With branding set and a new logo finalized, the next step of this project for Illusion Bar • Grill • Café is the website redesign. The venue has had two websites in the past which performed perfectly fine with regards to displaying information, but I personally felt they did not bode well in neither setting a firm branding of the restaurant nor being an effective marketing tool for the client.

I took the time to look over many websites of restaurants and bars, even coming across articles on mistakes made in designing such websites, and moved forward in how I always felt a restaurant website should function. Today we'll go through what I came up with and my logic in the final piece.

The day has finally arrived. A day Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been teasing us with for years. He's finally opened up his company to an initial public offering (IPO) where anyone out there can buy stock in Facebook. Before this day, Zuckerberg would only have private stock sales to investors when he needed money. Unless you were a wealthy investor, you were left out.

Facebook's IPO was hearty, thus adding new members to the "1%" the news media talks about. Billions of dollars were collected in sales of stock, but already journalists are asking if this will be a sign of a new tech bubble.

I can't blame them. The last time we really saw tech companies blow up on the stock market was the dotcom era, which ended up in a crash a short period later. I could see why the speculation will happen, but this time I think it's different.

Now that we've defined the new branding of Illusion Bar • Grill • Café, a new logo would be the next order of business. It will also be a first for this business since it's not had a proper logo since opening ten years ago. I'm pretty sure they're not the first business to do that either.

Today I'm going to take you through my own process on how I like to design logos and share my own thought process on the logo I ended up designing for Illusion Bar • Grill • Café. I'm not sure if my process is the right way, but hopefully my experience here will help you grow in how you come up with logos for your clients. I also urge you to share any insight you have in the comments section.

A man in the ad industry that I highly respect once told me that branding is not just a logo. It's the recognition, feeling, and opinion the consumer carries when they hear of your company, product, or service. Think about when one says "Coca-Cola". Of course you'll recognize the name, and you might have a positive or negative opinion.

Branding is the often-misunderstood factor many small businesses overlook. They think a simple name and an "Open" sign is all they need. My own father even understood long ago that how consumers view your business is what will drive them to patronize you. It's why he used "Jason's" as the name of his business, because it sounded more "American" than his native-Greek name.

In our line of work, there are many directions one can take their career. Some get into the more technical side, growing in their knowledge of coding languages and techniques. Some go into specializations like social media or search engine optimization. Some simply push on design, and work to make cutting-edge layouts that win awards. In any case, staying stagnant is not an option. Those few end up with pink slips.

For me, working in an ad agency has given me much experience in seeing all the elements of making a business grow, and I know that anyone who ever wants to see "Creative Director" or "Executive" as their title will need to grow beyond just Photoshop and writing code. You need to know more about marketing, about determining the opportunities, and implementing the right executions to bring results to your client.

For the next month or so, I'm going to be journaling the process of a rebranding of a local restaurant/cafe. My goal is to help their business grow by taking what I've learned in an ad agency and bringing that to a small business that normally cannot afford such services.

It's been a few days now since the announcement by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings that Netflix will be splitting up into two companies. Media streaming will still be known as Netflix, but the DVD rent-by-mail service will now be called Qwikster. Almost immediately there was a fury of angst from users all over the country, similar to when Hastings announced a hike in the monthly fees.