Campaign Art Direction | Axonius

Cybersecurity can feel intimidating and distant. The goal of the Controlling Complexity Campaign was to humanize cybersecurity, showing that while complexity is inevitable, it can be managed with the right tools and mindset.

The campaign centered on resilience and growth, featuring Olympic Athlete, Simone Biles and Adaptive Crossfit Champion Amy Bream, who shared how they overcame complexities in their own lives. It highlighted three key themes:

Foundation – Understanding your environment, just like the Axonius product allows you to see all devices on your network. We asked what challenges and complexities are present in Simone and Amy’s life that these athletes had to work to overcome.

Adaptation – Responding to changes and complications. Finding that stability that helps you adapt to change. Recognizing how Simone and Amy adapted to the complexities and challenges in their life, and giving back to those who helped them.

Growth – Building confidence and capability from a strong foundation. Simone Biles and cyber professionals sat down to reflect on how they grew from the complexities in their lives.

These themes tied the human stories to our product, showing how it helps users manage complexity and thrive.

My Role as Art Director

I led the visual direction and art execution across every phase of the campaign, including:

Advertising & Digital – Designed static, animated, and motion graphics ads that extended to RSA and a suite of Out of Home ads throughout San Francisco.

Photography & Video – Directed framing, styling, and post-production for all shoots.

Cross-Team Collaboration – Partnered with production teams to maintain a unified creative vision.

Execution & Results

The campaign ran across social, digital, print, video, and events, delivering a unified visual language that was bold, approachable, and human-centered. The final instalment of the campaign, growth, we called upon our cybersecurity community, asking them to write a letter to themselves describing the challenges they faced when they were younger and how the adapted and grew from those situations. By integrating Foundation, Adaptation, and Growth, it resonated with audiences while demonstrating the product’s real-world value—helping users manage complexity in their environment.

Campaign Art Direction | Axonius

Cybersecurity is often portrayed through stock imagery and clichés — most notably the faceless “hacker in a hoodie.” Humans Behind the Hoodie was created to disrupt that narrative by showing the real, complex people who shape this industry. The campaign built on the momentum of our earlier Controlling Complexity initiative, which explored the themes of Foundation, Adaptation, and Growth to mirror the Axonius product. While Controlling Complexity explored well known athletes and cyber professionals, Humans Behind the Hoodie shifted the lens to our customers, using the same thematic backbone to tell authentic, human-centered stories. Episode 1 featured Axonius CISO Lenny Zeltser, revealing his career trajectory and personal story.

My Role

As Art Director, I shaped the campaign’s creative vision, designing the logo and logo mark to reflect the Axonius brand and animating it as the intro and outro for all episodes across both seasons. I collaborated closely with content and brand teams to translate abstract goals into concrete visuals, ensuring every creative choice—from photography framing and lighting to landing page typography—reinforced the story of the human behind the hoodie.

Multi-Disciplinary Execution

This campaign spanned multiple touchpoints, and I directed the creative across each:

Video & Photography — Established the visual direction, art directed photoshoots, and provided final creative sign-off on video edits and stills.

Campaign Assets — Designed motion teasers, employee LinkedIn banners, and paid ad creative to generate momentum and extend the campaign socially.

Digital Experience — Designed the landing page in collaboration with the digital team, ensuring the storytelling translated seamlessly online.

Leadership & Ownership

When our Senior Director of Brand departed mid-project, I assumed full ownership of the campaign, guiding it through launch and ensuring creative integrity across all outputs. Beyond design execution, I acted as the creative lead and brand guardian, aligning cross-functional teams around a unified vision and delivering a high-profile brand moment that positioned Axonius as both human-centered and innovative.

The Challenge

Catalyze is Enables industry conference, designed to bring customers together for two days of learning, networking, and inspiration. In 2024, we hosted 154 customers in Chicago, with a goal of creating a memorable, immersive brand experience that showcased our expertise in pricing and rebates while building stronger community connections. My challenge was to craft a cohesive creative direction that would carry across every touchpoint—from stage design and video to signage, activations, and digital campaigns.

The Creative Approach

I led the creative direction across the full event experience, ensuring that every visual element contributed to a unified brand story.

Stage Design — Designed the focal point of the conference: a dramatic installation of 40 internally lit fabric spheres encircling a glowing Catalyze logo. The contrast of light against a darkened room created a sense of energy and anticipation.

Opening Video — Produced a motion-graphics kickoff video to set the tone for Day 1, energizing attendees and introducing the conference theme with dynamic visuals.

Environmental Branding — Extended the identity across the venue through wall clings, floor decals, registration desk signage, partner booth graphics, and animated digital signage.

