Like a lot of you, I saw "Wizemark" on all the logo haunts that logo designers have on the interwebs in early 2009. And that is how I knew him. Then he did something extraordinary in early 2010 that changed my life. He started the 365 Logo Project. He along with Melanie Matthews, who started her own 365 Cartoon project, inspired me to take a plunge and set sail on my own 365 Vector Character project. But you’ve heard that a million times before, so I’ll get back to the man of the hour, Srdjan Kirtic aka Wizemark. It was his 365 Logo Project that made me sit up and notice his work and I was blown away. Creativity is inherent and not something that you learn at school. Srdjan is a fine example of that very fact. 

Srdjan is not just a logo designer. He is a master storyteller. Because that his what his logos do. They speak and they weave a story. His work has an unbelievable amount of depth. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and take a look at some really fine logos he has designed that are showcased on this page. The amount of detail, flow, rythm, character and tone in such a tiny little graphic is very hard to find. I think this quality of infinitism in his artwork is what makes him truly unique. I had the good fortune of snagging a great interview with Srdjan and I am happy to share it with all of you today. Srdjan takes us into his mind and his brilliance, he chats quite frankly about logo design and how it has affected and evolved him.  Please join me in welcoming him to the LBOI blog.

Thanks Srdjan for taking the time out to answer a few very interesting questions for us!

1. Who is Srdjan Kirtic? Tell us something about yourself.

I am a 26 years old, self-taught graphic designer, currently living in Novi Sad, Serbia. A guy who loves everything in the world of logo design. Photography enthusiast, coffee lover, dreamer, a guy who would spend everything on traveling only and a guy who is planning to move and stay for good on some sunny coast.

2. Can you tell us a bit about the designer in you? What have you studied? What do you do? What are your skills?

As I said, I’m self-taught and self-started, so unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to actually study design and to go through all those beautiful basics. And that’s something that I’m kind of missing now. I discovered quite late what I really loved and wanted to do for a living. But at that time, I was graduating from some completely design-unrelated schools. So I ended up being someone who had to do something with electricity, as my diploma said. A complete waste. I was involved in psychology as well for some time.

Aside from my freelance business, I work as a contractor with several agencies on branding projects, everything from a logo design, stationery, brochures, etc,  but I enjoy creating identities the most. I’m not so much into print design, type setting, book covers, etc. Even though Illustrator has been my main tool from the get go, I’m familiar with Corel and the rest of the Adobe package as well.

3. Your own brand is called Wizemark. What is the story behind that? How did you develop the logo for it?

I started under the alias Wize Lizard. It was a direct connection with the mentioned sunny coasts where you can see those prehistoric smart looking creatures laying down a whole day doing nothing except enjoying in the sun. I could live like that easily. However, at one point that name seemed not personal enough for me and there were also some other people using it, so I felt that I should change it to something more meaningful and unique. After a lot of brainstorming I ended up with two names. One was Logovski and the other was Wizemark. Logovski sounded in the end perhaps a bit too literal, restrained and Slavic, so to speak, and since my target clientele was more western and since the name needed to be easily understood and pronounced correctly, I decided to go with Wizemark. It is a combination of  two words where the first one describes another, but I also wanted that to sound almost like a name, or the surname, hence the capital W.

As far as the logo design goes, well, I knew that I wanted and needed something extremely simple. Avant Garde typeface was always attractive to me (maybe adidas has to do something with it) and it was almost perfect so there were only few custom tweaks. Regarding the symbol itself, crown was in the mix from the start as I believed it portrayed an appropriate picture and voiced strongly how I felt about what I was doing and what I was trying to create and achieve with every project – strong, smart and distinctive designs that last long.

4. When and how did you start designing logos? What was the first logo you created?

In January 2007 I learnt the difference between raster and vector while on my first unplanned job in some local print house. I can’t say that I was in charge of anything there really, since I was still learning, but I was supposed to be a print assistant. We had a lot of different people coming into the studio ordering all kinds of print jobs and all of them were bringing along their files and designs they were using. I was literally shocked with the terrible logos, brochures, calendars, tees, business cards, etc. That really made me pay more attention to the local newspapers, magazine ads and the printed stuff around me.

