Simple Logo Designs Using Photoshop

Logos today seem to be getting more and more ... over-done. I blame a lot of this on the Internet - after all, when you're relying on the ability to actually print a logo (whether or not you use it online as well), you won't use fifteen different colors and enough effects to make your head spin.

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.