The Cipher Brief

The Cipher Brief is the only media outlet focused exclusively on national security — bringing analysis, news, and interviews with government and private-sector leaders to an audience that needs greater confidence in what is actually happening in the world. The organization had earned serious credibility through its journalism. What it hadn't built was a visual system capable of growing with it. When I came on, the logo was solid and stayed untouched. Everything else, the typography, the color application, the way the brand expressed itself across pages and products, had no discernible logic holding it together. Fonts were inconsistent, color usage was arbitrary, and no style guide could travel to the events, shows, and digital verticals the organization was beginning to build. The site itself, a two-column layout that had grown organically over time, reflected the same piecemeal approach.