User blog:Waterwecna/Logo tutorial

Hello everyone!

I am sure you all have seen your fair share of Survivor logos, both the ones made for the real show and the ORGs. A logo in my opinion is something that can really sell the season, and make people more interested in it. Therefore it is crucial that it is well made and thought through. But making a good logo is not necessarily something easy. During my time in the community of this wiki I have found that quite some people have had problems with making their logos. Therefore I decided to make this little tutorial. In it I will use similar techinques I used in making the logo for Survivor Wikia: Korea. To make the logo I used Photoshop 6.0 which is a rather old version, but still works well.

To make a logo like I made you don't at all need to have a lot of experience with Photoshop, although I do recommend exploring the program at least before you make the logo.

Anyways, let's get started!

Step 1


Download an empty logo template. This will be the base for your logo. Before you start putting colors etc on it, make sure you make the areas around it and inside it transparent. To do that, simply select those areas with the Magic Wand tool and clean with the Magic Eraser tool and the usual Eraser tool. Also, when you use the Eraser tool I advise you to use it in the Pencil mode as this gives you more cleaner lines and prevents certain accidents that can happen when cleaning images.

Step 2
Think of a location for your season if you haven't already. I advise you to pick a country already because they have flags, national animals etc you could use both on your logo and in your season. I also advise you to use the flag colors as the colors for your logo (green, white and orange for Ireland for example. Then get the ethnic patters that are characteristic to your location, and also different symbols and images that have to do with it as well. You can for example use the national animals and birds of that country your season takes place in, or specific people and locations that have to do with it (samurais for Japan and the Eiffel tower for France for example). It is really up to you what you want to use. I am making a logo for a fictional season that takes place in Russia. Therefore I will use the Russian flag colors for my logo and images of a Russian flower, Saint Basil's Cathedral, Chamomile (the national flower of Russia), a flower from a Russian pattern and an ethnic Russian pattern.

Step 3


Color the outer circle of the logo and the middle area. I will color the outer circle with red (#FE0002), which is also the most dominant color when it comes to Russia; and the area around "SURVIVOR" with blue (#0000FE). I will leave the white color for the texts. When coloring the logo, I advise to put the colors on different layers (especially since it makes putting the patterns on easier). So just use the Magic Wand tool to select the area and Paint Bucket tool to color. I also already decided to put on the borders for the logo (under Edit -> Stroke). When you use Stroke, also make sure that you have selected the object and that you have "Outside" checked in the Stroke window. The border I used is 5 pixels, and the color I used is black (#000000). You can also use other colors for the borders. I myself quite like the look the black border gives my logo.

Step 4 (optional)


(If you have a pattern that needs to be cleaned like I do, follow this step as well. If you already have a clean pattern, simply skip to step 5.)

Now it is the time to clean the pattern before you put it on the logo. As you can see, the pattern I picked has quite some stripes on it that I just want to get rid of. First I use the Brightness/Contrast tool (Image -> Adjust -> Brightness/Contrast). I added the Contrast level to +44 to get the white areas cleaned up. As for the border areas I simply used the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select them and then colored them black. Make sure that when you use the Polygonal Lasso Tool, that it is in the "Add to selection" mode (the icon with the dark gray boxes on it), because this could potentially help you prevent losing the selection you made if you accidentally click in the wrong place. I only colored a part of the pattern black (on a separate layer), and will copy it on the rest of the picture (with Layer -> Duplicate Layer). After copying the black frames I made the pink part of the pattern light gray and copied it all around the pattern with the same method as with the black border. method. Don't worry if your pattern isn't perfect (like mine) - we will make it smaller and more transparent during this tutorial and you can't even notice those small mistakes then.

Step 5


Since my pattern is rather large I made it smaller (300x300 pixels). Then I defined it as a pattern (Edit -> Define Pattern). In the case of the Korean logo I used a brush to put the pattern on to give it a more realistic look. But since this pattern would look the same in both options I will go with the easier one which is to simply fill the area with the pattern. To put the pattern on, go to the one of the colored layers, right click and select Select Layer Transparency. Make sure you put the pattern on a different layer again. Then simply click Edit-> Fill -> Pattern and choose the last pattern on the list. Then change the opacity of the pattern to 22% (it can be higher or lower depending which kind of logo you wish to get). Then do the same with the blue area as well.

Step 6


Now it is time to add the Chamomile flowers to the left and right of the blue area. First, clean up the green background of the Chamomile picture with the same methods we used while cleaning the background of the logo (Magic Wand and Magic Eraser Tool). Then place it on the logo and make it the right size with Edit -> Free Transform (or simply Ctrl T). When you are done, simply click Layer -> Duplicate layer and place the other flower on the other side. Make sure they are placed symmetrically as well so the logo looks more correct.

