# I need help with my band logo - Team Photoshop, unite!



## Mattayus (Jan 7, 2009)

I'm shit at photoshop, I can never create awesome symbols and/or fonts to do crazy band logo stuffs.

Anyone got any ideas they wanna throw down for the Darkadian project?

Themes are as follows -

1. Metal.
2. The undead.
3. Zombie holocausts.
4. Metal.
5. Theology.
6. Metal.
7. The walking dead.

Check out my myspace page to see what I've done already (pretty shit and amateur).

Any help/ideas would be massively appreciated guys,
thank you!

- Matt


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## Randy (Jan 7, 2009)

Something really simple just to give you an idea:







EDIT: For a more "finished" idea, I'm imaging having the lettering more jubbled and crooked looking, as well as more scratches and holes in it. Actually adding a zombie's head or hand or something into the logo (font, meaning) itself would pwn.


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## Stealthdjentstic (Jan 7, 2009)

We should make a dedicated thread for this kind of thing. Alot of forums have one.


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## Mattayus (Jan 8, 2009)

Now that, my friend, is the shit! 

And yeah, we should have a dedicated forum for this.


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## DarkKnight369 (Jan 8, 2009)

I said this in another thread, but your really shouldn't be using photoshop for Logo design, especially if you aren't familiar with print vs screen/web resolutions and design. Any logo really should be in a Vector based format to be useful as possible. Vector art can be scaled to any size without loss of quality, photoshop images can not. Adobe Illustrator is where the intial logo design should be done.

Once you have something, then if you want to add to it and make it cooler you can take the design that was made in Illustrator into photoshop and add whatever crazy effects that are desired. I speak from complete experience because I learned this lesson the hard way.

A few years back when I started in my old the band, The System After, I designed the logo. I did so in photoshop, thinking I knew what I was doing because of my background. I designed the logo at a fairly large size (12 x 8) at print resolution thinking it can be used for anything it needed to be. I was really wrong.

We decided we wanted T-shirts, go to get them made and they request a vector format. Don't have it, now what? I had to work with the print shop to have the logo "vectorized" and it took time and money. They couldn't do the shirt screen printing without a vector logo. OK, that's fine. Sometime after that, we decided to get a 8'x5' banner made for a back drop on stage. Took the logo I created in photoshop because its all I had. It had to be stretched to fit, and it wasn't as sharp and crisp as I would have liked it to be. It looked OK from a distance, but when you got close, it looked like crap.

The final strike was when we went to do a large print run of CD's(1000). We used Disc makers and were doing a replication job. Guess what, they screen print their discs and needed a vector logo. I didn't know how to do it at the time, so I had to call the tshirt shop and beg and hassle them to give me the vector format they made. We almost didn't get the CD's done in time for our release show.

Moral of the story...its best to do something the right way first, instead of scrambling to redesign things later. What was posted here may look cool on a myspace page, but will be completely useless anywhere else if its only in that resolution and photoshop format.

I try explaining this to some, but people either don't understand or care I guess. I have offered my services on this board and a few other guitar forums. Some have used me and been really happy with the results. I had many people PM me and ask me for help with a logo. I tell them I charge $50 for a logo, and I never hear back again. I feel bad charging, but I do have a side business to run and it can take me anywhere from 2-8 hours to come up with a design that someone likes. 

I am getting away from my point though. I am not trying to sell my services in my thread, more or less express the importance of getting something done right. Anyone can use photoshop, and I can go to any forum where someone can whip up a descent logo in the program. That really isn't fulfilling the true need in a logo. Illustrator is the way to go for logos, and if you can't do it yourself in the program or find someone who is willing to do it for you for free, you should really pay to have it done right. Being in a band isn't cheap, and you really should never skip on something as important as your band's logo.


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## Randy (Jan 8, 2009)

Here's what I came up with, as far as a vectorized logo font is concerned. I have a fairly large .PNG (black) which could be recolored, etc. as well as an example of it being used as a mask (also a .PNG). If you decide you want to do t-shirts/posters, I'll gladly provide you with the Illustrator files, etc.


