A friend approached me, hat in hand, looking for help with a design. He was tasked by his commanding officer with creating a patch design for his squadron, the Cyber Defense Working Group (CDWG for short), a sect of the U.S. Air Force. The intent was to give them a design that the entire team could get behind to help create a unified sense of pride for their station.
I started by researching what kinds of designs were used for squadron patches in the past and compiled a mood board to create a good starting point for the conversation of where we want the style of the design to go. It was important to me to create a design that felt modern, while still looking like it belonged right alongside the squadron badges that came before it.
Unlike most traditional logos, the logomark and the logotype for a squadron badge aren’t treated as equals. The mark itself if far more important and the typography tends to take a backseat to the rest of the design. With this in mind, I focused solely on creating a strong image first and didn’t worry about the typography until much later in the design than normal.
Once we landed on an image we liked I set to trying as many variations and color combinations as I could come up with. At this point they asked us to create a circular composition and asked for binary code to be incorporated somehow as well.
The final product ended up being a much-simplified patch compared to most of its fellow patch designs. Though much simpler, it still has a threatening, imposing visage and immediately informs you of the purpose of the unit; that of a cyber guard dog (a cyberus if you’re a fan of bad puns).