Simple Logo Designs Using Photoshop
Think about some of the most effective logos that we see in both media today and long-standing products. Macromedia, for example, has very simple logos based on the letters in the names of their products. They’re classy and classic – and the moment you see one of those logos, you immediately recognize the product and the company behind it.
Adobe features a very simple logo – it’s nothing more than a red box with the letter “A” stamped in white right in the middle of it. Another logo that will forever remain in our minds is the John Deere logo – who wouldn’t recognize the company the moment you see their green and yellow picture?
Making a strong, bold statement says a lot about your company – you’re simply reliable. Creating logos like these in Photoshop is supremely easy – you don’t need anything more than the shape tool and a font. Here are some ideas to get you going.
Logo One: Stroked Text
1. Open Photoshop and create a new document by clicking “File” and choosing “New”. Set the size of the new document to 400 x 400 pixels. We want to work rather large because this logo will be fit for printing. Make the background white, and click OK.
2. Set your foreground color (the front color box) to black. We’re going to change the color later – the easy way.
3. Select your text tool and a cool font. You can download a lot of free fonts online – just check the resources section of this article for a few places. The font I’ve used in the first illustration is “Swatch It” at 212 points size. Once you select your font, type one or two letters for the initials of your business and size it so that it fills the document without going outside the lines.
4. Now, click the “Move” tool and center your initials on the canvas. Then, go to your layer styles – click “Layer”, hover over “Layer Styles” – and choose “Color Overlay”. For now, just set the color to white.
5. While you’re in the Layer Styles dialogue, click “Stroke”. Leave the stroke size at its default – 3 pixels – but set the stroke color to something really bright. Think of Macromedia Dreamweaver’s neon green, for example.
6. Now, to give the initials a polished, smooth look, go to your “Bevel and Emboss” option in the Layer Styles dialogue. Leave all the settings at their default. Look closely at the logo you’ve got going, and slide the “Soften” option up or down to give it soft, smooth lines.
7. At this point, you might want to try a different font or a different color of stroke. It’s easy to edit everything because we’re using layer styles, which means that nothing’s set in stone. Once you’ve got it the way you like it, save in both .psd and .jpg formats and you’re ready to roll!
Logo Two: Two Shapes
1. Open Photoshop and create a new document by clicking “File” and choosing “New”. Set the size of the new document to 400 x 400 pixels. We want to work rather large because this logo will be fit for printing. Make the background white, and click OK.
2. Set your foreground color (the front color box) to black. We’re going to change the color later – the easy way.
3. Grab your shape tool, and select the “Rounded Rectangle” shape. Hold your shift key down on your keyboard while you drag the shape out so that it stays perfectly square.
4. Now, click the “Move” tool and center your rectangle on the canvas. Then, go to “Edit” and choose “Free Transform Path”. Use the corner handles to rotate your rectangle, turning it into a diamond. When you’ve rotated it, click the “Move” tool again and choose “Apply” on the warning that appears. Then, rasterize your layer (Click “Layer”, hover on “Rasterize”, and choose “Layer”).
5. Time to draw a shape inside this diamond. Set your foreground color to white, and then choose your custom shape tool. You can download hundreds of custom shapes from the Internet – many of them free – or you can stick with Photoshop’s default shapes for now. I’ve opened the “Animals” menu and chosen the flying bird.
Just like you did with the rounded rectangle, hold your shift key down while you drag the shape out to make it stay properly proportioned. You can center your custom shape in the diamond, or have pieces of it overlap to the edges slightly. I’ve done this, letting the wings overlap the edges of the diamond.
When you’ve drawn your shape, rasterize this layer. Rasterizing makes all the edges smooth and professional.
6. Now, select your diamond layer by clicking on it once. Then, go to your layer styles – – click “Layer”, hover over “Layer Styles” – and choose “Color Overlay”. Play around with the color settings until you have a look that you like.
If you’ve overlapped the edges of your shape, you might want to try setting a stroke in the same color as your diamond to the custom shape as well. I chose to do this, and ended up with the logo in the second illustration.
Logo Three: Text and Shapes
1. Open Photoshop and create a new document by clicking “File” and choosing “New”. Set the size of the new document to 400 x 400 pixels. We want to work rather large because this logo will be fit for printing. Make the background white, and click OK.
2. Set your foreground color (the front color box) to black. We’re going to change the color later – the easy way.
3. Grab your shape tool, and select the “Ellipse” shape. Hold your shift key down on your keyboard while you drag the shape out so that it stays a perfect circle.
4. Now, click the “Move” tool and center your rectangle on the canvas. Then, rasterize your layer (Click “Layer”, hover on “Rasterize”, and choose “Layer”).
5. Time to write our initials inside this circle. Set your foreground color to white, and then choose your text tool. I’m using “Swatch It” again in the third illustration, set to 162 points size.
6. We want our circle to look kind-of cool, right? We’re going to do this the easy way with Photoshop’s pre-made Layer Styles. First, select your circle layer by clicking on it once. Then, view the Styles palette by clicking “Window” and choosing “Styles”. You should see a palette with a lot of little boxes in it, all of them different colors.
Now, it’s time to play. Click on the different boxes in that palette and you’ll see different styles set up on your circle layer. I’ve used a style that I downloaded from the Internet to create my final text and shape logo.
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