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## DarkKnight369 (Jan 8, 2009)

Black textured one is definitely awesome!


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## Mattayus (Jan 8, 2009)

Some really nice ideas there man, thanks!  I love the first one, but i'm not too keen on the font. I'll try something myself along those lines, to convey more of what i'm after (but i warn you, it will be incredibly crap).


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## Stealthdjentstic (Jan 8, 2009)

I dont really like the font much either, but the texture looks cool


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## Mattayus (Jan 8, 2009)

Yeah how are you doing that? Is it just a eraser effect?


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## Groff (Jan 8, 2009)

Mattayus said:


> Yeah how are you doing that? Is it just a eraser effect?



Looks like a circular blur


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## Randy (Jan 8, 2009)

Mattayus said:


> Yeah how are you doing that? Is it just a eraser effect?



It's actually more complicated then it looks, but it's pretty much the normal font, with the gouges and the scratches masked off, then exported and rerendered again. 

The one with the swirl is just a background I made, and then I used the vectored logo as a mask overtop of it.


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## Mattayus (Jan 8, 2009)

Ahhh sweet. Im good with effects, you see, it's just getting the initial font to look good.

I think i may go freehand, then scan it in. Because i'm much better at drawing than i am at photoshop


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## darren (Jan 8, 2009)

RESPECT THE VECTOR!


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## Randy (Jan 8, 2009)

^
This. 

Also, if you want to sketch it and send it my way, I can make it a vector image so that you can rescale, recolor, etc. whenever necessary.


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## Mattayus (Jan 8, 2009)

How are you doing the scratched effect, Randy?


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## Randy (Jan 8, 2009)

Mattayus said:


> How are you doing the scratched effect, Randy?



That's actually what I was referring to in my earlier post. 

I saved my un-altered logo as a large bitmap, then masked the whole thing. I cleared the mask entirely, so that the text was visible again, but then I drew all over the mask layer with my line tool, and the brush to make the scratches and gouges. 

After that, I saved it as a VERY large bitmap and loaded it into Illustrator, where I traced it and reexported it as a vector image.


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## Mattayus (Jan 8, 2009)

Ahhhh i get ya, ok cool.

I've come up with something quite dark looking, but i'm too tired to upload it right now cos it's like 2am 

I'll post it up in the morning when i look at it with fresh eyes and realise it's shit 

I'll also give your scratch technique a shot tomorrow too 

Night!


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## Randy (Jan 8, 2009)

Good luck.


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## Mattayus (Jan 9, 2009)

There's something up with the resolution, but here it is - 






I wanted to go for that horror movie style, really sinister and dark, sort of like a lot of the Silent Hill landscaping and graphics.

I'm quite happy with this idea actually, but has anyone got any ideas how to improve it?

I also need some hands coming out of the ground if anyone's got any ideas for that


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## hufschmid (Jan 9, 2009)

or





or


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## darren (Jan 9, 2009)

Mattayus said:


> There's something up with the resolution



It looks like you have anti-aliasing turned off.


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## Mattayus (Jan 9, 2009)

The clouds are a nice touch! Dunno about the skeletal hands though, but nice ideas man!

And thanks Darren, where do i turn that mofo back on?

EDIT: I just checked, and i had the text on "sharp" format, so aa isn't the problem, i don't think  any other suggestions as to why it's a bit broken up and pixelated on the text?


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## Randy (Jan 9, 2009)

Mattayus said:


> any other suggestions as to why it's a bit broken up and pixelated on the text?



I think Darren's right, the anti-aliasing doesn't look like it's on.


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## hufschmid (Jan 9, 2009)

Mattayus said:


> The clouds are a nice touch! Dunno about the skeletal hands though, but nice ideas man!




anytime man, i enjoy doing this stuff so let me know if i can be of any help


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## Mattayus (Jan 9, 2009)

Randy said:


> I think Darren's right, the anti-aliasing doesn't look like it's on.



How do i sort that out then? because as i said, the text was on sharp, so what else can i do?



hufschmid said:


> anytime man, i enjoy doing this stuff so let me know if i can be of any help



Thanks dude


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## darren (Jan 9, 2009)

Try changing it to "crisp" or "smooth".

