Brand Identity & Website for CICS

Brand Identity
Logo Design
Art Direction
Website & UX Design
Illustration

CICS is a background screening agency that seeks to humanize candidates in an industry known for reducing people down to data. With both expertise and empathy, the team believes humanity lies in the details; each candidate and client receives a deep dive, holistic approach to bring a three-dimensional picture to the surface.

With this in mind, my team and I developed a brand story around what makes CICS so different from its competitors. Inspired by deep sea exploration and Marie Tharp’s groundbreaking work creating a multi-dimensional map of the ocean floor and her discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Range, the CICS brand story began to take shape and translate into visuals and messaging, merging science and data with nature and humanity. Using this brand story as a foundation, I created a visual language around themes of depth and insight that applied to all aspects of the brand: logo, iconography, texture, and illustration approach, to name a few.

I was deeply involved in expressing key differentiators for the company, including translating their Proprietary Way into a client-facing animated graphic, working closely with a developer to bring the graphic to life on the website I designed. To ensure future brand application and expression remains consistent, I created a comprehensive visual standards guide and walked CICS through it to empower them to confidently champion their new brand.