Step 7


I used this gorgeous flower I found on one of the Russian patterns. I cropped out the area around the red flower using the Crop Tool and then selected the area around it and made it transparent. The rest of the background I simply cleaned by carefully using the Eraser tool without any selections. Then I simply selected the flower that remained, and colored it with the blue color I used on the logo before (#3838FE). Now the flower is ready to be placed on the logo.

Step 8


Now simply place the flower on the logo. I put it between "Outwit" and "Outplay" and on either side of "Outlast" in its original size. Then I made the flower smaller twice with Ctrl T and placed the smaller versions similarly to how I did in the Korea logo (smaller ones closer to "Outlast"). Then I merged the layers with Ctrl E and made them a little transparent (Opacity 92%) so they would be a bit darker and merge better with the rest of the logo.

Step 8


Now it is time to add the image of the Catherdal. But before you do so, it is important to make the image a bit different to make it fit better with the rest of the logo. For that, go to Filter -> Artistic -> Cutout. Put the No. of levels on 8, Edge Simplicity on 0 and Edge Fidelity on 1. Then place the image on the logo and put it behind all the layers you have. Use Ctrl T to fit it in. I left the bottom part of the Cathedral for the lower part of the inside of the logo (in the Korean logo I actually used a separate image of a lake).

Step 9


Now you should make the tip of that Cathedral to come forward (otherwise it will not look as good as it could). For that simply hide the black base of the logo and put the opacity of the red circle so low that you can see the cathedral image under it more clearly. I also used the Rectangular Marquee Tool and the Move Tool to get one of the blue flowers away which I will later put back. Now while still having the area selected, simply go to the layers that cover the picture and use the Eraser tool to clean. Then also clean the rest of the cathedral picture that remains outside the logo. I also cleaned out some of the random light spots on it (that were inside the logo). Then I put the blue flower back on the logo as well. Since I thought the Cathedral picture needed a bit more color, I used a little contrast on it (+29).

Step 10


To make the Cathedral image "pop out" a little more I will use the Stroke tool. You don't have to do the same if you don't wish. I personally think that it would make the Cathedral in the logo more interesting. To add the border, simply select the area around the top of the Catherdral with the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Don't worry if it comes out a little sloppy like mine did, you can fix it later. Now once again go on a separate layer and click Edit -> Stroke. I used #6B8CEF for the color and 3px for the width. There was also a part of the Cathedral in the bottom of the logo that I also used the Stroke Tool on. Then I made the border a bit transparent (opacity 84%) to make it blend better with the rest of the logo.

Step 10


Now it is time to finally put the borders around the texts in the logo. I used a simple black one with 3px width on "Outwit", "Outplay" and "Outlast". With "SURVIVOR" I selected the text and then colored it on a different layer. Then I put on a 3px black border (inside, not outside) and then I stroked it again with the color #FE383A and the width of 3 pixels. Since the Chamomile flowers were getting in the way a bit, I changed their position and also put a border around them (#FE383A and 3px width). I also stroked the blue flowers (#000073, 3 px width, inside not outside).

Step 11


Since I was still not fully satisfied with the logo and wanted to shadow it in a more interesting way, I decided to tweak it a bit. For that I used a floral clipart image of a Russian flower. I cleaned the background and made it 100 pixels and then used Edit -> Define Brush. Then I went all around the logo (while having the colored area I was putting it on selected) and put it on a separate layer as always (with the color #000073). Once I was done, I simply moved the layer with the floral pattern before the layers with the original pattern and the colors (so it would be behind the blue flowers and Chamomiles etc). Since I really liked the contrast the floral pattern creates I decided not to make the pattern transparent.

Step 12


Now it is finally time to add in the fonts. First I will add "Wikia" right below "SURVIVOR". I used the font Survivant for it, made it as big as 60 pt, colored it white and stroked with the color #FE383A and 3 px width (this time under Blending Options -> Stroke. You can get there when you right click on the layer). As for "RUSSIA" I used the font Gagarin, put it on the logo with 90 pt size, with the color #CC0405 and stroked with the color #020E7D and the width of 3px. Then I selected the font and went over it with the floral brush, put the mode to Color Burn and Opacity to 36%.

Step 13 (optional)
You can also add any additional symbols etc to the logo and stroke them with different colors you have already used on the logo. I decided not to add any additional symbols to this logo (as it was already colorful enough and I felt that additional images would have made it too cluttered). It is really up to you though which logo you really want to make.

And there we have it! The logo for the fictional season of Survivor: Wikia Russia!



If you have any questions or if you would like to get the .psd files of the logos I have made feel free to contact me. I hope this tutorial was helpful to you!