People like to have logo for their blog or site and are ready to pay designers for it. Today I will show you how to create a simple and attractive logo which complies with Web 2.0 standards. I will start with some very basic logos and create more complicated ones in future tutorials.

So what are we going to create?

Sample logos that we will create in this tutorial will look like these once you complete all the steps. Once you follow the tutorial you can obtain logos like below. You can then edit the text and colors to suit as you like.

and

I am new to Photoshop. Will I be able to produce same results?

Ok so you are new to Photoshop or you have never done anything in Photoshop. Need not to worry. After completing this tutorial you will be able to produce these logos and many more of your own in minutes and better than these.

What can I learn from this tutorial?

Learning as you might know is a gradual process. You start with the basics and move on. With this tutorial you will learn to:

1. Work with different layers and arranging them.
2. Create images with transparent background.

This technique comes handy when you want to place your logo or image on other color backgrounds.

3. Work with and manipulate shapes, especially rectangles in this case.
4. Create smooth gradient color effects.
5. Create 3D effects in images and text.
6. Create and manipulate shadows in images and text.
7. Create, copy and save styles and gradients for use in other projects.

Let’s start the tutorial then.

1. Open Adobe Photoshop. I am using CS2 version. This tutorial will work for older as well as new versions of Photoshop.
2. Go to File> New. Create a new image canvas of width 310px and height 100 px with transparent background.



3. A layer is created with name ‘Layer 1’ and shows up at bottom right corner.
4. Create a new layer. Go to Layer> New > Layer. Give layer name ‘White color’.
5. Choose white color from the left pane as shown below. Then select the brush and color the image completely with white color.
   
6. Create another layer. Name it ‘Layer 2’. Again go to Left pane and right click on rectangle tool and select rounded rectangle tool from it. Enter radius of 4 px in above toolbar.
7. 
   Try to draw a rectangle on image with it, of the size a s shown in logo. If you get some error, do not panic press Ctrl+Alt+Z to undo. Your image should now look like this.

   

8. Right- click on ‘Shape 1’ and go to ‘Blending Options’. In the ‘Layer Style’ window, go to ‘Gradient Overlay’ and click on gradient color bar. It opens a new window ‘Gradient Editor’.
   
9. You can click on small arrows in ‘Gradient Editor’ window and choose color. You need to create 5 such arrows with different colors and location as shown in figure below.
   
   Arrow 1) Color: 00a9e0
   Location: 0
   Arrow 2) Color: 0dade0
   Location: 25
   Arrow 3) Color: 23b4e0
   Location: 50
   Arrow 4) Color: 32b8e0
   Location: 75
   Arrow 5) Color: 3fbce0
   Location: 100
   You can also save this as a gradient by clicking save in this window.
10. Now go to ‘drop shadow’ and apply settings as shown. If you are adventurous, then you can experiment with the settings.
    
11. Then go to ‘inner glow’ and apply settings as shown. You can of course do experiments here.
    
12. Go to ‘bevel and emboss’ and apply these.
    
13. Click on ‘contour’ and do 50% range.
14. Go to ‘stroke’ and apply these.
15. You will get something like this.
    
16. Create a new layer. Select ‘horizontal type tool’ and select ‘baby universe’ font from top toolbar. It may be possible that this font is not shown in your list because it is not installed on your system. You can either use other font or search and install it from Internet. Type ‘n’ with it.
17. Similarly repeat above step and type ‘a’, ‘net’ and ‘avatar’. If you would like to have different color for ‘n’ of ‘net’ and ‘a’ of ‘avatar’ as shown in logo, then you have to add them as different words. Like ‘n’ and ‘et’; and ‘a’ and ‘vatar’. You can move each text by selecting its layer from right corner. You will get something like this. Size of ‘n’ and ‘a’ is 48 and of ‘et’ and ‘vatar’ is 36. I have changed the font color to blue from top toolbar so that it can display correctly on white background. Choice of this color does not alter the final result.
18. Right click on ‘Shape 1’ layer and select ‘copy layer style’. Right-click ‘n’ layer of ‘net’ and paste layer style.  Go to its blending option and uncheck ‘inner glow’ and ‘stroke’. Adjust shadow if you feel to make it clear and distinct. Do the same with all text layers.
19. In order to display selected text in black reflective color. Select the text layer like ‘vatar’, go to its blending properties> gradient, apply these settings.
    Arrow 1) Color: 121212
    Location: 0
    Arrow 2) Color: 2d2d2d
    Location: 22
    Arrow 3) Color: 000000
    Location: 48
    Arrow 4) Color: 4c4c4c
    Location: 50
    Arrow 5) Color: 676767
    Location: 75
    Arrow 6) Color: 4c4c4c
    Location: 100
20. Copy this layer style to ‘n’, ‘A’ and ‘et’.

Important: How to save this logo with transparent background?

This step is very important regarding how you can save this logo with transparent background. Deselect ‘layer 1’ and ‘white color’ layer by clicking the eye in checkbox. Go to File> Save for web. Select ‘png-24’ and click on ‘transparency’. Click save. You are done.
Now you have this.

With a few modifications you can produce this.

This is it with this tutorial. Stay connected to get informed of tutorials of more complicated logos.

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Tags: blog logo, cs2, cs3, cs4, cs5, design, design tutorial, logo, logo design, photoshop, photoshop design, photoshop logo, photoshop tutorial, site logo, web 2.0, web 2.0 logo, website logo

Posted in Photoshop
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