libraries of collateral, and two groups of people with strong opinions about which one was better.
Post-acquisition brand work is usually described as a design problem. It isn't. It's a diplomacy problem with a design deliverable at the end. Everything in market has to keep working while the system underneath it changes, and every decision has an internal constituency that will read it as a verdict on whose company won.
As Creative Director I led the integration across both organizations, aligning visual identity, messaging, and creative standards into a single system, while directing high-impact creative for initiatives that couldn't wait for the integration to finish.
What I Did.
Unified guidelines for the combined organization, plus a diagram-building system that let non-designers across both companies produce technical and architectural diagrams that looked like they came from one brand.
Sales collateral
Rebuilt the enablement library against the new system — decks, one-pagers, solution briefs — so sales stopped mixing legacy and current assets in the same meeting.
Events
Booth environments, event branding, and the collateral packages around them, under the unified identity.
Advertising
Integrated campaign creative across digital and print for the combined brand.
PGA of America sponsorship
Directed the creative for the sponsorship — a materially different audience and a materially larger stage than security marketing usually plays on.
An updated spider
Carried Hunter forward into the new brand. The mascot survived the acquisition, which is not a small thing for a brand asset.
A complex integration turned into a cohesive brand experience. one that strengthened visibility, increased engagement, and put the combined company on a bigger stage than either half had been on alone.
