Hey buddies, in this entry I´m going to explain the different steps I use to create an illustrative logotype, from the first sketch to the final outcome.

Here I´m sharing some of my most hidden secrets

Brief of the project

Frangola is a small company located in Angola, which sells fried chicken. They found me through a design agency who made the briefing of the project and subsequent applications of the design.

The client wanted an illustrative logotype with integrated mascot. On one hand, he wanted to cause graphic impact when printing in very big sizes, on the other hand, it had to be readable in small sizes. Later we´ll see the different versions I designed to work this out.

The design had to transmit freshness,confidence, optimism, health, flavour, quality.

The sketch

To transmit the mentioned values I chose this typography named Dholphins, a good choice?.

The instructions were quite simple. The client wanted to incorporate the character popping out of a circle, in a confident attitude, showing that their chicken is the number one. I offered various compositions, using this character I designed some time ago as reference.

My idea was to design a logotype that was easy to simplify. In small sizes, we could supress the illustration and keep just the brand. We´re taking this point again later.

Drawing the character

The client described the character as a hen with the next attributes:

• Tasty
• Fleshy
• Fresh
• With bright eyes
• With confidence
• Showing to be the number one
• With a feminine touch

The client´s corrections (just once, and not to be taken as a precedent ) really improved the final design. The character gained some weight, we softed the lines to make the plumage smoother. We also gave it some volume and increased the curvature of the back to make the action line more pronounced. This way we get a more interesting pose.

Pay attention to the change in the action line, the second pose works better.

Designing the final logotype

After some correctiones here we have the final sketch. Notice that we curved the brand a bit to give it more dynamism. We also changed the position of the character´s hand, the client chose this gesture among other five ones.

Let´s focus first on the brand, it has to work independently from the illustration. We´ll integrate the character later.

About the fire, I though warm colors would fit, so I picked yellow and brown.

When you´re designing an illustrative logotype, you must choose the colors carefully. The logotype has to be readable as well as nice. I suggest this test to check it:

Desaturating the image will be enough. If the brand is still readable, that means we made a good choice with the colors. As you can see, in the image on the left there´s not enough contrast between the yellow and the brown background, whereas in the image on the right, the contrast is correct.

Coloring the character

I used Photoshop for the color, as I usually do. The most difficult part was to paint the plumage, I painted it all in just one tone, and then I added different shades. If you want to learn more about this technique, you can watch this video.

Here you can see the evolution of the character.

• Advise 1: add plenty of layers. I started the plumage with a nearly-monochromatic shading, and then I added more layers with different shades.
• Advise 2: use the different fusion modes with the layers, this way you´re adding volume. "Screen" mode is good to lighten areas, while "Multiply" mode is good to darken areas.
• Advise 3: if you want the illustration to look "alive", paint the lines.
• Advise 4: when you´re finished, flat the layers and use "Dodge Tool" to merge tones and emphasize some areas.

Integrating the character with the logotype

On one hand we have the brand, on the other hand we have the character. Now let´s integrate them both.

Summary

Remember: One of our goals was to design an eye-catching logo to print in big sizes, but we also needed a simplified version to print in small sizes, which still had to be fully readable.

So we designed different versions of the logotype:

1. Full color brand in detail
2. Brand in 1 and 2 colors, without detail
3. Full color character and black&white
4. Full color brand + character and black&white.

Final outcome

As good designers we are, we must pay attention to the presentation of our final work

If you have any contributions, criticism or questions, please comment. I´ll reply as soon as possible.

See you soon!!!

As you know, it´s been a while since I don´t post new content, although I keep adding functionalities and answering all the questions you people ask in the comments, email or social networks. I´m going to change my perspective, let´s see some novelties I´m planning

Priorities

The main priority is my job as freelance designer from SOSFactory, for obvious reasons.

