More than pretty pictures: Wendy Bishop on visual storytelling in tech

This article features an interview with Wendy Bishop, Head of Creative at Cisco Talos, discussing the intersection of design and cybersecurity intelligence. The conversation highlights the role of visual storytelling in communicating complex security research, specifically regarding the production of the 2025 Year in Review report. Bishop details her career evolution from journalism and web design to leading creative vision within a threat intelligence organization. The content focuses on internal processes, branding, and communication strategies rather than technical security incidents. Consequently, no specific cyber threats, threat actors, or malware families are identified or analyzed within this text. There is no direct impact on security posture or technical mitigation strategies discussed. The piece serves as organizational culture content aimed at showcasing the human element behind security intelligence operations rather than providing actionable threat intelligence or vulnerability disclosures for defensive teams.

Wendy shares the unique challenges and rewards of bridging the gap between artistic expression and highly technical research.

This article features an interview with Wendy Bishop, Head of Creative at Cisco Talos, discussing the intersection of design and cybersecurity intelligence. The conversation highlights the role of visual storytelling in communicating complex security research, specifically regarding the production of the 2025 Year in Review report. Bishop details her career evolution from journalism and web design to leading creative vision within a threat intelligence organization. The content focuses on internal processes, branding, and communication strategies rather than technical security incidents. Consequently, no specific cyber threats, threat actors, or malware families are identified or analyzed within this text. There is no direct impact on security posture or technical mitigation strategies discussed. The piece serves as organizational culture content aimed at showcasing the human element behind security intelligence operations rather than providing actionable threat intelligence or vulnerability disclosures for defensive teams. Wendy shares the unique challenges and rewards of bridging the gap between artistic expression and highly technical research. In this episode of Humans of Talos, Amy sits down with Wendy Bishop, Head of Creative, to explore the vital role of design in the world of cybersecurity. From her early beginnings in web design and journalism to leading the creative vision for Talos, Wendy shares the unique challenges and rewards of bridging the gap between artistic expression and highly technical research. Whether you're a creative professional looking to break into the cybersecurity industry or simply curious about the people behind our security intelligence, this conversation offers a fascinating look at the artistic side of Talos' mission to keep the digital world safe. Amy Ciminnisi: Wendy, welcome! We haven’t had anyone from creative here yet. Can you talk to me a little bit about what drew you into creative work and how your career evolved into what it is now at Talos? Wendy Bishop: I never in my entire life thought I would do anything besides something creative. It’s the only thing I’ve ever known. I have so many memories in my childhood of just being locked in my moody teenage bedroom. In high school, I started doing web design courses, and I think that’s when I really started being interested in a graphic design path. I learned Photoshop and basic HTML/CSS stuff as a side hobby. I moderated a message board for my favorite pop-punk band in high school. When it came time to go to college, there was nothing I wanted to do otherwise besides design. I found myself at Ohio University— that’s where I’m from, Ohio — in the School of Visual Communication. I went off to a job working in newspapers. I actually never thought I would, but it was the job I found after college, and I designed news pages. It sounds funny now; it was already dying then, probably not the best long career path. But I think my background in journalism and communication-driven design is really what made me a great fit for the kind of design work we do here at Talos. We work with complicated materials, and a lot of the creative work we do is comms-driven. Our blog in some ways functions as a news outlet, so visual storytelling is a lot of my job. But of course, we have a lot of regular, branding-based design work now that comes out of my team. AC: We just had a really big report come out that has occupied our minds for months, especially over here in design. Can you talk a little bit about the 2025 Year in Review and share what that process is like? WB: When it starts to take shape, I look over that draft with the team and we talk about each graphic. I say, "That one might be better if we did this," or "This is missing that piece for when it goes into production." I really start to wrap my mind around the various assets and how we would go about taking what is essentially an Excel graphic or something created in PowerPoint and making it into a much more polished and designed presentation. We get a sneak peek, and then one day it lands on your desk, Amy. From there, my designers and I put it together. It’s a lot about putting that puzzle together, thinking about what makes sense on each page, making sure the content flow is clean and linear, and the adjacencies of the graphics are in the right place. I come to you and say, "Amy, I need a headline," or "Does this make sense?" We come up with a look and feel and theme for the whole report every year that’s greater than just the layout of the document. That gets extended to all the other companion pieces — our videos, social graphics, and any continuing campaign pieces. Want to see more? Watch the full interview , and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for future episodes of Humans of Talos.