An idea about having something designed simply to show that it can be done better, was kind of natural after that. I was anxious about learning Illustrator and Photoshop asap. I quickly discovered that "designed" material for most people was perfect, but of course they had no intention or interest to pay for it because "That logo will not help me sell more machines." Surprisingly for me, people from the print house also didn’t show much of an interest because they said that they weren’t designers. Once I realized that, I started looking around for some graphic design jobs and quickly found some local guy that was running a successful freelance business and was in a need of some young designer that could help him out with some overload of his work. That’s how everything started for me.

5. What do you find the most exciting part of being a logo designer?

A few important things that make me love my job. Every project is for itself. It is unique, it is fun, it is different and it’s a challenge. Well, almost every one. The fitness related projects - I honestly hate them. Second important thing is that I can brainstorm and sketch whenever I want and wherever I may be at that time when the inspiration strikes, and not being necessarily glued to the chair as is the case with web or brochure design for example. And the last, but not least is the process of simplifying things.. getting rid of the extra stuff. The process of capturing the essence and saying a lot with only simple shapes, symbols, lines.. Getting to that point can be quite long, but an extremely exciting process.

6. You do amazing Photographs! Did that start out as a hobby? What has been the most challenging and most fun photo you have ever taken?
  

Thanks. Yes, a hobby. I really love photography, love being outside and love the post production and unique treatment. I find shooting hi-end fashion, weddings and all those commercial sides of the photography  extremely boring, and since I’m doing something else for a living I’m sure I’ll keep it in that “artistic” direction, for myself, so to speak, even though I do some interesting projects from time to time.

The most challenging photo was definitely shooting a snake in its natural environment. I’ve found one near some river and was shooting it around an hour chasing it over some bushes, etc. I didn’t have an appropriate lense, so I really had to come as close as possible to get that one perfect shot. After an hour I was covered in cold sweat, but I got that one shot. I don’t feel very comfortable in their presence, so that was definitely the most challenging photo so far. The most fun photo.. well probably any photo that asks for a crawling in the public places … bugs, patterns, tiny stuff.

7. Tell us a bit about your logo design process from start to finish. The pre-design, design and post-design.

Well, first I require 50% of upfront payment. Once thats done I collect all the info that clients provide via conversation and/or questionnaire. After that, I print all that out, make some coffee, find a nice, sunny spot somewhere out, go carefully through all of that info, outline the most important stuff, make some mapping and while finishing the coffee think about some rough directions, ideas and eventual styles. The next thing I do is finding more about the competition, target audience, provided references, links, inspiration stuff, etc aka back to the lab. Once I have all that sorted and printed out and laid down in front of me I’m ready to start sketching and actually brainstorming. I’ve made myself dot grid based sketchbook that I always use. Its not fancy as the one over at Behance, but it works for me. Anyway, once I try out enough of  different ideas and directions I start up Illustrator to test and polish some of them out. When I finally have a design that I can put on a white background and just observe and stare at it for hours, I know I have a golden one that I can show to the client.

Same goes for the rest of the concepts, depends on the total amount that has been purchased. I then work on presentation, and usually send them as a separate huge jpg file including lots of different versions to help the client visualize the possibility of a design (high res, smaller version, b&w, grayscale, inverted, icon on its own, favicon, grids, patterns, some shots of the printed stuff, etc) along with my comments about the each concept explaining my thoughts and ideas, although I’d love to send it to them without the explanation as I think that logo really should speak for itself if it’s good enough. Once they have been reviewed, I get the initial feedback and we agree on the final direction, I switch onto the color exploration and the revisions where and if needed. After the final design has been approved I invoice the client for the second time for the rest of the payment and work on the preparation of the final files. I usually send ai, eps, pdf and a hi-res jpg and png for the main logo, both rgb & cmyk, b&w, grayscale and inverted versions along with the used fonts. And finally after that we either proceed with the stationary set or just simply thank each other (thank you, come again). I’ve always been against the ridiculous idea of asking for referrals, but  I’m thinking to include a testimonial request for this last stage. I guess thats the least the client can do if the project goes well.

  
8. When designing for a client, what do you think is the most important thing to keep in mind?
  
The most important thing is probably that you re sure that you are totally up for the project. Meaning that you are ready to give your maximum and full attention to the everything thats been said and written. You have to learn to listen, ask right questions and actually understand the tissue of the problem that you are hired to solve in a first place.

