How To Create A Temporary Business Logo

The point of this article is to help bootstrapping entrepreneurs who are trying to test business ideas or website ideas to create their very own temporary logo instead of having to pay someone to do it for them

The idea is to save money. It will look slightly amateur, but the intention is that this is a temporary logo until a professional logo designer can be hired.

If you don't understand some basic principles of photoshop you might want to look at hiring a logo designer as it will be far less problematic. However, follow the steps in this article and video and you will soon be on the way to creating your own logo!

The only tools you'll need are as follows:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 or equivalent. GIMP is a free image editor you could use.
• a tiny pinch of Imagination
  

• Create a new document roughly 500 pixels by 300 pixels depending on the size you want the logo.
• Select the text tool
• Change the font to your desired font, I chose a solid font Futura XBlk Bold
• Type your logo's text
• Select the selection tool
• Grab the corner of the text layer and while holding shift expand the size of the text layer to a size you're happy with.
• Press the accept changes button in the top right of the screen on the menu bar.
• Right click on the text layer in the Layers menu and click on Blending options
• First we need to add a Inner Shadow (or alternatively you might like to use a drop shadow which will put the shadow behind the text).
• Select the check box to create and inner shadow.
• Adjust the angle. Experiment with the angle to achieve the look you're after. An angle of roughly 130 degree will give you a sunken look as in the example. You can also play with the settings for distance, choke, and size of the inner shadow.
• Select the check box to create a new gradient overlay. A gradient adds a color fading type effect. Click on the box (not the down arrow) of the Gradient option which will bring up the Gradient Editor. You can select one of the presents or you can add color stops to change the blending of the colors which get overlayed on your text.
• When you're happy with the gradient goto the last option in the layer style window and add a Stroke by selecting the check box.
• By default stroke comes up as bright red, select a color which matches your text and gives the text some definition. I find light colors are the best, but you might like something a little stronger to match your gradient colors. You can adjust the width of the stroke outline by changing the size up or down.
• Press OK when you've completed modifying the text layer.
• Now to jazz the logo up we're going to add a custom shape. Select the custom shape tool and make sure you select the Shape layers option on the left hand side of the tool bar at the top.
• Going along the tool bar you'll notice a drop down option called Shape, click on this and it will open up a selector with many different shapes.
• Draw the shape that you selected over the section of the logo you want it to appear. Don't worry about it's position above the text layer you'll change that in a minute.
• Right click on the shape's layer and goto blending options. Just as with the text we need to adjust some setting here.
• First we'll do the gradient. Make sure the colors you select are complimentary to the colors you have selected for the text. This ensures the colors naturally match.
• Select a drop shadow (if you desire). Adjust the color of the drop shadow, black is the most common, and adjust the distance of the shadow, the spread, and the size. Play with these settings until you're happy with how the shadow looks.
• Press OK when you've completed modifying the shape layer.
• To move the shape layer behind the text layer simply left click the shape layer in the Layer's menu and drag the shape layer below the text layer. You'll notice it automatically moves the text layer above the shape layer when you do this.
• The final touch is to right click on the background layer and delete it. The reason for this is to preserve any colours that are behind the logo image when you place it on your website. This saves a whole bunch of time attempting to match the color that is behind it.
• When you save the file you will need to save it in a format that supports transparency. I prefer to use .PNG format because it support transparency, is a commonly accepted format for websites, and has a small file size.

Enjoy creating your very own temporary business logos!