My second priority is to consolidate a social network to disseminate my content more effectively. For the time being:

• Deviantart: +2000 watchers
• Youtube: +1000 subscriptors
• Twitter: 355 followers by now
• Facebook: + 200 fans in just a pair of weeks
• RSS: about 300 subscriptors
• TOTAL: near 4000 users, making a traffic of 100.000 visits a month in the whole SOSFactory (blog and portfolio)

The next priority is the redesign of SOSFactory. The design is quite advanced and I´m working on the content now.

The blog is not a priority by now, although I keep working on it.

Quality

There won´t be any “padding posts” (I mean, posts of lists, compilations, interviews or not very important reviews…). Useful articles and tutorials only.

The main blogs of this sector usually release new content every two or three days since they have editors working full time and guest writers previous payment. For a freelance designer, it´s impossible to post that often, I would have to lower the quality of my content… And we don’t want that, do we?

Frequency

I´ll post when I have something to say and when I can spend the required time to say it properly.

I´m seriously wondering whether to remove the date of the posts or not. That´s because the blog looks as it was abandoned when it is not. Moreover, current and high quality content, will keep being useful for a long time (see next point).

Re-editions

When some post becomes obsolete, it will be updated, deleted or you will be redirected to the updated post.

Financing

I´d like to create a blog for users, financed thanks to them. If possible, I´d remove the few ads we have on the web now.

Don´t worry! Most of the content will be free, but there will be downloads, high-res videos and Photoshop files that will require some payment.

Please understand that creating good quality content demands lots and lots of time. And this investment must give some return, otherwise it would fade away.

Language

The blog continues being bilingual (English-Spanish) when it comes to its content.

I´ve noticed that most of the comments are in Spanish, this is not good for other users from the rest of the world.
I would appreciate if every user with a decent English level would help me with this task.

Of course, every proposals and contributions are welcome!

Hey guys, this post is an addition to The longest Photoshop coloring tutorial, I posted a video in which you could see how I use the History Brush when I use color, but it didn’t seem too clear, so before we go on with the tutorial I will explain in detail what the history brush is, how it works and what applications it can have.

What is the History Brush?

The History Brush is a Photoshop tool used to “travel through time” to any event reflected on the History palette. At first it is hard to understand, but as we go further we will see a few examples that you will be able to perfectly understand.

How does the History Brush work?

Before we understand what the History Brush is, we have to understand the concept of History: every action we take in Photoshop is registered in the History panel as an event, being the top ones, the oldest. We can freely go back in history, something very useful to fix mistakes.

At the left of each event is a square, and in one of these squares there is an icon of a brush (on the original snapshot by default) that we can keep changing from location. This square is the one that sets the origin, the source of the History Brush.

If we mark a particular event as source and then we make changes to the canvas, with the History Brush we can “paint some areas of the canvas to make them go back in time” up to its original state or source. It would be like going back on the History panel, only that the changes don’t affect the whole canvas, only the area we have painted with the History Brush.

What use can I give to the History Brush?

The History Brush is a very powerful tool, you can give it unlimited uses; right on top of my head I can think of 3:

Example 1: suppose we have a color picture of a subject with a background and we want to leave the background black and white. We can desaturate the image and then with the History Brush we can put some of its previous stage back, I mean some color.

If we mark the event Desaturate as source and we paint with the History Brush again, the result will be that we are going to return the image back to black and white … we can do it at any stage in history.

Example 2: suppose that after painting a character I decide to make several tests. It happens that I like the head on the first test, the body on the second and the feet on the third. With the History Brush I could merge all the variants quickly and easily (although with some limitations that we will see later on).

Just take snapshots of every version and use the History Brush to join the parts you like from each version. Remember the History Brush works just by individual layers (see limitations below).

Example 3: I can use the History Brush as a selective eraser. I can erase part of a gradient or stroke, having the rest of the gradients and strokes frozen. Here is when we will connect with The longest Photoshop coloring tutorial.

