Question: I’d like to know how to emboss or deboss a more complex logo/mesh into another flat surface/mesh as shown in the example:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1A6hI.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1A6hI.gif)

What I have got so far is: transforming a logo into an \*.svg from Illustrator and importing it into Blender. Now that I try to convert it to a mesh it becomes quite messy and complex and I don’t know how to emboss or deboss it into another mesh.

I tried it with the Displacement modifier, however you need to really subdivide the mesh a lot of times to get an suitable result. Is there a more elegant solution?

Answer: 
Here's a quick guide for doing it with microdisplacement. Note this won't work for you if you actually need a good mesh, but it'll give a result similar to your reference image.

1) Enable Blender's experimental feature set:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/93Fzy.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/93Fzy.png)

2) Add a new Cycles materal, and set its displacement method to True:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ceWvR.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ceWvR.png)

3) Add a subsurf modifier; select Simple, and enable adaptive rendering:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/rhNYX.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/rhNYX.png)

4) From edit mode, select all vertices and unwrap the plane (`U`):

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F3LGn.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F3LGn.png)

5) In an image editor, threshold your logo and blur it a bit:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/x7wGdm.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/x7wGdm.png)

6) Add the image texture to the displacement at your material output node:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5ttd2.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5ttd2.png)

The result should look something like this:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/b99c7.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/b99c7.png)
I recommend to use a normal map instead of physically embossing or debossing the logo into a flat surface.
By using a normal map you should get a similar effect without all the problems of a messed up mesh.
You can use this freeware tool to create normal maps: <https://sourceforge.net/projects/ssbumpgenerator/>

In order to use a normal map you have to:
- create a normal map with a 3rd party tool
- unwrap your object
- create a new material
- create a new texture
- load the normal map image into that texture
- Switch the normal map checkboxes on (see image)

After that you should be good to go.
I hope this helps.