How To Design A Logo

Learn how to create a logo by using the 5 basic principles in the area of logo design, collectively known as the principles of logo design; they state that a logo should be simple, memorable, appropriate, timeless and versatile. Each principles relates to a particular ideal of logo design and should be considered individually, however all the principles also relate to each other and it is when all the principles are used together that the best logos are created. If you came here looking for the principles of design then click HERE.

The 5 Principles Of Logo Design

Simple:

Simplicity is the most important of all the logo design principles. Logos can appear in various places and in various sizes such as small emblems on t-shirts or as iconic symbols on billboards. It is because of this that they need to be clear and simple so that they still display correctly and effectively at any size. Logos are designed as vector graphics to ensure they retain their image quality at any size but it is just as important that they retain their overall clarity as well. By keeping you logo simple you are ensuring that at any size it will be easy to identify and read. In this way, a logo should really only contain a single graphic and a small amount of text. Prime example of simple logo are the Nike 'swoosh' and the Apple 'apple'. They are clearly identifiable at any size and even work without any text as seen below.

Simple Apple Logo 

Simple Nike Logo

Memorable:

There are 3 stages to making a logo memorable. To make a logo memorable you must first ensure it is simple. Like anything, the simpler it is the easier it is to remember, it is no different with logos. The second key element to making a logo memorable is to make it as original as possible, if something is unique or different people tend to remember it and it will be set apart from other similar businesses, products or services. The originiality of the logo can be achieved through elements such as interesting fonts, unique shapes, bright colours or a catchy tag line. The images below both use bright colours, interesting and unique forms and shapes which themselves create original lettering. The third stage to making a logo memorable is to make it relative or appropriate to the business, product or service it is representing. This is discussed in more depth in the next section.

Madrid 2020 Logo Memorable Due To It's Originality

Memorably Creative Vividways Logo

Appropriate:

When designing a logo you must consider the business, product or service that the logo is representing. You cannot design in any style or using any fonts or colours that you want. Every logo is different and requires a different approach, an approach that is appropriate to the business, product or service it is representing. To give an example a logo for a solicitor should ideally be clean and linear with a mono or two toned colour scheme to represent the serious and professional nature of the service being offered. On the other hand bright colours, quirky fonts and curved lines would not be suitable for a solicitor, however they would be suited to a toy store or playschool to represent the fun nature of the business. An appropriate graphic, such as a house for an auctioneer, also helps to immediately associate the product or service being offered with the name of the business which by itself may not suggest a specific product/service. For example a local business called after the owner, lets says 'Smiths' does not in itself suggest any particular product/service that is why an appropriate graphic is necessary. An appropriate graphic is also vital for new businesses to help consumers to identify with them and their logo while they are still in the process of marketing their company identity.

This Solicitors Logo Is Appropriately Clean Lined & Serious Looking

The Colourful Toy Я Us Logo Is Appropriately Fun & Quirky

Timeless:

A company can be in business for months, years, decades or even centuries; therefore it needs a logo that will stand the test of time and not 'age' badly. A logo may be tweaked or updated slightly over time but it should not require a full overhaul as that would mean the company would have to spend lots of money remarketing its new identity, which can be a very expensive process, especially for large companies. Public bodies or services also require logos and as they cannot go out of business they tend to be around for a long time and thus need a timeless logo design, the London underground logo is a classic example of this. It is a simple design using basic shapes, primary colours and clean, simple text. As previously mentioned, all the logo design principles link together and it is evident in the London Underground logo as it is because of it's simple and appropriate style that it has remained unchanged for so long. The Coca Cola logo, the Olympic logo and numerous car company logos such as Toyota ,Ford, Volkswagen and Mercedes are other examples of timeless logos which have remained unchanged for decades.

Olympic Logo Is Iconic & Timeless

London Underground Logo Unchanged Since 1908

Versatile:

A versatile logo is one that will work equally well at any size and in any colour scheme. The logo must first be simple in order for it to have the potential to be versatile, again reinforcing simplicity as the key logo design principle. The best way to achieve a versatile logo is to first design in black and white, as if the logo works in black and white it will most likely work in any suitable colour scheme. See the example of the Apple logo below.

Apple Logo Showing It's Versatility

Now You're Ready To Create The Logo...

Once you have used the logo design principles above to actually plan out and design your logo on paper the next step is to actually create the logo as a vector graphic using a software such as Illustrator or Photoshop. Well, we have you covered there too with this illustrator logo design tutorial. We hope you find it useful.

Design a Movie Poster In Photoshop

1. To create this scary movie poster we will be using a selection of copyright free images, as seen below. First open these files in Photoshop by going to File-> Open and navigating through your files and selecting the relevant images. 

 

2. For the poster, we will be using an A3 canvas, to create an A3 canvas go to File-> New and in the options window choose International Paper as the Preset and A3 as the size.

3. Next open the house image in Photoshop, unlock the layer by double clicking the lock icon on it and selecting ok, and then use the quick selection tool (or other selection tools if using older versions of Photoshop) to select the background, press backspace or delete to remove  it.

4. The use the move tool to drag and drop the house into the A3 canvas and resize and position it as shown below, using Edit-> Transform-> Scale.

5. Next open the sky image in Photoshop and drag it onto the canvas with the move tool. Put the sky on a layer beneath the house and resize and reposition it until you are happy or it resembles the image below. 

6. Next open the road image in Photoshop and crop it down as shown below.

7. Next use the quick selection tool to select and delete all areas of the image apart from the road itself, as seen in the image below.

