WhatsApp/ - 1stAveDesign

Message Privately

WhatsApp is one of the largest and most popular messaging app in the world. With more than 2 billion users in over 180 countries, Privacy runs deep in WhatsApp's core pillars. For WhatsApp's latest Global Privacy campaign, the aim was to celebrate innovations behind privacy technology and spread awareness about the protection and control they offer its users.

At Hueso we were tasked with creating the Mnemonic for the Global Campaign. A mnemonic is a 'device' (image/symbol/glyph) that is used to trigger information. A vessel for an idea, a visual representation of a concept, like the flag of a country.

The Mnemonic was going to be the visual core for the campaign. It needed to be Simple, Flexible, Technical but Human. It had to work static as well as in motion, it needed to be silent, but also be able to have a sound ID. And most important of all, it needed to be own-able.

Our exploration started with a well known symbol for Privacy, the lock. A rectangular shape with an arch on top. From padlocks, combination locks, heavy-duty to interconnected experiments. All of the concepts had to tell our story, "Multiple Layers of Protection". Days and coffees came and went till a Sunday afternoon the idea for our hero Mnemonic was born and placed at the end of our presentation. It was labeled as "I don't know if it will work, but it sure looks cool".. and the rest is history.

Along with the Mnemonic, building from the same set of rules created for it, we developed designs for all of the Privacy Features contained within the main icon. Features such as 2-Step Verification, End-to-End Encrypted Backups, Hidden Online Presence, Block & Report, Disappearing Messages, Leave Groups Silently, End-to-End Encryption and Screenshot Blocking.

Together, with WhatApp's team, we shipped a visual system with an extensive library of static, motion and sound assets. The visual system was used in over 1,400 assets for the first Global Privacy campaign of WhatsApp.