Iconographic Design
Icons and logos fascinate me. During my education as a graphic designer, I found myself drawn to the practice of developing simple images that told a story with minimal distraction. A logo is like the face of an organization; it’s the first thing you see, and it’s your first impression. It needs to be good.
Black Pearl System Logo
Sometimes I’m given free rein to ideate as I want on projects, and other times the client has very clear views in which direction they want to go. This project was the latter. Black Pearl was a network security paradigm produced by MITRE labs and, in an effort to get more attention from prospective clients, they wanted to develop a logo for letterheads and adverts. The lab members came to me with one specific direction: “We want it to be nautical themed. Like the boat from Pirates of the Caribbean.” From there I researched a variety of things naval, from actual naval heraldry and historic imagery to logos for seafood restaurants. In the end, the logo at top won out, although the simple word mark below tended to be the version most frequently used.
USBP National Subterranean Operations Official Seal
One of my proudest achievements during my tenure working with the US Border Patrol National Subterranean Operations (NSO) team was the opportunity to develop the official seal used by the fledgling organization. The development of the heraldry went through many phases, starting with a version heavily laden with symbolism and small features (lower left) and eventually refining to the version seen at the top. The seal is currently in use today by the organization and is seen on the uniforms of NSO agents.
Custom Visual Icons
One of the most common requests I got while working at The MITRE Corporation was for assistance with developing presentations. Understandably, as a company that works on contracts with the government, MITRE was required to constantly update and inform clients about how progress was going, what new features would be added, and so on. These internal requests often came tinged with frustration that they lacked the visual resources through built-in libraries of Visio and PowerPoint to accurately tell their story. So, as I helped develop these client presentations, I began developing a vast library of custom, specialized icons to represent different facets of complex processes. These icons would appear in presentations and, in turn, clients would appreciate the specificity and accuracy of system depictions, leading to repeat work for me and my team. More importantly, though, these simple figures would tell the story the internal requests wanted to tell.
“Kudos to Paul for creating our lab's awesome logo on very short notice! He's managed to capture our lab's spirit and goals in a cool design that has been getting tons of compliments from our colleagues and visitors.”
~ Max Khanin, MITRE EDGE Labs