Now I believe you have an idea of how powerful this tool is

Why is my History Brush not working?

This is one of the most frequent questions; the History Brush is a powerful tool that has its own rules:

1. It works on individual layers. If you want to make changes to several layers, either you do it one by one or you have to flatten the layers.
2. It works on existing layers on both sides of history (the event we marked as source and the current event). This means that if we mark an event and then we flatten it, erase it or if we create another layer, then the History Brush will not work on the affected layers.
3. The History stores a limited number of events, it may happen that you want to go back to a very old event and you find it is not there any longer (though the source event is always kept). This can be solved by creating a snapshot every once in a while. From the Photoshop’s preferences (Edit > Preferences > Performance) panel you can also increment the number of events stored, although it will use more resources.
4. It works both to go back to the past and to move to the future. Imagine that you make 10 strokes, you can go back to stroke 5 from history and mark stroke 10 as source, we would be moving to the “future”.

What is the Artistic History Brush?

It is a variant (less useful) of the History Brush, the concept is basically the same, only the result is artistic. It is useful in very particular cases in which we need some kind of texture, for example to paint clouds or give a painting finish to a photograph, or specific areas of a photograph.

I can´t figure any effective use, it just works fine if you need certain effects.

Let´s see if you got it !!!

If after reading this post and seeing the video again you can´t still figure the technique I use to paint complex gradients, don´t worry, within the next days I will go ahead with The longest Photoshop coloring tutorial and I will explain the proccess in detail.

Remember tweating and spreading the post if you found it useful.
See you soon!!

Hey buddies, I’m finally back from my “holidays” (they weren’t holidays really, I spent this time to move to Berlin). I’m already settled and ready to go on with the blog.

Today we have a post with some questions from the blog users: about copyright, confidentiality, how to improve our drawing skills and how to learn to design web pages.

So let´s go!

I’m in a rap band and I’ve designed a logo for it. And my doubt is whether I should register my design or not, just in case I could have any problems in the future.

Law (in Spain) protects the artwork since its creation. Registry is not necessary, although it’s good evidence that you’re the author of the artwork.

The best choice would be to go to a copyright registry office, as far as I know it’s not very expensive.
But be careful, registering the design and registering the brand is not the same, the registry of a brand is much more expensive. Moreover, the name could be already registered, or be very similar to some registered brand in the same sector.

There are some companies dedicated to advise their clients in this area, although you probably don’t need them by now.

My client ask me to sign a NDA (non-disclosure agreement). It´s fair? Do you have any contract you can share?

I state in my terms of service page I don’t offer confidentiality by default (5th point) since my portfolio is my only marketing tool to promote my services. If somebdoy ask me to sign a NDA I charge a fee, it varies from 0-100% the standard quote depending on my workload, if I’m extremely busy I charge 100%, if I have no work in that moment I negotiate with the client and I even could accept it with no extra charge.

The client should ask the NDA upfront since the quote can vary, but sometimes he does when the order is already finished, then I just redirect him to my terms of service page. I always charge 50% of the order upfront, so the client has 3 choices:

1. He pays the fee: I sign the NDA and deliver the files.
2. He doesn’t pay the fee but he pays the remaining payment: I don´t sign the NDA but I deliver the designs.
3. He doesn’t pay the fee and doesn´t pay the remaining payment: I warm him he would loses the design and the down payment, I keep the files to sell it as stock images or for personal projects, I never resell the designs as custom work.

This is not set in stone, if he’s a good client and he’s easy going you can make exceptions, but you need to cover yourself for worst case scenario.

A confidentiality contract and a copyright transfer, are they both the same thing?

No, they aren’t, a NDA is a document for confidentiality while a transfer of rights contract is a document where you agree it´s a work by hire and the client owns all rights about your designs, though a contract can include both of them.

While I don´t offer confidentiality by default, I always transfer all rights to the client, whenever a client ask a contract I provide it.

