Design-it-Yourself Graphic Workshop

PART 1: STEP-BY-STEP DESIGN

Paint—Shadow

Paint—Colorize

Paint—Pastel Filter

Paint—Tranparency

Paint—Radial Blur

Paint—Wave Distort

Draw—Stretch

Draw—Reflect

Draw—Skew

Draw—Rotate

Draw—Distort

Draw—Twirl Filter

What you need

Breaking apart draw artwork and editing the

pieces requires a draw program such as Adobe

Illustrator, CorelDRAW, or Macromedia FreeHand.

Editing and adding effects to photographic images

requires a paint or digital imaging program such as

Adobe Photoshop or Jasc Software’s Paint Shop Pro.

STEP 8

Choose a Technique

Custom Logos

There are many ways to design a logo.

Since this book speaks in large part to

non-designers, it focuses on techniques

that begin with a preexisting image:

clip art, photographs, or silhouettes. If,

however, you have some basic drawing

skills or the patience to learn, designing

a logo from scratch does allow you the

most creative freedom.

No matter which technique you

decide to pursue, it’s important to

understand the value of draw and

paint software programs (see Choose

Your Tools, page 20). They are logo

laboratories—the ideal places to

conduct visual experiments. With them,

you can apply effects that make even

the simplest of images interesting.

Shown here, in column one, are some

of the many effects possible with most

draw programs. In a paint program, you

can apply photographic effects such as

those in column two.

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STEP 8: CHOOSE A TECHNIQUE/CUSTOM LOGOS

Start with a sound idea. Refine the basic

shapes.

Create a bold variation.

The shapes are thinned

down slightly.

Would a chimney

make the image more

recognizable?

The height of the logo is

stretched slightly.

Other variations

are tried.

The image is distorted

to give it perspective.

Once you’ve developed a sound, basic

idea, open the appropriate software

program and start experimenting. Be sure

it is an idea worth pursuing—it can take

hours to find the right combination of

effects to make your design one-of-a-kind.

The illustration demonstrates just a

few of the stages of one idea from the

most basic idea (top left) to the finished

design (bottom right). In reality, it is quite

common to create many variations in

order to find the one that works.

SOURCE Illustration: Clock from Everyday Objects 2 by

PhotoDisc, 800-979-4413, 206-441-9355,

www.photodisc.com, © CMCD, all rights reserved.

Text and color

are added.

JOb : 04-35501 Title : DIY : Letter head & Logo

(Ps Overprint,MxB) (A)175# Dtp:116 Pg : 26-27

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