That’s all fine and dandy if it’s your own personal blog. But with business, well, you really can’t afford to cut corners with your company’s brand identity. What looks good to you and I, might look naff at best to your target audience. Or, at worst, it might look downright awful.

Even the big boys get things wrong from time-to-time. When Gap revealed its new logo last October, the company faced a big backlash from the public.

Whilst Gap did underestimate the power of brand familiarity with its existing logo, the new logo looked like something from a Microsoft software package. If only Gap had consulted the ‘crowd’ as they were planning to. The damage was done, however, and they reverted back to the old logo before you could say “WTF…?”.

But we digress. This guide is neither meant to encourage or discourage you to take your company’s brand image into your own hands. If anything, it’s more of a “if you really, really must be a DIY designer” guide.

More importantly, logo-design always begins with a brief. And if you understand the basics of logo-design, then you can play an active role in the design process and work with the professionals towards developing your brand identity.

1.    Think outside YOUR box

Okay, before you even double-click on your Photoshop, Illustrator or Corel Draw icon, remember that the logo isn’t about you. It’s about the market.

If your brand is all about energy and vibrancy, aimed at the creative industries or student markets, then a funky, modern typographic font might be fine. But if you’re operating a consultancy service for the pharmaceutical industry, then something a little more understated and business-like is better. Sounds obvious and, well, that’s because it is.

And just because you happen to think the Kappa logo is the best emblem ever, this doesn’t mean a similar design will work for your company.  Which leads us to the next point…

2.    Don’t be a copycat

Firstly, a good logo should be original, so you shouldn’t want to copy other logos anyway. Secondly, do you really have the time to ensure your logo doesn’t infringe on any existing trademarked imagery – even if it is by accident?

A court case instigated by Apple Inc. against NYC’s GreeNYC campaign helps to show how easy it is to ruffle the feathers of corporate big-shots. As you can see, both images are apples…but come on, they’re different colours, right? Yes they are, but read on to see why this doesn’t matter…

3.    Colour blind=good design

Matt Groening has stated on many occasions that the secret to creating memorable cartoon characters is to design them so that they’re recognisable by their silhouette alone – such as Homer Simpson. The details of their features and colour are important, but the shape and form are more so.

The same applies to logos. Colours should come last – memorable logos should begin life in black-and-white form, with emphasis placed on shape and form.

It’s likely that your logo may have to be printed in black and white – or other colours – depending on the background colour it’s being reproduced on. So relying on colour for a logo is a bad idea.

And this is why Apple took exception to GreeNYC’s emblem – it was too similar in shape and form to their long-established logo.

4.    Simply subliminal

Here’s a mantra worth repeating: if in doubt, leave it out. The best logos are simple and it can be all too easy to clutter your design with needless bells and whistles that may be aesthetically pleasing, but do little for your brand image. Simple is always best.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t convey additional information in a more subtle way – many of the top logo designs employ some very clever techniques that say a lot, without shouting too loud.

Amazon is often lauded as the archetypal e-commerce success story – and rightfully so. As a brand, it has always gone about business in a very good way – and its logo is no different.

Underneath the word ‘Amazon’ there is what seems to be a smile. This is great – a nice, happy, friendly image. But on closer analysis, it’s also an arrow that points from ‘a’ through to ‘z’.

The logo is essentially the company’s URL with a squiggle beneath it – so simple, but so genius. And this works across all its websites – all that changes in the logo is the extension, from .com to .co.uk, .de, .fr…you get the picture.

5.    Think ‘scalable‘

Remember, your logo may adorn anything from a billboard to a matchbox. For this reason, it’s best to omit any kind of imagery with fine detail that’s only noticeable close-up or when enlarged.

A fingerprint, for example, contains lots of little contours that are obvious close-up, but when reduced in size, the image could be anything really…such as an accidental smudge on a page.

This also ties in with the type of software you should use to produce your logo. Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw produce vector graphics, which consist of mathematically precise points and hence can be scaled in size much more effectively. Photoshop is a good piece of kit, but it produces raster graphics which are pixel-based and hence won’t always enlarge to the size you desire.

The key point to remember is this: logos should be simple, original and memorable. So whether you plan to be a have-a-go hero or simply take some ideas to the professionals’ drawing table, you’ll at least know the basics.

What artists/designers have inspired the surreal style in your works?

In the beganing there was Dali ; )…
I even did my first thesis about him. Cliché? Maybe…
Than there was Rene Magritte and Hieronymus Bosch as well. In my opinion, this artist put some enormous mark on the surreal art as we know it now.
When i was at high school I’ve heard about my fellowman, Ryszard Horovitz and he inspired me to do photo manipulations.
Nowadays there are so many great artists dealing with surrealism, that it’s very hard not to see something magnificent, something that will inspire you and you wont even realize that. This goes to your subconscious mind and gives you more ideas for your work.

