What is a good design?
Good design principles are easier to list than to apply — and most lists get it wrong. We’ve spent twenty years testing what actually holds under pressure: across 81 logos, 128 projects, and judging rooms where good design either survives scrutiny or quietly doesn’t. What makes design work isn’t a checklist. It’s a set of decisions that age well, communicate without effort, and resist the urge to explain themselves.
I am sure we have all read a few definitions of good design; they all sound perfect and motivational, don’t they? Some of them are really good. But I wanted something practical, something that was easy to explain. And that is why I came up with some basic rules (not definitions) to make sure I was on the right path.
Adaptive.
Not only to the different media where the adaptation and resizing must work but also to how they can evolve and adapt along the path.
Different.
With all these messages around us, no one wants to be similar to another (we see around 4–10,000 advertising messages per day if you live in a big city and rarely remember any). It is not necessary to discover something “new”; sometimes it is good enough that the message is recognized and is different from the competition.
Focused.
Consistency is the key. A brand is not just a logo; it has defined elements that they must stay focused on. Using a logo as the only recognizable element will not get you far.
Aesthetic.
We are humans after all. It does not matter what the given aesthetic is, but it must be loved by your target group.
We can describe design by its parts—color, shape, form, typography—everything visual, or by the end result—a poster, a book, a website, a business card. But in fact the design is craft with emotions.
What Good Design Principles Look Like When the Brief Gets Difficult
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Sometimes we all need a little push
Need a little push before you can finally commit to a branding project? We've heard that hesitation hundreds of times — and it rarely has anything to do with budget. After 20 years and 81 logos, we've learned that the thing holding most businesses back isn't readiness. It's the wrong idea of what readiness looks like. Sometimes all it takes is someone telling you: you're closer than you think.
In the corporate world, there’s this unspoken rule that enthusiasm should be hidden
Corporate enthusiasm, by some unspoken rule, is supposed to stay hidden — filed away behind neutral tones and careful hedging. We've never understood that. Twenty years of design work, 80+ awards, and 128 projects later, we're still the studio that treats genuine excitement as a feature, not a liability. The corporate enthusiasm unspoken rule isn't just a cultural quirk — it's a design problem, and we treat it as one.
Are we artists or designers?
Artists vs designers — it's a question we've been asked at every client meeting, award jury, and late-night studio argument since 2004. The honest answer is neither, or both, depending on what the brief demands. What we've learned after 81 logos and 80+ awarded projects is that the real distinction isn't about medium or ego — it's about intent and accountability.
Vibe coding
Vibe coding design is not a shortcut — it's a discipline we've been practising long before anyone named it. We let visual instinct drive technical decisions, the same way we've approached every identity and interface since 2004. When feel and function collapse into a single gesture, that's vibe coding design working as it should.
Definition of a brand
Definition of a brand is where most projects quietly fail — not in execution, but in understanding. A brand is not a logo, not a palette, not a tagline. It is the gap between what a company says it is and what people actually believe. We've spent twenty years closing that gap, and the distance is rarely where clients expect it to be.
Art is Provocation: Raising Questions, without Giving Answers
Art is provocation — and that alone makes it fundamentally different from design. Where design resolves, art destabilises. We've spent two decades navigating that tension, and art is provocation precisely because it refuses the comfort of conclusions.
How to Be a Real Designer
How to be a real designer isn't about software or style — it's about who holds the argument when the client wants something easier. We've been in that room for twenty years. Being a real designer means resisting the comfortable solution, even when no one asks you to.