Web 2.0 logo creation (video guide)
September 21st, 2007
Here is a video edition of our Web 2.0 logo creation tutorial that you loved. Video is streamed via youtube as it is 8 mins long and would be hard for our bandwitch to have it stored in our host. The quality is not the best, but it will help you alongside with the original detailed post. Remeber to use XHTML validated code when embedding youtube videos in your site
Create a Web 2.0 logo using Abobe Photoshop part 2
June 3rd, 2007

Here is a second tutorial (here is the first one) for creating a Web 2.0 logo like the one above using Adobe Photoshop. Create a new Photoshop file (File>New). I made it in a 4500×4000px file with RGB color and 300dpi resolution, but you can do it in a smaller one.
- Create the talk bubble shape using the custom shape tool (if you cannot see the shape in the dropdown menu from shape tool, click the arrow and choose talk bubble shapes). Double click your shape layer and apply Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Bevel and Emboss, Gradient Overlay and Stroke effects as shown in the screenshots below.






- After applying the effects, right click on the shape layer and select duplicate layer. Click on the duplicated layer and click edit>transform>flip vertical. Place the flipped shape exaclty below the original one. This shape will be used as the reflection. Double click on the duplicated layer and disable drop shadow and bevel, emboss effect and stroke. Leave Inner Shadow effect as it is and choose the Gradient Overlay effect tab and apply the following settings in the gradient. Set the duplicated shape layer opacity to 30%.


- Choose Type tool and type anything you like in the original shape. Double click the type layer and apply Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Bevel and Emboss, Gradient Overlay and Stroke as shown in the screenshots below.





- If you want to create an “i” like the one in my logo choose the custom shape tool, choose symbols from the shape meny selections and place the “i” on your logo. Then apply the same effects as in step 3.
- Create a new layer above all the others and select the eliptical marquee tool. Create an eclipse that covers half the original shape logo and half the duplicated one. Fill the eclipse with white color using the paint bucket tool and drop down the layer opacity to 20%.

Color codes are printed on the screenshots. Your logo is now ready ![]()
Create a skype-like logo using Adobe Photoshop
May 25th, 2007

It is much easier to create a skype-looking logo than you imagine. Create a new file in Photoshop (File>New) and type anything you want using the type tool. Apply Bevel and Emboss, Color overlay and Stroke as you see them in the screenshots below and your logo is ready. Note that stroke size depends on image size, so put any px you need to have a result like mine (or something similar). Color codes are written in the screenshots.



Create the web 2.0 reflection effect with Adobe Illustrator
May 12th, 2007

Few days before, I wrote a tutorial on how you can build a web 2.0 logo with Adobe Photoshop. Here is another one for adding the reflection effect in a logo (like mine above) using Illustrator, which makes the reflection more flexible and easy to scale and manage. Open your logo in Adobe Illustrator and follow these steps:
- Duplicate your image by pressing alt (command for Mac) and clicking it. Drag it down (pressing the “shift” key while dragging helps for keeping your image aligned) so it looks like the one below.

- Select the original object and click object>lock>selection to lock it.
- Select the duplicated object and click object>transfrom>reflect. Choose horizontal with 0 angle. Move the duplicated logo exaclty below the original one.
- Select the rectangle tool and draw a rectagle that covers the reflected image like in the screenshot below (color does not matter).

- Fill the rectagle with a white-to-black gradient, set angle to -90 and point color points like in the screenshot.

- Select the gradient rectangle and the reflected image by pressing control+A (command+A for Mac) as the original object is locked and apply a transparency mask by clicking on the arrow in the upper right of the Transparency tab.


- Drop down the transparency opacity to 40-50% to make the effect more realistic and your reflection is ready!

Note that making the reflection with Adobe Illustrator has nothing to do with the background color (like in Photoshop). Follow the same steps for applying it on dark backgrounds.
Tags: adobe, beta, design, guide, illustrator, internet, logo, Photoshop, tutorial, Web 2.0Build a watermark in your photos using Adobe Photoshop
April 30th, 2007

There are many cases that you have to include large fotos in your site, but you do not want others to download them and use them. The easy way to protect your work is to write your name in front of the photo, so it cannot be used, but it does not look nice, does it? The more professional and nice-looking option is to build a watermark in your photos. Your work will look like the card from our store above. Let’s see how you can build this watermark with Adobe Photoshop (7 or later).
- Open the photo that you want to put the watermark on and choose the custom shape tool.
- From the option panel, choose the shape thumbnail and choose the Copyright symbol.

- Create a new layer on top from the others and press d to choose black as the foreground color.
- Draw the Copyright Symbol on your photo (with the custom shape tool) and place it where you want.
- From Filter menu choose, Stylize>Emboss and apply the filter with Angle=135, Height=3 or 5 pixels and Amount=100% .

- Click the lock transparent pixels in the layer palette.

- Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur choose radius=3pixels and click ok to apply it.

- Now choose the layer with the copyright symbol from the layer pallete and change the blending option from Normal to Hard light to make the watermark transparent (like above). Play with the opacity, so the watermark looks nice to your eyes.

- Choose the Type tool, write what you want under the copyright logo and right click on the text layer>rasterize type.

- Apply the same effects to the text layer (step 5 to 8)!