8. Now resize the image to fit into the canvas as shown below, to do this go to Edit-> Transform-> Scale. Ensure the road is on a layer below the house and above the sky layers.

9. Select the house layer and use the clone stamp tool to clone the existing grass into the empty space between the existing grass areas and the road. To use the clone stamp tool, Alt + Click to define a source point from which to copy then click over the area you want to 'brush' it into. Be aware the source point follows you around so you will have to repeatedly redefine new source point. Don't get too particular about it though as there will be multiple layers overlaid on top of the grass very soon, so just aim to achieve a basic coverage of the empty space.

10. Now open the man image into Photoshop and as with the other image, unlock the layer, remove the background using the quick selection tool, move it into the A3 canvas and move and resize it using Edit-> Transform-> Scale.

11. Now open the fire, paper, wood and eyes images in Photoshop. We will first drag and drop the fire and paper images onto the main canvas and stretch them to fit the full canvas. Next select each layer individually and select Layer-> Layer Styles-> Blending Options. In the pop up window choose the overlay blending option for the fire and drop the opacity below 50%. For the paper choose multiply.

11. The wood image requires editing before it is blended. First it will need to be removed from its background, cropped down, moved onto the canvas and stretched to fit half the canvas. Next go to Layer-> Duplicate Layer to create a copy, go to Edit-> Transform-> Flip Horizontally and then Flip Vertically. Now position the two wood layers so they fill the entire canvas as shown below.

12. To blend the wood into the image go to Layer-> Layer Styles-> Blending Options. In the pop up window choose the overlay blending option.

13. The final image to be blended in is the eyes. As before drag and drop it onto the canvas, resize it to a size you are happy with and blend it using the multiply blending option.

14. Now we will use the paper layer to create a rough, black border around the edge of the poster. Select the paper layer and use the magic wand tool to select the white area around the paper (you may need to use the ‘add to selection’ option to get all the area selected at once. While retaining the selection move from layer to layer hitting delete or backspace to remove the content within the selection until all layers, except the background later, are completed. Then deselect (Ctrl+D shortcut) and select the background layer and use the paint bucket tool to fill it in black.

15. The final part of the image is the text. The font I have chosen is called Calame and is available for free download HERE. The title I have chosen is Abandoned but you can choose any title you like. The image below shows the Layer styles used on the text. A basic drop shadow was added and then an inner shadow was added to increase the scratched looked of the text.

16. Next additional text was added to represent the actors in the movie and quotes from reviews of the movie. I have chosen to use the same font style as the heading (Calame) but again the choice is yours. As a final touch I duplicated the paper layer and placed it above the text as the very top layer, as shown below.

17. And that it, your poster should look like the one below...

If you enjoyed this check out our new video tutorial on how to create a Sci-fi movie poster.

Design a Magazine Cover In Adobe Photoshop

1. For this magazine cover we will be using just 2 images. The magazine is going to be a generic business magazine simply titled 'Business' for the purpose of this tutorial. The images are below and are both copyright free and can be downloaded from www.sxc.hu. These images, especially the building will create linear perspective, which can be used as an attention grabbing technique drawing the viewer into the image.



You may also be interested in our tutorials on how to create a horror movie poster or how to create a sci fi movie poster.

          

2. Firstly you will need to create the canvas in Photoshop, to do this go to File-> New and set the dimensions to 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches tall.

3. Next go to File-> Open and open the building and city images into Photoshop. First use the move tool to drag and drop the building image onto the canvas, go to Edit-> Transform-> Scale and resize the image to the full size of the canvas. Now drag and drop the city image onto the canvas on top of the building layer, use Edit-> Transform-> Scale to stretch it beyond the width of the canvas. Next use Edit-> Transform-> Perspective and narrow the image at the top to give it a similar perspective to the building image.

4. As the images are both in black and white, they can appear a bit dull so add some colour to the image by going to Image-> Adjustments-> Colour Balance. I added a value of -50 to achieve a cyan colour but you can try out different values, there is no right or wrong. To complete our work on the images, use the gradient tool to add a gradient overlay from black to empty on the city image going from the bottom up (see the image below).

5. To give the sense of a professional magazine cover, add a barcode and text with a price and an issue date.

6. Next we will add some semi-transparent rectangular tabs that will act as contrast backgrounds for our sub headings. To create these tabs use the rectangular shape tool. This will automatically put the tabs on separate layers, making it easier to move them around, change their colours and their layer opacity. Set up the tabs as shown in the image below, once again the choice of colours used is up to you. The positioning of the tabs creates an element of symmetry within the image as their ascending angle mirrors that of the building.

7. We will now begin to add the text. First the heading, create a text box the width of the canvas by clicking and dragging using the text tool, now type the title 'Business' in the font BankGothic Md BT, font size of 150pt. While still on the text layer, I have edited the text settings in the character window by setting a text height of 120% and a tracking value of -100. I have put the text in yellow but you can choose a different colour if you like. Now go to Layer-> Layer Style-> Drop shadow and add a drop shadow effect to the text as shown in the image below.

8. Finally, get creative and add your own subheading stories. For the subheadings I used the font Agency FB in font size 30pt for the first 3 stories and font size 36pt for the 'Weekly Special'. The fonts chosen for the text were selected as they are plain, clear and solid which is appropriate to the style of magazine. For different magazine types other fonts would be more appropriate, but always ensure the text is readable. For more information on fonts click HERE to go direct to our notes on fonts. Below two versions of the final magazine cover are displayed. And when your ready to create your own magazine cover design start off with our article on Magazine Cover Design Features.