You can download some contracts here.

How can I learn to give expression to my characters? I usually draw them all with a psychopath face.

I’m afraid there are no magic tricks to improve your drawing skills, just practice, lots of practice… and lots of observation.

I have a file of facial and corporal expressions, and photographs and images from other artists as well. At first I used to copy a lot, with some time you’ll create your own style.

My advice is to search different sources so your style can be as rich as possible.

I’ve read your tutorial about creating a web page. It has made some things clear for me but, how did you begin? Did you use any tutorial in particular?

I’m afraid it’s not that easy, but you can make it with some patience.

1. Create a portfolio in some online community, Deviantart for example. This way you have something to show and you can make yourself a name. Besides, there is an area to create a portfolio independent from the community. It’s not perfect but suitable for a start.
2. Learn to use Dreamweaver, it’s a good program, very easy to use and you can design web pages visually. It’s not the ideal but a good training for the next step.
3. When you’ve get to have a good command of Dreamweaver, you’ll have basics of HTML. Try to improve and understand the meaning of each tag. You can continue using Dreamweaver or just the Notepad.
4. Learn CSS to separate content from presentation. It’s a simple language, the main inconvenience is to manage to make your web look the same in the different browsers (cross browsing).
5. Learn about usability, study the trends and practise a lot.
6. The next step would be to study PHP and MYSQL to add functionality to your web.
7. If you want to go further, you can learn Rubi, Ajax, Javascript…

If you enjoyed this post, please tweet it!!!

Hello buddies, time for a very special tutorial, I will try to write the more detailed tutorial you have ever seen about how to color in Photoshop, SOSFactory color style. I will post the tutorial by issues, every issue will have his own video on real time from my Youtube channel, voice courtesy of Anita Nagu (since my English is quite poor), when we are finish I will offer a pack:

• The full tutorial in PDF format.
• A video compilation in high resolution and comments in English and Spanish.
• The high res PSD file under creative commons license (for personal and commercial use).
• The PSD layered for your own research.
• And the color swatches, some Photoshop action…

I think 5-10US$ for the whole pack would be a fair price… what do you think? think running a blog like this is not for free, and I need to spend lot of time and energie. Would be a nice way of support, so I can continue offering good quality content.

INDEX

• Day 1: download the lineart and let´s get started
• Day 2: extracting the lineart
• Day 3: making the flat colors template
• Day 4: painting basic areas
• Day 5: painting complex areas: the history brush

Day 1: Download the lineart and let´s get started

Some of you already did a try on the lineart, I suggest you color it again following this tutorial, would be nice seeing how you improve your coloring skills. If you didn´t try yet, you can download the lineart here:

So we are ready to start!
See you in a couple days, stay tunned and don´t forget tweeting the post if you like it.

Day 2: Extracting the lineart

The best method to color a drawing is by extracting the lines, because we will have the possibility of coloring them later very easily. Download the drawing, open it with Photoshop and follow these steps:

1. Open your image with Photoshop.
2. Go to the Channels panel and CTRL+click on the blue channel.
3. Select the Magic Wand (W) and right click, choose Select Inverse.
4. Go to Edit > Copy (CTRL+C) and then Edit > Paste (CTRL+V). The lines are already separated from the background.
5. On the "Background" layer, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (CTRL+U) and put the lighting at +100 to obtain a completely white layer.
6. Rename the new layer to "Lineart" and CTRL+U again, this time put the lighting at -100 to obtain completely black lines.

As you can see, the drawing is ultra-clean because I drew it digitally. In this tutorial we will only focus on the color, so if you´re interested in obtaining clean lines you can visit this post to learn how to ink a drawing in Photoshop.

Some advices to get clean lines:

• The best way to ink is digitally, wether it be with a pen tablet or with the vectorial drawing tools.
• Always work in high resolution, the higher the better. Make sure at least about 2.500 x 2.500 pixels.
• If you decide to work from a drawing on traditional paper, scan it in grey scale mode or convert it to grey scale in Photoshop before extracting the lines.
• Have a look to this post about How to ink a drawing in Photoshop.

