Successful logos, according to the late American design pioneer Paul Rand, are like flags: universal, timeless, and durable. From Des Moines to Dubai, logos fly the flag of an increasingly global business world, setting off emotions, triggering desires, creating identities, building communities, and (occasionally) sparking riots. Whoever creates the next Starbucks logo (last one: Heckler Associates) had better get used to seeing his work around town.

Logos may be everywhere, but logo design still remains a specialized field, the domain of top talent at the top agencies. How does a graphic designer break into the logo design business today? We asked New York independent agency director Thom McKenna (author of a new Sessions Advanced Logo Design course) for his tips from the trenches.

Q. Thom, you've done dozens of logos for a range of clients. How does a logo design project compare to your average design or print production job?

Thom: A successful logo design project requires a tremendous amount of self-control — something that most graphic designers struggle with, since part of our job is to really explore different directions to push design parameters. A distinctive logo mark is just one element of any corporate identity system, but its importance cannot be overstated. Unlike a brochure or a Web page, a logo can't be too stylized or "overdesigned," since a logo should be timeless — durable enough to withstand a plethora of applications. Simplicity in design is hard to achieve, but it's essential to the solution of corporate identity.

Q. What defines quality in your mind? Give us five adjectives to describe your favorite logo.

Thom: The quality of a logo's design has to be measured within the context of what it is representing. A great mark is one that can touch off a particular emotion or trigger a certain desire. Five adjectives to describe any successful logo might be:

1. Palpable 2. Distinctive 3. Timeless 4. Defining 5. Whimsical

Q. Seems to me that logo designers are a breed apart: you have to get passionate about symbolism and little kerning adjustments. What kind of person makes a good logo designer?

Thom: Beyond understanding the disciplines of typography and drawing? Patience is key. Any logo designer worth his or her weight must have an infinite supply of patience, both with his or her own abilities to produce ideas and direction, and with the clients we labor to please. A good logo designer needs to be able to handle the (occasional) rejection, then pull him or herself up by the bootstraps and get back to the drawing board.

At a conceptual level, a logo designer also needs to be able to reduce an intricate process or a complicated service to its simplest form. Defining a product or service with a simple mark is what successful identity is all about. Perfection in logo design is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing else to take away.

Q. You mention The Big Bad Client. Seems like there's a lot more face-to-face client interaction in logo design jobs. As a designer, what are the challenges at each stage of the process? You wear a suit, right?

Thom: I barely wear pants...

Thanks for sharing.

... but when I do crawl out of my studio to meet with clients about identity projects, the process inevitably becomes personal. What a client is really asking you to do is put a new face on the work they do or the product they produce. It's important to establish trust between yourself and the client, who's counting on you to give his product or service a makeover. Logo presentations to a client can also be a daunting task, since you're trying to distill a company's attributes and brand objectives into a unique and memorable mark that should capture the essence of what it represents. Even though a logo is a single mark, it will always need to be integrated into whatever branding system is developed — so part of the challenge of effective logo design is also defining how it will be applied.

Q. How does the ego aspect factor in? Do logo designers generally make sacrifices toward what the client wants?

Thom: Ahh, if I had a dollar for every client I've dreamed of killing...I mean, working with again.

The reality is that your personal design style may often run counter to what is best for your client. The successful designer is "transparent" and so you often need to separate yourself from your work to be almost invisible to effectively represent the client. At the same time, many a good logo design has been sacrificed on the altar of client subjectivity. Just as designers often have to scale back ambitious designs for what is best for a client, the client sometimes needs to be told that a design isn't created to appeal to them — but to their customers. A tough sell, to say the least.

Q. Let's talk about creativity. The expansion phase of the project always sounds cool in theory — all those scratch sheets covered in variations on a theme. What are some tips for getting the creativity flowing?

Thom: Well, ideas are generated by our ability to explore as many design directions as possible, and putting pen to paper is the most direct way to channel our ideas into a coherent form. Much of the design process, whether we realize it or not, is really spent studying everything around us — people, places, advertising, television, writing, drawings, photos, art, nature — everything we are influenced by during the course of our daily lives.

If you're looking for examples of the power of branding, a good place to start is right here on the Internet, since there are literally hundreds of thousands of different identities and logos all at your fingertips. But variety is the spice of life — so also take the time to turn off your computers, go out and hit the streets. One of the most important aspects of thinking creatively is to be able to switch gears and find new influences. I'll go to a museum or check out a used bookstore over on the East side. Maybe I'll stop in an art gallery I've been meaning to scope out or go see a movie or play. The answer to your problem is out there. Part of the job of being a designer is to act like a sponge, absorbing information in the world around us — and then using that information to inspire our designs right now, or storing for use later on.

Q. What's the biggest lesson you've learned in developing your craft? Tell us a shaggy dog story.

Thom. I don't normally kiss and tell, but a few years ago I did have a client who insisted on round after round of creative treatments for a product called FatPipe, an internet router that would speed up the bandwidth of any office network. They were looking for a human caricature that was, well, "fat" and (of course) made of "pipes." Ummm, OK. After a few rounds of ripoffs of RoboCop and Tron, I finally convinced them that they needed a more abstract representation of what their product represented.

The result was a series of simple, animated caricatures that looked like single thick pipes — not in human form — that worked well on the packaging of their products and could easily be applied to different mediums. The lesson that was eventually learned with this client was never let a client become a Creative Director — especially when they have a specific idea in mind. The best clients are often those that are looking to you (the professional designer, that is) to generate the ideas for a representative mark. They also usually pay better, since those are the clients who have an appreciation for your skills...

Q. How has new media technology — the Internet, or vector software, say — influenced logo design?

Thom: Until the digital revolution, logos were simply business tools, displayed only on packaging and simple advertisements. Now logos have been transformed into visual superstars, emblazoned on everything from ball point pens to blimps. Identity is now everywhere, and new mediums have definitely sparked the current revolution (or inundation, depending on your point of view). The ever-widening applications for logos offer both opportunities (such as animation) and pitfalls (think about viewing any logo on an extremely low resolution display such as a PDA or cell phone).

The lesson of the era is that logo designs must first and foremost be practical. They must work in both large and small sizes, in black and white, and in full color. And they must translate well across a wide range of mediums, from Web sites to billboards to newspapers. The advent of vector software has made it possible to streamline the production of logos with smooth lines and precision shapes, but the value of vector art is that it is easily adaptable to the medium it will serve. It is also invaluable for adaptation into animation.

Q. In logo design, can a small design firm (or individual) really compete for the top accounts? Which agencies are doing interested logowork right now?

A: It's always amazed me that a simple, precise logo can be created through the rigorous processes implemented by large design firms — with marketing studies, creative briefs, and focus groups all thoroughly researched before any real work is done. But a successful logo can also be sketched out by a part-time design student doodling on a napkin in a coffee shop after a double mocha latte. Inspiration knows no boundaries.

Besides my company (of course), there is a lot of competition out there. Here are just a few companies that are corporate identity leaders and know how to push the edge of identity design:

http://www.duffy.com
http://www.landor.com
http://www.dept3.com
http://www.methodologie.com