Alternative to Booleans?

I'm trying to cut a hole in a model and the hole has to have a complex shape. It's like a design cut out of a piece of wood.

I know you could use booleans to achieve this but I always hear that it's not really good practice to use them. In that case what alternatives are there to using booleans?

  • Cookie Dough(cgcdough) replied

    You can do something like this. All you need to do is add in the edge loops, then connect it together. Don't forget to use edge flow and good topology to your advantage. 

    Now, I'm not the greatest at topology, but this disturbs the least amount of topology as I could make it.

    I hope this helps