What I’ve often done for clients is set up a ‘base stock’ or ‘shell’ for their certificates, which is offset printed in spot colours or cmyk or even embossed, stamped or foiled. This can be printed in a large quantity as long as you leave out the individual details such as a person’s name and date of the certificate. Then you keep these in stock for use when you wish to overprint individual details onto this base stock.

These days just about everyone has a little black and white A4 printer at work, ideally a laser printer would be best. Then as long as your certificates are A4 size you can overprint the name and date yourself in position on the base stock, and it still looks totally professional and of great quality.

The alternative is to get each certificate printed as a whole, individually with a digital printer. The cost of this can add up to be more expensive though as a whole, if you have a large and ongoing quantity.

For most logos you need to use vector art format, in a program such as illustrator, so that the logo can be utilized at any size and in any format. With websites they use a fixed pixel size and there is no need to worry too much about using vector art. You can go wild in photoshop if you wish and use photos and other images to incorporate into the logo.

In this case he already had a basic website template already designed, so I had to do something to fit in with that style and colour scheme. As per usual I did up a few design options for the client to choose from. He really wanted to feature the BLW initials so I took that into consideration too.

Once the logo design was finalized I needed to find out the exact pixel dimensions of the allocated space for the logo in the header and create a photoshop file in those dimensions. With websites you also need to be wary of how large the file is. The smaller the file the faster it can load the page. This is quite the opposite to print, as in print you need high resolution for better print quality and higher resolution equals a larger file size. 

Of course many times when you create a logo you will design it in Illustrator and then resave it in various formats so that it can be used in both print and web.

Best Looking Websites built my website for me based on the photoshop design layouts I provided. I’d recommend them as they offer some great prices and service.

A new client called me a couple of weeks ago saying he had his logo and all of his stationery designed by two different designers and just still wasn’t happy with any of it. What did I think of the work they had done and more importantly, could I help?

Most recently he had tried out a new designer who had approached him several times for a chance to do some work for him, so he thought he’d give the guy a try. He charged by the hour and spent 20 hours to get to a stage where he had one logo design they were willing to accept. It didn’t sound like he’d offered them other options either, just the one design. The designer then set up some business cards and letterheads etc with the new logo. But ultimately my client wasn’t happy with any of it.

I had a look at the designs that had been completed and while I thought they were passable they certainly weren’t outstandingly good. I definitely knew I could do better and there wasn’t much point in trying to salvage what he had done so far. It really called for a re-design.

I offered the client a set price for a new logo design rather than charging by the hour and said that I would give him at least 3 logo design options up front to choose from and would allow him to make as many modifications as he liked without any additional cost. Once he was happy with the logo design I would then proceed to design all his stationery to suit.

I needed to ascertain what sort of logo he was after. He was pleased to discover I had a questionnaire designed to gain a much better understanding of the type of logo design the client would find suitable for his business. 

Based on his directions and the type of feel he was after I created 3 different options and sent them through to him. Waiting for the response can often make you a little anxious after all the hard work you put in to a design. You never know for sure how a client might respond. Design is such a personal thing.

“They are fantastic! Very hard to choose between them.” was my emailed response. 

He did choose his favourite and I set up some business cards using the new logo next.

“We love it, and we are not that easy to please.”

So a successful business image was achieved for his company, one that he and his partner were much happier with. I suppose the moral of the story has to be that you need to ask the right questions to find out what a client really wants. After a while as a designer you start to get a feel about the right direction to go in after talking to a client. It becomes instinctive.