Also, make sure you've got "Anti-alias" checked when you export the JPEG or PNG.


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## Randy (Jan 9, 2009)

Hmmm... I'd probably use "smooth" but even still, the edges are more pixelated then can be resolved by that. Maybe make sure you have "anti-aliasing" selected when you go to export it. 

Did it start doing that before or after you added the effect/glow on the text? Also, when you use it with no background or a different background does it still look that way? When you're actually in photoshop, do the letters appear like that? Just trying to troubleshoot it, if the other two suggestions don't do it.

EDIT: Darren beat me to it.


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## Mattayus (Jan 9, 2009)

Yeah, it actually looks like that in photoshop too, not just when it's exported. I can't change the font now though because it was rasterized ages before the finished product.. 

Could it be the resolution? as in, the pixels per inch? What's a good one to have it at for like a standard 1024x768 pic?


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## Randy (Jan 9, 2009)

Anything you're planning on printing or reusing should be in 300 pixels/inch.


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## thedownside (Jan 9, 2009)

Mattayus said:


> Yeah, it actually looks like that in photoshop too, not just when it's exported. I can't change the font now though because it was rasterized ages before the finished product..
> 
> 
> > and thats the problem, it was set like that and then rastered, you cant go back and change it.


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## Mattayus (Jan 9, 2009)

Yeah that's what it's in.

Well, i've tried every conceivable angle on this fucker, and can't get rid of the pixelation 

could it be something as simple as the resolution i'm working in? As in my screen resolution?


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## thedownside (Jan 9, 2009)

Mattayus said:


> Yeah that's what it's in.
> 
> Well, i've tried every conceivable angle on this fucker, and can't get rid of the pixelation
> 
> could it be something as simple as the resolution i'm working in? As in my screen resolution?



screen res wont affect a photoshop file. the pixelation is cause the anti-aliasing was off on the font properties when you rastered it. the only way to smoothly get rid of it is to re-create it.


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## Mattayus (Jan 9, 2009)

Yeah, well, i just did, and it's still there  It's not as bad, but it's still there.


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## Randy (Jan 9, 2009)




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## Mattayus (Jan 9, 2009)

lol i made that exact one about half an hour ago, but more blue-ish

I've pretty much decided that that's the actual logo from now on, which isn't much different from what i'd decided in the first place! but it's just getting cool backgrounds and stuff that i wanna concentrate on.

just need to sort this damn resolution problem


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## Randy (Jan 9, 2009)

Well, if you remade the logo then the resolution should be okay and you can just paste it as a new layer overtop of your original background. I posted the one I did because the resolution should be sound, so you can always paste that in place and just recolor to whatever scheme you want.


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## Mattayus (Jan 9, 2009)

Thanks dude


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## Mattayus (Jan 10, 2009)

Randy said:


>



What font is this, by the way?


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## Randy (Jan 10, 2009)

Should be Times New Roman IIRC.


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## Mattayus (Jan 10, 2009)

Yeah that's what i thought.

ya know, i remade it just now using that font (which is the same font as on the one on my myspace anyway so i should've just done it in the first place! ) and it's fine! So maybe the font i used for this one was the problem (it was Trajan Pro, FWIW). It must just have an inherent graininess


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## darren (Jan 10, 2009)

Nope. A font can't have built-in "graininess", unless it's a pixel-based bitmap font.


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## Mattayus (Jan 10, 2009)

Well i have no other explanation because times new roman works just fine. I'm baffled, but nevermind! I'll post up the new one in a bit


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## Mattayus (Jan 10, 2009)

Here we go


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## Randy (Jan 10, 2009)

Much better.


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## TimSE (Jan 10, 2009)




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## thedownside (Jan 10, 2009)

darren said:


> Nope. A font can't have built-in "graininess", unless it's a pixel-based bitmap font.




i've actually run into it a few times with freeware fonts, where the people making the font didnt know what they were doing. looks great at smaller sizes, but once you get up bigger, the work shows threw.


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