Resume of the day

See you soon!!

Day 3: Making the flat colors template

Let’s create a new layer between the "Background" layer and the "Lineart" layer, and name it "Flat colors". Through this flat colors layer we can:

1. Choose our colors template.
2. Isolate the different areas to make quick selections with the magic wand (W).

The quicker way to paint our flat colors is making a selection of the area, using the Magic Wand (W) in question the "Lineart" layer (this one of the advantages of having such a clean lines). After this, expand the selection so the edges don’t look jagged (Select > Modify > Expand: 3px). Now choose the colour you like and click with the paint bucket (G) on the "Flat colors" layer:

Some advises to make a good flat colors template:

• Although you’re always in time to make changes, visualize the finished design and try to define your color sketch.
• Use medium colors, neither too saturated/desaturated, nor too bright/dark.
• Rename the layer as "Flat colors".
• Lock the pixels of the image in the "Flat colors" layer, this way you won’t paint on it by accident.

Resume of the day

Today we made a flat colors template to make quick selections and increase the workflow. And we decided our color sketch too.

See you in a couple of days!!

Day 4: painting basic areas.

Finally, our design is ready to color

Let’s begin with something easy like the eyes to explain the technique, and as we go forward the tutorial will become more complex. Considering that many people don’t own a Wacom tablet, today I’ll use the mouse, the vectorial drawing tools and gradients. You’ll see the result is the same, but we’ll have to invest more time. The rest of the days I’ll use my Wacom to go faster, if you need any help you can check this post about how to draw using vectorial drawing tools in Photoshop.

First of all, let me explain a piece of theory. You’ll find this very useful when it comes to apply a correct lighting:

As you can see in the image, I placed the source of light above and slightly on the left. This means that the illuminated areas will be on top and the shadows below. On the shadows, we’re adding some reflections to give volume. We’re not looking for a realist finish, but it must be coherent.

Step 1: shadows.

Let’s create a new group of layers. Name it "Eyes" and create a new layer inside it, on which we’re painting the shadows. Name it "Shadows" and put it in Multiply blend mode.

Now make a selection of the eyes using the Magic Wand (W) on our Flat Colors layer, then let’s go back to the "Shadows" layer and paint an outline with the same blue color of the background (#92b6e6). Looks darker because the layer is in Multiply mode. As we said, the light comes from above, so the shadows will be thicker below.

TIP: the dotted lines of the selections can be bothering sometimes. You can hide them pressing CTRL+H.

Now we’re going to soften the outline we created. Let’s use a thick brush with soft edges. The key is to paint from a distance, to make the outline blur but not to dissapear. Once you’re finished, put the layer in Normal mode again.

Eyes are easy to make because their shape is quite simple. Unfortunately, the whole process is not that easy, we must learn how to use the History Brush for more complex shapes (we’ll talk about this next day).

Step 2: light.

Let’s create a new layer under the "Shadows" layer, and name it "Lightness". On this layer we’re creating a gradient from white to transparent, from above on the left until below on the right. The key is to make this sofly, not covering in white the whole eye.

Step 3: reflected light.

Now we’re creating reflections to give volume to the eye. Create a new layer and name it "Reflected light". Make a white outline that doesn’t cover the whole shadow area. Then merge the inner outline, this time using the Eraser (E). Be careful not to erase it completely, we only want to make it a bit transparent.

Step 4: painting pupils.

To paint the character’s pupils we’re creating a new group of layers named "Pupils"above the "Lineart" layer.

