BLACK HAT BRAND FILM
MY ROLE: Creative Lead
Script development, concept development, storyboard, motion graphics, edit. Proposed and managed production schedule. Direct communication with stakeholder for feedback and delivery. Generative AI used to create newspaper cutout stills for the ransom email sequence.
OVERVIEW
A brand film that started as an internal asset and became the reference point for an entirely new visual identity for one of the world's leading cybersecurity events — inspiring a brand redesign.
2025
After Informa acquired Ascential, there was an opportunity to elevate the creative standards across Informa's portfolio of festival brands. Black Hat — one of the world's most recognised cybersecurity conferences — needed a film that articulated its importance: the scale of cybercrime, the growing need for cybersecurity, and Black Hat's central position in the industry.
The story opens with an email threat directed straight at the viewer. It never happens to you. Until it does. That emotional hook is anchored by data, making the case for both the threat and the defence. attaching it to any one person.
My main challange was that Black Hat had never commissioned a brand film before. Their visual assets existed in isolation, with no unifying system or narrative tone. Our first job was to define both.
The initial concept and script came from the marketing strategist and Black Hat leadership. I pitched back a tighter version with visual devices to carry the narrative.
geometric essentials
The approach stripped the brand's existing assets to their geometric essentials. The circle, a core element of the Black Hat logo, became the primary graphic device throughout the film. At the end of the video the circle becomes one with the logo through an AI generated figure animation.
breach
Clean geometric forms represent the companies and institutions under threat. Digital noise and broken surfaces represent the breach. The contrast between orange and blue drives the visual tension between disruption and order.
DATA MATRIX
The data-matrix treatment shows the connection between the digital and the real.
What was commissioned as an internal asset resonated so strongly with Black Hat and Informa Festivals leadership that it was adopted as an external brand film.
YouTube: 454k views
(253k subscribers on the channel)
Suzy Pallett, President, Black Hat
"In 90 seconds this is why I am excited to be a part of Black Hat."
Since the film's release, Black Hat has initiated a brand redesign inspired by the visual language in the film. The stripped-back geometric aesthetic and tonal direction became the creative reference for the new identity, launching soon.
CREDITS
Creative Lead — Balint Danyi | Script Collaboration — Grace Kelliher | Head of Post-Production — Ken Coy | Production Supervision — Pietro Romanelli | Stakeholder — Geraint Jones, Marketing Transformation Director, Informa