Protecting kids where they spend most of their time - online

Children's products are a sensitive business. Everyone with a kid has opinions about how to raise them and will defend those opinions with their life. Sleeping schedules, screen time, what they eat, who they hang out with - all of it.

But there's one thing most modern parents actually agree on: safety. The world feels less safe for kids than it used to. Whether that's real or just cognitive bias - whether the world actually got more dangerous or we just know more about it now - is an open question. What's not up for debate: every parent is scared for their child.

Valvur is a system that tries to help with that fear. At least in the online world.

Dealing with the legacy and finding the soul

Valvur is a product with history - just not quite the history you'd expect. It started as a digital passport for teenagers in esports. It grew and evolved. But the visual identity didn't grow with it, and at some point the positioning and the style ended up living completely separate lives.

The inheritance from the cyber world: neon and purple gradients. Which definitely has its own vibe - just not the one we needed.

The brief was broad, to put it mildly. Make it bold and cool. But scalable across very different audiences. A visual language that can tell stories and actually stick in people's heads.

And mascots. We absolutely needed mascots.

Meet the KIBIs

We needed characters. Fast and scalable. Characters with their own stories that could pull people in. Cartoon enough to excite kids. Cute enough not to be cringe for teenagers. Conservative enough not to scare parents.

That's how they came to life - from sketches on paper to 3D models and a full content generation pipeline. Robot cats, each with their own unique story, personality and set of traits. Built to guide a child from their very first steps in cybersecurity all the way to being a fully conscious, aware internet user.

For younger kids - the mascots lead lessons and show the way. For teenagers - they fade into the background, showing up in small UI details without demanding attention. Their presence scales with the child's age and preferences. Like a favorite toy that becomes less central over time but never fully disappears - still there, still part of the story.

Brand identity for the ecosystem

Moving away from the signature neon-purple palette wasn't just about the landing pages - it rolled out across the entire content system and every brand touchpoint.

Social media - let's build an image pipeline based entirely on our characters and visual style, so the brand image actually sticks. Done.

Product promo - done.

Email templates, app store cards, business cards, presentations, internal documents - all ready, all speaking the same visual language.

The main event - the new landing page

Not on the first try, but we got there. Bold, colorful, product-first - exactly what it needed to be.

My theory was: parents want calm colors, clean design, something that feels technical and trustworthy. Easier to process information that way, even if the app the kids actually use would be brighter and more playful.

A/B tests proved me wrong. Parents want to see the characters immediately. They want color. "I know my kid would love this" - turns out when you're a parent, what you personally think doesn't matter much. What matters is what your child will feel.

That's probably something everyone who builds products should think about more.

What we got right

• Stripped out the "crypto tone" and rebuilt the brand associations around tech for good

• Built a system (palette, typography, composition, cards and sections) instead of a pile of disconnected mockups

• Translated the landing page message into visuals: More than just antivirus. Science, not surveillance.

• Strengthened KIBIs and "Valvur World" as the foundation for explaining security in a way that feels friendly and playful, not scary

  
  
  

What we haven't cracked yet

The parent and school-facing parts of the design are still in transition. They need their own brand expression - same system, but without the cartoon energy. More grown-up, without losing the warmth.