We’re painting the pupils through 3 layers as we can see in the image:

• Image 1: layer we’re naming "Glow", we create a slightly oval circle and apply gradient from white to transparent. Try to leave the oval with some transparency instead of fully white.
• Image 2: create a new layer and name it "Glow 2", do a circular gradient with blue colour (#10a4fa), and put the layer in Linear Dodge mode.
• Image 3: create a new layer we’re naming "Pupil", and paint something similar to the image with the same blue.
• FINAL Image: this is what we get when we activate the 3 layers.

Step 6: coloring the lines.

Finally, we create a layer above the "Lineart" layer, and name it "Color hold", we’ll use this layer to color the lines.

CTRL+Click on the icon of the "Lineart" layer to make a selection of the lines, and go to the "Color hold" layer. Choose a slightly darker blue color (#223171) than the one we used for the eyeballs, this way we make the line merge with the design, but it’s still recognizable.

Summary of the day

Today we painted a simple shape, like the eyes of our character. Next day we’re painting the teeth, which is more complex, so we’ll have to learn how to use the history brush.

I see you in a couple of days!!!

Day 5: painting complex areas: the history brush.

Hello guys, tomorrow I´m flying to Berlin and I´m going to take several days off but before I leave I would like to post the last video of The World´s most detailed Photoshop coloring tutorial.

For now there is no tutorial just the video where you can see how I color more complex areas thanks to our buddy the History Brush, I put lot of care so hopefully you will understand how the History Brush works by yourself, anyway I will post the tutorial whithin the next days, until then, enjoy the video.

See you soon!!

Time for another exercise, this time let´s practice our digital color in Photoshop over a profesional lineart made by SOSFactory. If you do a try, please email me a JPG of your final image, if you are interested I could post your image here and give you some tips to improve your coloring skills.

Here you can dowload the high res lineart in Photoshop format of the character:

In the next days I will offer the final PSD file layered for free download, so you can do some research to know how I did it or you can use it in your designs.

Entries

Some supporting tutorials

Mascot design in Photoshop tutorial for Smashing Magazine

Character design Photoshop tutorial for PSDTuts

Character design Photoshop tutorial for PSDTuts (need paid subscription)

Vectorial illustration with Illustrator

Hello buddies, at last Friday!! I´m getting ready for my monthly flight to Berlin but before I leave I want to share some pics. I just finished a project I was working on lately, this time I did a ton of character design for a non released yet dating site.

Here you have several of them, I hope you like it

Have a good weekend!!!
On next week I have scheduled a new tutorial.

Mascot design for webs is one of my specialties, in the last few years I’ve been designing dozens of corporative characters for webs. Clients are usually very satisfied with the design, but they don’t know how to make the most out of it.

Sometimes they have to use them at very small sizes, sometimes they are not well fitted in the context, very often they modify the design with disastrous results, usually they are too agressive with the compression of the image… and in many cases they don’t make a real usage of the designs.

Points you should have in consideration to make the most out of your mascot design.

• First of all, consider if you really need a mascot design. Is it adecuate for your public objective?
• Program your web in order to make the most out of your character design.
• Remember: the bigger you show the illustration (within reasonable limits) the nicer it will look.
• Leave margins around the illustration, let the design breathe.
• Make the mascot interact with the rest of the web, be creative.
• Apply your corporative colors to your mascot.
• Design a versatile mascot, this way you can use it for banners, avatars, T-shirts, or your "about" page.
• Choose a concept that matches your corporative values.
• Optimize the weight of the illustration, save it as JPG at 60%.
• If you have to make later modifications, ask the author of the design.
• Order your designs in high resolution (till 7000x7000px) or in vectorial format. This way you can print any size you need.
• Watch if your design fits the basic principles when it comes to design a mascot.

Characteristics of a good mascot design

• Memorable, it must cause impact.
• Easy to remember, it must remain etched in the memory of the observer.
• It must be unique, and easy to discriminate from the competitors
• Attractive, the character must be attractive for our target public.
• Iconic, the character must represent the corporative values of the brand.
• Functional, it must work in banners, in the headline of the web, in the logo.

