The Hagenberg-based CTF group called HgbSec approached me to create a Logo for them. CTF (Capture The Flag) is a information security competition where contestants have to solve various technical tasks under a limited amount of time. HgbSec was recently quite successfull and even participated in the final of the VolgaCTF in Russia.
The idea behind the logo was to combine certain aspects of CTF in general with HgbSec-specific ones. Everything that makes up a CTF comes down to information technology which is, in our digital world, based on 0 and 1 or “no energy” and “energy”. Interpreted into a visual language, 0 and 1 were translated to black and white in the logo. Based on a grid system, empty or full brackets were used to “draw” the logo.
The logo’s visual silhouette was chosen intentionally and is a puzzle within itself that, once solved, connects to the group HgbSec. The groups name contains different types of letters that all are distinguishable from one another. These different aspects of the letters were used to develop a set of rules to finally create the shape of the logo.
However, the process of actually coming up with the final logo isn’t as straightforward. After the briefing from HgbSec, I did some research on the topic itself and their competitors. Based on this, I came up with a couple of concepts that I turned into scribbels to let the client decide on which direction they’d like me to move on to. Refining the concept and designing several iterations then led to the final logo.
HgbSec Scribbels
The logo will mainly be used as the team image displayed on the websites of the various CTFs. Therefore, an additional, text-less version was necessary to preserve the logo’s readability when displayed in a small size.