9. What is your favorite logo of all time, designed by another designer?

There are literally tons of  outstanding logos out there. Its hard to pick only one, but what first comes to mind is probably Paradox. I really like the simplicity of it and the strong and clear message that it sends.

 
10. If you were asked to re-do the London 2012 Olympic logo, what would you change about it and how would you style it better?

For such a serious event and for that budget of 400k  I’d make a team of 5, 10, 20 exceptional, probably younger and not so much famous designers to work on the project. Out of such a strong, creative, young and powerful force,  I’m sure the outcome would be quite different. And most likely the comments across the web won’t be so  “mixed” about it.

11. 5 most unusual places you have found inspiration for your logos?
 

There are actually only 4 that I can think off and being sort of unusual, while the 4th one is more of a state, than a place, but I guess it depends on how you look at it.  A toilet – great and sacred place where the inspiration really strikes quite often, thats why I always bring pen & paper with me. A car – the cheaper, slower and uglier car the less you think of how others are admiring you while you are passing by so you can focus more on the creative thoughts and your projects instead. A plane – even though I don’t fly that often, every time I do, the landscapes or clouds create some unusual shapes that I can make some interesting ideas from.Then parties/festivals – really not sure what’s with that and why crazy ideas are happening there. And a bed in a state of hypnagogic and hypnopompic reveries – falling asleep and waking up moments. I really think that we all could benefit from some sort of the camera that can record or just take snaps of our dreams and the mornins hallucinations.

12. What are your favorite websites to visit daily?
 
Logopond, Dribbble, Behance and Facebook. Sometimes even hourly.

13. If you couldn’t be a designer, what would you be?

Definitely a photographer. Animal Planet and National Geographic are the few concepts I really like a lot and would be thrilled if I could travel around the globe and take shots for them. Although thats not really what I  thought that I would be when I was in the 6th grade. I was filling out some lexicon (yeah, I know, but it was popular back then) and under the desirable profession I said a porn star. That answer got me into some trouble after the lexicon got into the teacher’s hands even though the teacher was a female. After that, my own dad called me a "star" for some period of time which was quite weird.

14. What lies in the near future for you career-wise? Give us a sneak peak at something you are working on at the moment?
 

I really wouldn’t know. But I do feel something interesting and exciting. I do believe in mental attraction so I often imagine how some small design studio located in Bali, Seychelles, Maldives or one of those sweet destinations is inviting me to come over and work with them (Australia is an option as well ). I have been working on my own website for quite some time now and I think I’m almost there. Not being a web designer, kinda slows me down, but I know that I have to do it myself instead of giving it to someone else no matter how good that someone is.

15. What words of wisdom would you share with someone reading this interview?

I’d share two quotations that I felt in love with. First one comes from Redman (yeah) and it goes like "Fuck knockin’, kick the door." And the second one comes from Thomas Paine – "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." This might sound harsh or rude, but if you think more about it, its really not. It is the only way to make something happen and make it done right and as quick as possible. In other words, be honest with yourself about what you do. If you are positive about it, step in and push hard. Be courageous and audacious. Be strong and persistent, learn constantly and upgrade yourself, and you’ll get there. If you’re not so sure, try to find someone to follow and learn along the way. But be careful of who you are following as well, because, if the vision is clear, you shouldn’t waste any time.

Thanks!

And once again, I thank you for shedding some light on your amazing work process. Will keep an eye out for all the interesting stuff you keep coming up with. Good luck!

For more on Srdjan Kirtic, follow these links to his presence on various sites on the internet.
Wizemark
Wizemark on Logopond
Wizemark on Dribbble
Twitter @wizemark
Wizemark on Behance
Srdjan Kirtic on Facebook
 

Whenever I have started an online personal project, after the initial research on the viability of my idea, I have always begun with the logo. We all know that a planned, well informed and structured approach to starting a business begins with a unique identity that sets you apart in this brand conscious society where chaos reigns on a regular basis. What happens if you launch a venture with a brilliantly functional website that is well received but has no purposeful identifying mark? How do things work if you’ve got yourself a logo that everyone is talking about but you don’t care very much about having a web presence? Today my question to you is,

"Is A Logo Or Website More Important For Your Business?"

After you have researched and outlined your business model, would a logo or would a website be the next logical step? Why do you think one is more important over the other? Have you ever had to make a choice to pick one over the other? How has it affected you and your business?