Engagement Activations — Designed a custom, interactive brand activation inspired by The Price is Right, turning complex product concepts into playful, interactive moments.

Custom Event Details — Created social media graphics, PowerPoint templates for speakers, and bespoke event signage—including a signature drink menu and illustrated Chicago landmark signs that added local flair.

The Impact

By weaving together digital, environmental, and experiential design, I created a seamless, multi-touchpoint brand experience that amplified the conference’s energy and left a lasting impression on attendees. The bold stage design and kickoff video established excitement from the start, while thoughtful environmental and interactive details reinforced our brand identity throughout the event. Attendees left not only informed, but deeply connected to the Catalyze brand.

I integrate motion design across a wide range of projects—paid and organic social ads, event signage, and long-form messaging videos—using After Effects to bring static designs to life. By layering in animation and movement, I’ve elevated campaigns with more dynamic, engaging visuals that capture attention and drive higher interaction. Motion graphics have become a key part of my toolkit for creating work that feels modern, memorable, and impactful across every medium.

Over the span of four years, I led the creative direction and design for our custom booth presence at the RSA Conference in San Francisco—one of the largest cybersecurity industry events. Each year, I evolved the booth experience to align with our brand campaigns while pushing the boundaries of environmental and experiential design.

2021: Directed the creative vision for a fully custom booth where over 50% of the surfaces were transformed into immersive LED canvases. I developed the visual content strategy and messaging integration, creating a dynamic and memorable presence that stood apart on the show floor.

2022–2023: Brought our Controlling Complexity campaign to life through the booth’s structural and graphic design. I oversaw every creative touchpoint, from large-scale environmental graphics to supporting ads and digital assets, ensuring a cohesive brand experience both inside the conference and throughout San Francisco. This included Out-of-Home billboards and airport digital placements that extended the campaign beyond the convention center.

2024: Led the creative direction for a two-story booth built around the theme of visibility, a core pillar of our product. I designed a large-scale LED wall showcasing custom motion graphics, along with booth flooring and surfaces that visually reinforced the theme. The result was an immersive, multi-level environment that blended storytelling with cutting-edge design.

Through each iteration, I combined environmental design, motion graphics, and brand storytelling to create high-impact, large-scale experiences that elevated our presence at one of the industry’s most competitive stages.

In 2021, when Axonius reached Unicorn status, I designed animated Times Square ads in under a week, rapidly translating the milestone into bold, high-impact visuals. I collaborated with internal teams and external vendors to ensure seamless production and later compiled a sizzle reel capturing employee reactions and live footage. In 2024, I designed another set of Times Square ads in just one week, this time celebrating Axonius reaching $100M ARR, again engaging employees and reinforcing brand pride.

In 2023, Axonius brought the Controlling Complexity campaign to the RSA Conference with a suite of Out of Home ads, including billboards across San Francisco and placements at the airport, driving traffic to the Axonius booth and increasing brand visibility. I also designed a custom bus wrap, coordinating with production teams to ensure the same creative from the campaign translated to large-scale physical media. These projects highlight my ability to lead creative execution across multiple high-profile channels, balancing speed, collaboration, and strategic impact.

At Enable, I transformed routine marketing materials into branded experiences that inspired and delivered results. I redesigned ebooks with bold typography, dynamic layouts, and curated imagery—turning dense content into engaging, easy-to-digest stories. Coordinated ads extended the campaign and doubled engagement on half the budget.

For our Sales and Company Kickoff, I built a presentation system around the “Get Into Orbit” theme. A rocket launch narrative and progressive layouts guided audiences through milestones, making the event more impactful and memorable.

By elevating these core touchpoints, I strengthened Enable’s brand presence and proved how thoughtful design can inform, inspire, and drive measurable impact.

I contributed to the rebranding of the District Conference, a growing cybersecurity event in Washington, DC. Building on their initial logo concept, which blended DC-inspired elements with cybersecurity themes, I developed a bold, memorable logo that resonated with the cybersecurity community. Beyond the logo, I designed a teaser video to promote the second annual conference, as well as speaker graphics and a sponsorship package PDF, creating a cohesive visual identity across all touchpoints.

I have a passion for mixed-media design, blending hand-drawn illustration with photography to create custom, meaningful work. Using Procreate, I regularly produce illustrations for personal projects and celebrations, from a custom wedding save-the-date, signature cocktail menu, and place cards for my sister’s wedding, to a personalized invitation for a bachelor/bachelorette party. I’ve also designed illustrated menus for family gatherings, turning everyday moments into memorable, artistic experiences. Beyond illustration, I love photography, capturing trips around the world to create framed pieces for my home. This combination of drawing, design, and photography allows me to bring a unique, tactile, and personal approach to every project I take on.