Effective ways to integrate the designs of the characters in the web.

The use of the mascot integrated in the logotype is the most common way to integrate the character. This way we associate the character with the brand, it´s one of the most effective ways to use a mascot.

We can integrate the mascot very effectively by using it as an icon or integrating it in the buttons. We can use it in the "over" state of our buttons and animate it in Flash:

One of the most effective ways consists of using the illustration all the wide of the web. You sacrifice a lot of space but you get a great visual impact. John Cow‘s web was a good example of this, too bad they are reducing more and more the size of the illustration instead of optimizing the remaining space.

We don’t really need to use the mascot in the headline of the web, we can use it to highlight certain elements of the design:

To finish, some banners with character designs:

PayPal is the standard online payment system for both selling and buying. It is very convenient, instantaneous and secure, that’s why it is expensive.

It can cost us up to 3.4% out of the money we receive depending on the country where you live, plus a 2.5% to convert the money to your local currency, so you might end up paying 600US$ for every 10.000US$ you get.

Pieces of advice to save money with PayPal

• Use a personal account instead of a professional one; they don’t have fees, but they have lots of limitations when it comes to move the money.
• Withdraw your money when the US$ is strong.
• Send your payments as a personal transaction instead of doing it as a purchase; you will pay a few cents, but the recipient will not pay anything.
• Send your payments using the mass pay option; you will pay up to 1US$ tops, but the recipient will get it for free.
• Use the cheapest online banking (see below).
• Check your monthly volume to access better fees:

Money Bookers

Advantages:

• It reaches some countries that PayPal doesn’t.
• It is very inexpensive:
  • Send money costs a maximum of 0.75US$.
  • Receiving money is free.
  • Withdrawing money costs a maximum of 5.24US$.
  • The money conversion into your local currency costs 2%.

Disadvantages:

• It is not well known, needless to say that imposing an unknown form of payment to your customers is like giving them a good reason to hire someone else, to delay the order or to never call us again.
• They say they offer support in almost any language, but it is limited to their web, customer support uses English only.

Epassporte

Advantages:

• They offer you a virtual Visa credit card (to be used online only) for free.
• It is pretty know for transactions with adult content.
• It is very inexpensive:
  • To send money costs between 0.3 -1 US$ per transaction.
  • Receiving money is free.
  • Withdrawing money costs 3US$ for US residents and 50US$ for Europeans.

Disadvantages:

• This system is not well known.
• Their website is very confusing and difficult to navigate.
• Their customer service is bad.
• To transfer your money to European accounts you have to pay 50US$, also you have to request the transfer to be done in your name, which often takes a long time (last time it took a month).

Western Union

Advantages:

• It is less expensive than PayPal.
• It reaches lots of countries in which PayPal doesn’t.

Disadvantages:

• It is not as instantaneous as the rest of the online forms of payment.
• It is more expensive than Money Bookers and Epassporte.
• You have to personally go to their offices, wait in line and fill out forms. We have the online option, but it is a lot more expensive.

Fighting the US$ devaluation

Workers outside the United States have an additional problem that is the devaluation of the dollar, currency in which most online transactions are done.

The ideal would be to be able to withdraw our US$ from PayPal, Money Bookers or any other system you use, into a local bank account and wait until it revaluates. That way we have our money secure and in hand in case we need it, but I’m afraid it doesn’t matter which system you use; you will not be able to withdraw your money in a currency other than your country’s currency.

So, either you:

• Spend your US$ in US shops.
• Keep your US$ in your virtual bank until the US$ revaluates, which might take months, even years.
• Withdraw your US$ into your local bank, subsequently loosing money.
• Create a new bank account in the USA, where you will transfer your US$, which is not very practical and might not even be possible.

None of these alternatives are good, but we have another option which we’ll see next.

