About CyberGhost VPN
CyberGhost VPN is a privacy-focused cybersecurity brand serving over 15 million users worldwide. Its core promise is to make online privacy accessible and friendly. Central to this image has always been “Ghostie,” the brand's cheerful mascot, known for its bright yellow color and friendly shape.
Over time, however, Ghostie had become visually dated, lacking the emotional versatility and visual cohesion needed to support a growing brand and complex marketing ecosystem.
TL;DR
Goal: Redesign Ghostie into a flexible, expressive mascot that supports storytelling and scales across teams and campaigns.
Role: Design lead and art director – led mascot evolution, built illustration system, and drove internal adoption.
Issues: Rigid visuals, flat rendering, limited emotional range, one-off assets, no usage guidelines.
Recommendations: Create modular poses and expressions, apply consistent styling, build an illustration library, and publish a mascot guide.
Measured Impact: +5% CTR, +4.7% homepage conversion, 40% faster production, 90% internal adoption.
Project Goal
In 2021, we identified the need to revamp Ghostie from a static, flat icon into a dynamic brand ambassador. The goal was to evolve Ghostie into a more expressive, flexible, and emotionally resonant character that could:
-
Improve storytelling impact across campaigns
-
Support higher marketing performance
-
Unify the brand’s visual identity across digital and offline surfaces
-
Scale efficiently across multiple departments and use cases
Research Approach
Visual Diagnosis – We audited all instances where Ghostie appeared across marketing, product, and social surfaces. This helped us map inconsistencies in style, color, emotional expression, and context.
Style Exploration – Based on audit findings, we explored multiple illustrative treatments. These included variations in line style, color depth, facial expression, and the use of accessories or environments.
Iterative Testing – We created exploratory assets using new styles and tested them with internal teams and in small-scale Google Ads campaigns to gauge performance and relatability.
Identified Design Pain Points
1. Minimal versatility:
Original Ghostie was based directly on the logo icon, offering limited flexibility for pose or expression changes.
2. Flat and inconsistent rendering:
Assets lacked depth, with shading and perspective often missing or mismatched.
3. Limited emotional range:
Ghostie had limited expressions, making it unfit for storytelling or theme-specific messaging.
4. Lack of systemization:
Every new Ghostie asset was created ad hoc, leading to visual drift across channels.
5. No brand guidelines:
There was no centralized reference for using Ghostie, making collaboration across teams inconsistent and inefficient.
Results
-
+5.2% uplift in campaign click through rate, following the introduction of the new Ghostie assets in seasonal campaigns and landing pages
-
+4.7% increase in homepage conversion rate, on A/B-tested variants using the updated Ghostie and supporting illustrations
-
~40% reduction in production time, driven by reusable components, defined expressions, and a modular approach
-
600+ illustrated assets, created and deployed across affiliate, social, product, and growth channels
-
90% internal adoption rate, measured by asset request compliance within three months of rollout
Conclusion
Ghostie is more than a mascot.
When designed right, it becomes a visual extension of the brand’s values - friendly, trustworthy, and human-centered.
This project helped CyberGhost elevate a beloved symbol into a scalable brand asset that resonates emotionally and performs operationally.
The redesigned Ghostie now reflects the maturity of the product, speaks to users more directly, and empowers internal teams to tell stronger, more consistent stories across every channel.
Implemented Solutions
Minimal versatility due to logo-based design
Impact: Ghostie could not adapt to campaign narratives or emotional themes
Solution: We redesigned Ghostie to retain brand familiarity while introducing modular components. The new base character featured dynamic body shapes and stylized accessories, enabling reuse across multiple formats.
Flat design and inconsistent shading
Impact: Assets lacked depth and looked outdated or amateurish in certain contexts
Solution: We introduced soft shading techniques, consistent light direction, and shape contrast. This improved visual cohesion and allowed assets to appear more premium and modern.
Limited emotional expression
Impact: Limited ability to support storytelling, humor, or empathy
Solution: We added customizable eye shapes and subtle facial cues to express mood without overstepping brand simplicity. Poses were reworked to add relatability and motion.
One-off illustrations
Impact: Time-consuming asset creation, with high inconsistency
Solution: We built a scalable illustration system including base poses, expressions, and themed props. This reduced production time and improved campaign alignment.
No usage guidelines
Impact: Teams across the company used Ghostie inconsistently
Solution: We created a full Mascot Style Guide and rolled out an internal illustration library with categorized use cases.
The guide ensure brand consistency while allowing teams to self-serve assets efficiently.
