Alex Aperios is a brand and website designer at Aperios Design Ltd, a design studio based in London, England.
Alex helps brands and small businesses get results from crafting unique and innovative designs backed by over a decade of industry experience. He has worked with fashion, film production and tech start-ups to establish themselves as industry leaders through his ability to make sure his clients’ needs are met.
Alex has worked in the industry for over ten years working for large agencies and well-known brands honing his craft which has allowed him to build a following on most social channels.
The Logo Creative – Hi Alex, I really like your work and it’s a pleasure to feature you in our designer interviews.
Alex Aperios – Hi Andrew, Thanks it sounds great! Thanks for including me.
The Logo Creative – What was the turning point in your life when you decided to become a designer and how did you proceed?
Alex Aperios – I’ve spent a lot of my life skating and as a skater you tend to get influenced by a certain style of fashion, music and brands. When aggressive inline skating was at its peak, brands like Midgame, Second regime, rollerblade to name a few, took my interest in design. I always looked at the graphics and style of logos and wondered how the company made them.
When you are part of a skate culture you learn to be creative in the weirdest of ways. When most people see a park bench, I see endless possibility to be creative on my skates.
I started drawing in school at this point, cutting out magazines and making collages of inspirational skaters and designs. it was at this point I knew I needed to do something creative.
I wanted to make memorable brands for people in cool industries. So I enrolled in a graphic design course at college after an open day and that is essentially where my love for graphic design began.
So I guess you can say I can thank skating for giving me the inspiration to create. Although I’m getting old I still get down to a local skatepark and shred lol.
The Logo Creative – What does your day consist of?
Alex Aperios – It’s pretty straight forward now because of covid. But it begins with a Tea/ Coffee, breakfast. Some industry reading and generally seeing what is going on with my social accounts.
I then begin work at around 9am which I start to attack my list of client work. I generally have lunch at around 1pm and I like to jump on some personal projects at this hour and reply to client emails.
The second part of my day consists of more client work until around 5pm and then I get in and hour of gym or hit training. Got to keep that body lean and mean right? The last part of my day consists of some fun personal projects, some daily planning and then playstation or Netflix. I then go to sleep around 11:30pm
The Logo Creative – Are you a morning person or night owl and is there a reason why?
Alex Aperios – Definitely and evening. I love sleeping in too much.
The Logo Creative – What was the first logo you ever designed?
Alex Aperios – My first logo was for a dog food kibble brand. This was about a decade a go so there’s no trace of it but I don’t remember it had drop shadows lol. Remember the drop shadows? Yeah that was a thing!
The Logo Creative – What is your favourite logo you have designed?
Alex Aperios – Tough question because I like quite a few but I think the most substantial logo will be the Taur logo. Having a logo on a piece of tech has been a dream of mine.
The Logo Creative – What’s the best logo you’ve designed that the clients DIDN’T go for?
Alex Aperios – To be honest, this rarely happens. I have been incredibly lucky and agree with most of my clients choices. Probably a boring answer but I always supply good solutions so they always pick what I’d be happy with.
The Logo Creative – What is your favourite logos of all time?
Alex Aperios – I’m a huge fan of all the logos created by Saul Bass. The V&A logo by Alan Fletcher and Cobra dogs by Aaron Draplin.
The Logo Creative – Can you describe or give us an overview of your logo design process?
Alex Aperios – It all starts with a discovery meeting, finding out about the clients wants and needs and what they plan for their company.
This then helps me get a detailed brief about the project. Once I have aligned myself with their goals it’s onto the research stage.
Research includes finding out about their competitors, their client base and customers.
I then move onto create a moodboard of logos, colours, images and anything I think that could influence a specific style. This generally helps me understand what the client likes before I start to design. This eliminates ideas that won’t work making the whole process so much smoother.
We would have agreed at the start how many concepts would need to be designed and this can range from 2 to 3 concepts. I do 2 – 3 because I feel the client deserves options to choose from.
This process can take around 3 weeks and sometimes more it all depends on the size of the project and how many deliverables there are per identity.
The Logo Creative – What brands do you most admire and how do they influence your creative thinking?