Multicurrency Bank Accounts

The only way to keep your US$ in a bank account outside the USA is by opening a multicurrency account in our local bank. Actually, it is two linked bank accounts, one in US$ and the other one in your country’s currency, and they work like any other bank account.

Advantages

• They are usually very inexpensive, they only charge a fee to receive the money, which usually is less than 10US$ (check with your local bank).
• You have the security and all the guarantees of having the money in a local bank.
• You can keep your US dollars until they revaluate.
• You can instantaneously convert them to Euros whenever you need them.

Disadvantages:

• International transfers may take 3 – 4 days.
• You need much more information to be able to make a transfer.

Conclusion

The best you can do is to get familiar with each one of the payment systems mentioned above, and offer several options to your customers, organized by preference; in my case it would be like this:

• My first option would be a transfer in US$ to my multicurrency bank account.
• If the customer is in a hurry or the amount is very small, I would offer the Money Bookers option.
• In case that the customer doesn’t have an account with Money Bookers and if I see that the order could be in danger, then I would offer PayPal.
• In case that PayPal is not available in their country, I would use Western Union.
• I would only use Epassporte to receive payments from work with adult content.

Theory says that a good logotype must be simple, clean, economical, versatile, etc, etc. This is a very pertinent principle but, is it still valid?

In my opinion, it is partially obsolete. The advance of impression techniques, the evolution of the consumers overburdened with publicity and the evolution of the mass media (Internet, Television, mobile phones, videogames industry…), have released the designers from many restrictions.

Don´t decorate, comunicate

The principle "don´t decorate, communicate" means that we must put the message itself before its aesthetic aspects, although we mustn´t leave them aside. I think this would be a more loyal version to its spirit: "Communicate first, then decorate", which is what it really means.

Applying this principle to corporative design we would have two opposite sides (using my own terminology):

• The ones who follow the principle of simplicity: text logos (Paypal), initials based logos (IBM), logos with graphic elements, iconic logos…
• The ones who don´t follow it: illustrative logos, the ones I like to design.

The art of decorating

If you know my work in SOSFactory, surely you already know I take this stream to the end. My logotypes have gradients, many colors, illustrative elements, sometimes even complex characters. I usually design for a web, so I have much more freedom to create. On the other side, my logotypes are not so versatile, although as we´ll see later, this problem can be solved adapting the logo to the other media.

Pros of illustrative logos

1. They cause more visual impact in big sizes.
2. More differentiation, they are more difficult to imitate or to mistake with other brands.
3. More effective for a certain type of consumer (children, for example), industry (videogames, clothing) or media (internet)
4. The "absorption" of the logo by the consumer is slower but more durable.
5. It´s easier to sell merchandising with our logo.
6. It creates a dependence relationship between the designer and the brand (this is "good" for the designer).

Cons of illustrative logos

1. They are less effective in small sizes or at far distances.
2. More cost of production (though printing is more and more cheap).
3. More time needed to identify the brand.
4. More difficult to copyright as a brand.
5. Redesigning is more expensive
6. It creates a dependence relationship between the designer and the brand (bad for the brand).
7. They are hard to identify on small promotional items, such as pens.

The adaptation to the media

We can solve most of these negative aspects by adapting the illustrative logo to the different media and sizes. Obviously, this requires more time, which means a bigger inversion

This way, on one side we have an illustrative version to use it on the screen, where the size of the application is usually bigger (web, tv, mobile phones) and on the other we have a simpler adaptation for possible printed applications, or for the use in smaller sizes.

A good corporative kit would include:

• Bitmap versions in JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, PSD formats, and vectorial files AI, EPS.
• Versions of the logotype in high and low resolution.
• Versions of the logotype in RBG and CMYK.
• Adaptations of the logotype with and without illustrative elements.
• Adaptation of the logo, to 1, 2 and 3 colors, full color and grey scale.
• Adaptation of the logo on dark background and light background.

Different adaptations of the same logotype: full color, 1 color, 3 colors and grey scale.