Would you like to live in any of your landscapes, such as the removal?

I’ve never thought about that…
This would be very hard to do, i think. There’s so much going on in there and it’s constantly changing. I would have to be prepared to expect not expected. Imagine walking across the street, which suddenly changes into a river, imagine trying to drink your favourite drink and couldn’t because it has stuck to the bottom and so on…
On the other hand, it would be something if I could see so many great landscapes and incredible creatures every day, just like in “The imaginarium of doctor Parnassus”, “The lovely bones” or new “Alice in wonderland”.
But than, the real world can be as unexpected and dangerous as the fictitious one, so if it was possible, I think I would like to live in my imaginated place ; )

you recently uploaded a step by step tutorial for creating one of your works, do you think its important for designers to help each other through online networks?

I don’t know if it’s important. Useful perhaps.
If you don’t know how to do something and there’s no one to help, you’ll find a way to do it anyway. It just takes more time.
But it’s great to see that there are sites like this,(blur-Designs.net) where you can share your skills, meet other designers, exchange thoughts and learn more and more, faster than it was before the era of blogs dedicated to designers. Thanks for that Frazer ; )

(From fellow blur Designer Stefano maglovsky)
Would you choose another profession if you could turn back time?

off course… not ; )

Has Tim Burton done justice in the new Alice in Wonderland?

Yes, he has. He always does a great job if you ask me.
There is a word among certain people, who say that if you saw one Tim Burton’s movie, you’ve seen’ em all. I don’t agree on that.
It’s like with painters. Most of them has own style (some don’t, shame on them). They paint in a certain way and you can recognize if it’s a Picasso, Dali or Modigliani just by looking at it.
The same is with Mr. Burton. He has his vision, style, a way in creating a picture. It’s always a pleasure to me, to see another of his movies.
The Burton’s Alice is very original. Not only, he has gathered caracters from “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” in one movie, but he has made another extended, perfectly illustrated story. Some people will say “I would’ve done better”. Go ahead and do it. Let others complain on you!

Use Maciej for a project – Submit a brief

Is it harder to use your regular style for client projects? do you have to adapt? Most of the clients I work with know what they’re getting into before approaching me with a project. It definitely is harder finding specific collage elements. Like a needle in a hay stack sometimes.

You illustrate, design and animate, is it important for designers to have a little bit of everything in the locker? I do agree that designers should be well rounded. At the same time I am considering taking down the other sections on my website and focusing strictly on illustration. Having a variety of skills is a great asset however Art Directors may see it as being ok at a lot of things instead of having a clear vision.

If you were given the chance to time travel to the past, where would you go and specifically why? I would travel back to the very day Apple became a company and buy up all the stocks. And laugh all the way to the bank.

Where do you find the imagery for collage pieces? Is it all random? Or Randomly planned? I do have my nooks and obscure shops I frequent. I have libraries of images. Everything is planned on the execution but the outcome is usually very random.
Finally, if you had to choose, Photoshop, Illustrator or After Effects? And why?” That’s a tough one. I wish they would combine all those programs to make the ultimate creative suite. Photoshop probably. Good ol Photoshop. Like a good friend that’s always there, even when you abuse it.

Want Matthew to work on a project for you? Contact us here

When did you first get interested in design? What was your first piece of design work?hello and thank you for the opportunity for this interview. Well, actually I am a manager in a jewelry store and one time I needed a promotional poster for my store. This was two years ago and also my first contact with photoshop and digital art. I didn’t understand too much about digital art and photoshop, but I always liked traditional design with paper and pen. and this also was my first design job.

Your work seems so intricate and precise, on average how long does an image take to create?I dont have much patience to spend hours sitting and working at designs.Usually when I get a job I want to end in the same day, although sometimes I save the file and finish on another day. When I start something with an idea in my mind, I just try to put it on the screen. Videos and music are my greatest source of inspiration.

If there was a film made about you, who would play you?hard to answer : D; I´m note sure, I think each person is unique and has their own gifts and talents.

How do you use social media to promote yourself?the maximum I can. For the beginners, it is very hard to promote yourself without these social medias.

Which element of design is your passion?as I said before I always drew with pen and paper and now that I’ve discovered photoshop, both traditional art and photoshop are my passions. Lighting effects are my particular favorite style right now.

Need Ricardo to work on your next project? submit a brief

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Jazz, hassan darwish, Emilia Albano, Martin Jensen, Christopher Womersley