Emir Kudic is a graphic designer from Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe.
He specialises in branding, packaging and identity design, with a focus on creating simple and minimal designs, but designed with a strong impact. Making his clients stand out from their competition.
The Logo Creative – Hi Emir, I love your work and it’s a pleasure to feature you in the designer interview.
Emir Kudic – Sure! Brilliant, thanks man, I really appreciate it.
The Logo Creative – What was the turning point in your life when you decided to become a designer and how did you proceed?
Emir Kudic – My turning point happened sometime in high school where I didn’t really enjoy the things I was learning about and was too tired of following the “Traditional rules” – finish high school with good grades, get into uni, finish that too and become a doctor or engineer get married and live a long life – boring for me :).
I would say I definitely first started learning more about design watching youtube videos and just learning from mistakes and from other people’s feedback. That is how I proceeded.
The Logo Creative – What does your day consist of?
Emir Kudic – From Mon – Fri, It is pretty much the same: Wake up early, have breakfast and tea 🙂 and then I generally start working for about 4 hours straight. After that I eat lunch, then work again for around 4 hours, break , I work on social media then, If I need to work more, which I generally do, I do that too then comes sleep time.
But the weekends are pretty chill where I work perhaps an hour or 2 max. Sometimes, I do have a few meetings on the weekends but other than that, I generally read, watch anime, tv shows and go out :).
The Logo Creative – Are you a morning person or night owl and is there a reason why?
Emir Kudic – I am something in the middle I would say but I’m leaning towards the morning person. When I work in the morning, I generally get a lot of stuff done way quicker than in the evening.
The Logo Creative – What was the first logo you ever designed?
Emir Kudic – It was the NERO logo below.
The Logo Creative – What is your favourite logo you have designed?
Emir Kudic – My favorite is the Veldora logo design.
The Logo Creative – What’s the best logo you’ve designed that the clients DIDN’T go for?
Emir Kudic – It was the Curlsilk logo below.
The Logo Creative – What is your favourite logos of all time?
Emir Kudic – I would say they are Apple, Starbucks, FedEx and Coca-Cola.
The Logo Creative – Can you describe or give us an overview of your logo design process?
Emir Kudic – Usually the client inquires about the budget, timeframe and other details through email or social media and I would like to proceed this way:
1. Call session – Me and the client meet via zoom and discuss about their brand, vision, clients, time frame and budget. If my client and I want to proceed with the project I generally send them a PayPal invoice and questionnaires so I have more information while working.
2. Research – Once I have an initial payment (50%) upfront and answers to my questions, I generally like to do some research about the industry, and the project overall.
3. Sketching – After the research phase is finished, I generally begin to sketch for a few days to get the idea on the paper.
4. Refinement and presenting – I vectorise the sketches I have made in Illustrator, I make presentations and I jump on a call with the client to have a presentation where I discuss on why I went with the directions I designed and what impact those particular designs have on their brand.
5. Revisions – Once the initial presentation is finished, I request the feedback to be sent within 24-48 hours in case there are any changes that they would like to make and that is pretty much it. Once the client is happy with the designs, they generally pay the other half 50% and I send them over the files :).
The Logo Creative – What brands do you most admire and how do they influence your creative thinking?
Emir Kudic – I would definitely pick Apple due to simplicity, minimalism and cleanliness. When it comes to logo designs, I like to make designs with the same vibe.
The Logo Creative – What do you consider your most successful design project, and why?
Emir Kudic – I would say Roots CBD, The goal was to make a simple, neat and eye-catching branding design that shows that their clients are getting high quality products.
Because I got introduced into making some minimal illustrations where I like to do similar design styles at the moment too. Beautiful colours that go along with the pattern definitely helps this brand stand out from the competition.
Working with Christian was a pretty amazing experience as well. 🙂
The Logo Creative – How long does it take to complete the average logo design project from start to finish?
Emir Kudic – When I am not busy, around a week + day or 2 for revisions. .
The Logo Creative – What are your recommended design books to read?
Emir Kudic – I don’t think I have read a single design book yet haha. But what I would recommend is 12 rules for life by Jordan B.Peterson, available on| Amazon | Wordery
The Logo Creative – Which software do you use frequently and is there any you would recommend to designers?
Emir Kudic – The adobe cloud suite is a must for logo design and brand identity design.
The Logo Creative – What is your favourite style of logo design? And why?
Emir Kudic – Clean, minimalistic monograms – I really like the idea of combining 2 letters into one logo mark where letters represent brand’s initials.
The Logo Creative – What is your daily inspiration when you design?
Emir Kudic – I would say inspiration is everywhere you look around.
The Logo Creative – When you’re not designing do you have a favorite free time activity you like to do?
Emir Kudic – Most definitely. I’m a foodie so I like to cook (and eat too haha) and on the weekends I pretty much read and watch a drama for the whole day.
The Logo Creative – What was the biggest challenge you ever faced on a project?
Emir Kudic – I would say it was doing branding for Erb.
Because the design style that they wanted to pursue was not something I was comfortable with at that time. At this time, I prefer working on a similar style. 🙂
The Logo Creative – In your opinion what’s the best and worst part of your job as a designer?
Emir Kudic – Best part is definitely being your own boss and doing things that I like, and the worst thing is doing too much work where it could lead to burnout.
The Logo Creative – Who is the most inspiring person to you and why?
Emir Kudic – The person who inspired me the most, is definitely my best friend’s cousin Mersad Vejzovic who said that out of all my plans, where one was to finish high school and do what I am supposed to do, the second one to finish college and go to work in Germany and the third one which he suggested, is to pursue freelancing and expand my skillset.
The Logo Creative – Who is your favourite graphic designer and why?
Emir Kudic – To be honest, I don’t really have one because none of the designs I am aware of do exactly the same style as I am doing, but if I have to mention one, I would say my favourite logo designer is James Martin. who you have also interviewed.
The Logo Creative – What’s your favourite design quote or quote in general, and do you have a mantra or saying you live by?
Emir Kudic – Just recently, I have been listening to Easy by G.Eazy and the quote is :”If it was easy everyone would do it”.
The Logo Creative – In less than 10 words what is graphic design?
Emir Kudic – Nothing more than a visual communication.
The Logo Creative – What steps did you take to start your graphic design business? Did you have to make any sacrifices on your journey?
Emir Kudic – I started my journey in high school as I mentioned and definitely the sacrifices were sleep and time (grades too haha).
But definitely taking time from what a teenager was supposed to do by doing things that I love.
The Logo Creative – Do you have any regrets? Is there anything you would have changed early on in your career?
Emir Kudic – I wish I had started earlier :).
The Logo Creative – If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
Emir Kudic – I would definitely tell myself that school (the current education system) is worth nothing and I should not worry too much about grades and should focus on things I like doing.
The Logo Creative – What’s the most important piece of advice you have received as a designer that’s helped you?
Emir Kudic – I would say expanding my style and offering more services to clients (from Enes Klopic).
The Logo Creative – What would be your advice for new Logo and Graphic Designers?
Emir Kudic – When starting, don’t immediately niche your services, explore a bunch of things and see what is fun and what works for you. Perhaps you started with logos but designing websites is your thing. who knows. After you get one thing, master it and move on to a different one.
learn more about Emir Kudic | Behance | Instagram – @branding_by_emir |
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