Alex Aperios – I wouldn’t say brands influence my creative thinking, I believe your own thinking makes you unique so why be influenced by someone else’s thinking.
But I do admire agencies like Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv and Pentagram and their unique approach to branding.
The Logo Creative – What do you consider your most successful design project, and why?
Alex Aperios – Tough question, depends what you mean by successful. If you are getting my clients the best result then Probably Taur Technologies. The logo project works so perfectly with their product.
The Logo Creative – How long does it take to complete the average logo design project from start to finish?
Alex Aperios – This depends on the size of the company. A start-up takes around 2 weeks, and larger companies take around a month. It all depends how many people need to review it.
The Logo Creative – What are your recommended design books to read?
Alex Aperios – I like Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon and his other books. Also love Identity Designed: The Definitive Guide to Visual Branding by David Airey gives you a great insight into agency processes.
- Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon, available on Amazon – UK | US
- Identity Designed: The Definitive Guide to Visual Branding by David Airey, available on Amazon – UK | US
The Logo Creative – Which software do you use frequently and is there any you would recommend to designers?
Alex Aperios – Illustrator, indesign, photoshop, Figma, Adobe XD, sketch and procreate. I would say use what you can afford, they all pretty much do the same thing now. Software is important but not as important a your ideas.
The Logo Creative – What is your favourite style of logo design? And why?
Alex Aperios – Minimalist design, being able to create something memorable in a simple graphic is the most impressive to me.
The Logo Creative – What is your daily inspiration when you design?
Alex Aperios – Books, Pinterest and Behance, but I don’t rely on them.
The Logo Creative – When you’re not designing do you have a favorite free time activity you like to do?
Alex Aperios – Gym, playstation, walks and eating to much food 😉
The Logo Creative – What was the biggest challenge you ever faced on a project?
Alex Aperios – Having to learn how to design and build big websites when I have no experience.
The Logo Creative – In your opinion what’s the best and worst part of your job as a designer?
Alex Aperios – The best is easily making people happy with my creative skills. When a client replies with this it is amazing, thank you it never gets old. The worst part is knowing when to outsource work, I work too much most of the time.
The Logo Creative – Who is the most inspiring person to you and why?
Alex Aperios – Aaron draplin because he’s probably the most iconic and outright dude on the planet and Chris Do for his genius ability to help others for no reason but because he loves doing so.
The Logo Creative – Who is your favourite graphic designer and why?
Alex Aperios – Saul Bass. He created some of the most iconic logos and movie posters that will forever inspire me.
The Logo Creative – What’s your favourite design quote or quote in general, and do you have a mantra or saying you live by?
Alex Aperios – “Failure is built into creativity… the creative act involves this element of ‘newness’ and ‘experimentalism,’ then one must expect and accept the possibility of failure.” – Saul Bass
I live by the rule of being nice to everyone, you never know what they have going on in their lives.
The Logo Creative – In less than 10 words, what is graphic design?
Alex Aperios – Solving visual problems with unique thinking.
The Logo Creative – What steps did you take to start your graphic design business? Did you have to make any sacrifices on your journey?
Alex Aperios – In all honesty I took a leap of faith and jumped straight in the deep end, no plans just decided one day it’s what I wanted. I learn everything along the way by reading, listening and asking. You sacrifice some time, work hard but that’s just part of the process.
The Logo Creative – Do you have any regrets? Is there anything you would have changed early on in your career?
Alex Aperios –Talk to more people and ask more questions. You learn quicker by absorbing from others.
The Logo Creative – If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
Alex Aperios –Spend more time just working on the things you love, ignore negative comments although they help you get thicker skin and go see more of the world.
The Logo Creative – What’s the most important piece of advice you have received as a designer that’s helped you?
Alex Aperios – Don’t be afraid about trying to ask questions.
The Logo Creative – What would be your advice for new Logo and Graphic Designers?
Alex Aperios – You are young and hungry but you have time on your hands. Be patient, your work will suck for a few years but that’s just part of the process. Design taste is very significant, it will influence your style, try to understand what works well and what doesn’t and build on that.
Success doesn’t happen to people wanting a quick fix so don’t try and find one.
learn more about Alex Aperios | aperios-design.co.uk | Instagram – @aperiosdesign |
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