I am a logo designer to the core and I would probably brand our holiday activities, certain parts of our home, create logos for our kids and important events and occasions if I am not kept in check. So going by that alone, I would say that a "logo" is more important for a business than its website. Having said that, 10 years ago when we launched a website that grew exponentially over the years, we didn’t give its logo much thought. Despite having no unique identity, the website became extremely popular and generated a lot of interest and a lot of revenue. In retrospect, when I look back at that time now, I wish we had branded it formally and rightfully. It would have been that much more identifiable now.

In my opinion, a logo trumps over a website for any business. When we have a business idea, a brainwave, a startup dream; it is very easy to get carried away and rush things. "Do it before someone else does!" your mind tells you. "Just put a name together, slap on a clipart and get the ball rolling!" it goads you on. "The website is going to cost heaps of money, so better save up on your logo costs because you really shouldn’t be paying to get a logo made or wasting your own time on it!" your brain advises you. So we rush things in our race to get there first, to land that first client, to make that inaugural sale. But in doing so, we are being extremely short sighted. We turn away a long term relationship for a quick one night stand. I have made that very same mistake every single time I launched a website until LBOI happened. Now I truly believe in giving a business the respect it deserves. And I educate my clients on the importance of having a unique identity, tirelessly.

When a child is born, you don’t slap on a designer nappy, put on stylish headgear, call it "B" and shove it in front of the world to announce its arrival. Then why do you do it for your business? The local electrician in our suburb doesn’t have a logo and yet has a booming business. So whats the need? All I can say is that I forget his name and remember the name from the catchy logo of the "other electrician" for whom I search on Google and call every time I have wiring issues.

 Image Courtesy stock.xchng

A while ago I did an article and roundup of Free Logo Fonts and today I am following up on that with a big list of 45 brilliant and gorgeous fonts for all you logo designers and web designers out there. I have tried out a couple of these in my logo projects and I have a special affinity for Lobster by Pablo Impallari and League Gothic. There is a good mix for modern, minimalistic, retro, vintage and traditional logos and layouts. Experimenting and altering them to suit your designs will create any look and feel you are after. The fonts below are all free, some require signing up to get to the download which is a very small price to pay for these little typographic gems. As always, enjoy responsibly!

1 Bullpen Heavy Italic

2 Calluna Regular

3 Circula Medium

4 Darjeeling Ornaments

5 Deftone Stylus

6 Expressway Regular

7 Florin Sans Demo

8 Neuropol X Regular

9 Pirulen Regular

10 Planer

11 Reklame Script

12 St Ryde

13 Deibi V1

14 Code

15 Zag Regular

16 Dekar

17 Lot

18 Piron

19 Typeface Adec

20 Zebra

21 Gabo

22 Quadranta

23 Juice

24 Jura

25 Conqueror

26 League Gothic

27 Nobile

28 Junction

29 Franchise

30 Hattori Hanzo

31 Alte Haas Grotesk

32 Balham

33 Neuton

34 US 101

35 Euro Caps

36 St Marie

37 Goudy Bookletter

38 Ayita Pro

39 Molengo

40 Veggieburger

41 Lobster

42 Adelle

43 Alido

44 Velocette

45 Bebas Neue

46 Itsadzoke

47 Amperzand

48 John Hancock

I must admit, I have an unholy obsession with moleskines. Any blank, inviting piece of stationery that draws you to write, sketch and create and one that is absolutely beautiful to look at in its humble simplicity, ought to be obsessed about. I have a few moleskines, not many, just a few. They seem to have endless pages and last forever. I seem to be draw to the Cahiers more than any other kind. I love their organic brown covers. I do have a hardbound mini moleskine that is red and is quite spunky and handy in my bag. Lately though, I have been drawn to the classic black ones. I have been thinking about creating a moleskine icon set for almost a year, but I also wanted it to be different. So I made one for logo designers, aficionados and addicts. This set is what my ideal Moleskine set for logo designers would look like. I will be releasing one for Illustrators shortly, but for now, enjoy these little books of gold.

 These icons are free for personal and commercial use. They come in 2 sizes each 512px and 256px and are in PNG format. They are free to download, share and use in all your personal and commercial projects. Don’t put a dollar value to them, no resale allowed!

The internet makes the world go around, literally. Because of it, geography is no longer a barrier in commissioning and delivering work created in digital format. Whether it is a website, a logo, a poster or a short film; more and more people are reaching beyond their local confines to seek talent that might have been elusive had technology not evolved so much.

When you are designing a logo and your client is far far away and a meeting is not possible, other means of communications like emails or the good old phone or services like Skype, Google Buzz or MSN Chat come into play. After the initial point of contact and several discussions later, when you are both ready to embark on the project, a questionnaire is the key element that will jump start the task at hand and give the logo process a finite direction.

What Is A Logo Design Questionnaire?

If we look beyond the generic meaning of the word which simply means, a set of questions for someone to answer; in a logo design project, a questionnaire is a designer’s lifeline. It is a document that becomes the client’s written word, a point of reference that the designer keeps revisiting at different stages of the project.

The designer creates a set of questions that he thinks would be useful to him in understanding the client’s frame of mind and preferences. The questions are also a list of tasks that the designer foresees working on during the course of the project. It stresses the importance of including a specific "style", "element" or "feeling" while also outlining areas to be avoided. By developing a questionnaire, the designer is mentally chalking out all the bases that need to be covered. By getting the client to answer the questionnaire, the designer is prompting the client to explore their choices and needs in more detail. For the client, it brings into focus their company’s mission and pinpoints what they are trying to achieve through their company’s brand.

When I embark on a new logo design project, I have 2 lists of questions. One list is the logo questionnaire that I send to my client to be answered by them. The other is a cursory list of questions that I ask myself after receiving the client’s answers. In this set of questions that I pose to myself, I evaluate my understanding of the client’s needs and ask specific steps would I be taking to tackle the brief. It helps me bring the focus of the design process to the very uniqueness of my client’s brand.
 

• Point of reference for the designer and client.
• A mental task list for the designer.
• A specific list of needs and preferences for the client.

Types Of Questionnaires

Most logo designers use a fixed set of questions for their logo design projects. Because each project is different and the brief received from each client is unique, it is sometimes very important to fashion a questionnaire based exclusively on the initial correspondence with the client. These questionnaires are developed based on how the designer perceives the current project.

• Static set of questions for routine projects
• Dynamic list of questions developed for bespoke and more detailed projects.

Questionnaire Presentation

The easiest and most flexible form of questionnaire is an editable document that can be emailed. This is my preferred choice of a questionnaire. I use a .doc file to present my questions to my clients. Once they have downloaded my questionnaire, they can then take their time to answer in detail at their own leisure, saving their thoughts and stowing them away before picking up and continuing. The advantage of this form of communication with the client is that you can tailor different sets of questions and all you would need to do is open up a new .doc file.

A lot of people choose to present their questions on their websites in the form of a "form". Although this does look very stylish and professional, it is hampered by requiring the client to be "online" while answering it and doing it all at once without the option of saving halfway through and continuing again.

• Editable documents that can be emailed.
• Web forms on portfolio sites or third party websites like.

Resources

• What Is A Creative Brief? – Logo Faqs 
• Logo Design Fundamentals Important Questions – Sitepoint
• Logo Design FAQ – The Logo Factory
• Logo And Brand Identity Design Questionnaire – Just Creative Design
• Logo Design Questionnaire – Logoholik
• 20 Questions To Ask Clients Prior To Designing A Logo – The Design Cubicle
• How I Approach Logo Design – Charfish Design
• Corporate Identity Client Questionnaire – Creativebits 

 (There are 8 resource links and not 7 as the title suggests)

In post, content-embedded intelligent advertising. Get noticed where it matters! (Image & Text) Contact LBOI for great rates.

Final Word

Once you go through a few of these questionnaires, you will notice that they are all essentially the same, plus or minus a few questions here and there. It is very important to focus on the right questions to ask. Probably the most important question to ask, a question that features at Number One on my questionnaire is "What is the exact wording that should appear on the logo?". Start with that and build up a list of questions that compliment your work flow while covering all bases and aspects of the logo design process. 12-15 questions if worded correctly, are more than sufficient. Any less and you won’t have all the information you need, any more and you will end up alienating and confusing your client. Remember, answering questionnaires can be tedious and time consuming. The more precise you keep it, the more your client will thank you for it.

I hope you have found this article useful. If you use a questionnaire on your website, please leave a comment and link to it. We would also like to hear from you about what you think is the most "important" question to ask your client before designing a logo and what is the ideal length of a logo design questionnaire.

Note : Image courtesy of Shutterstock.