Free Photoshop Tutorials - Your Own Google Logo

Free Photoshop Tutorials - Your Own Google Logo

is your newest source for free logo design tutorials. And we can't kick things off right without a set of photoshop tutorials for our google logo fans. In this series of 5 photoshop tutorials, you will learn how to design your very own fake google logo.

We're updating our tutorials collection weekly so please check back often. And if you're a seasoned logo designer and would like to submit a photoshop tutorial on logo design, please

Photoshop Tutorial #1: You will learn how to recreate the Google logo in its original form (well, close to it) as a foundation for your own inspired design.

Photoshop Tutorial #2 & #3: We'll demonstrate how to use Photoshop to spice up your logo and dress it up with some interesting elements. (Debuts on 11/27/05)

Photoshop Tutorial #4: Now, we'll take it up a notch in this tutorial and add some clip art. (Debuts on 11/27/05)

Photoshop Tutorial #5: Finally, as a grand finale, we give the logo some life and teach you how to animate it. (Debuts on 11/27/05)

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You should be able to complete this photoshop tutorial in as little as ten minutes.

1. First let's open a new document by pressing Crtl+N:

As you can see I have made it quite big (500x300). It's always a good idea to start out with a big canvas so we can see what we are doing. Later we can size it down.

2. Using the TYPE tool (by pressing 'T' on the keyboard), write Google (first 'g' capital). The original font is called Catull. This is a commercial font, which means you have to pay for it!. However, the Times New Roman font is amazingly similiar and free.

3. Click the numbers in the type size box (circled red). Then simply press the up arrow until you have just about filled the area. Don't forget you must have the text selected in order to do this. Double click it and it should turn inverted.

4. You may have noticed that the edges of the text aren't very smooth. We'll fix that now.
On the menu Go->Layer->Type->Anti-alias Sharp.

5a. Now for the colors. With the type tool selected, click just after the capital G and drag to select it.

5b. Click the colored rectangle at the top (A) and a new screen will pop up. Now double click the text box (B) and the numbers will turn blue. Now type this: 1645AE. Click ok.

6. The same procedure for the first 'o'. Select it, click the colored rectangle, but this time we type 'D62408'. We could just select a nice red color from the screen, but this way it gives us exactly the same shade that is used on the google logo.

7. Same again, this time use 'EFBA00'.

8. The second g is the same color as the first so just repeat step 5.

9. Now we select green for the 'l' using '007D08'.

10. And repeat step 6 to finish the 'e'. We should now have something like this:

11a. Now we come to the good bit. Click the 'Add Layer Style' icon (circled in red). From the drop down menu choose 'drop shadow'.

11b. Up pops a screen with lots of options. The best way to learn what each option does is to change it. The great advantage here is that the modifications can be seen in real time. I wanted to get as close to the original drop shadow as possible so I used these values:

Opacity: 50%

Angle: 116

Distance: 7

Spread: 0

Size: 4

12. Almost finished. Now we have to do the bevel. This really brings the logo to life. Again, experimenting with all the options is the best way to learn. I used these:

Style: Inner Bevel

Technique: Smooth

Depth: 80%

Direction: up

Size: 8

Click the gloss contour button and select 'rounded steps' from the menu (circled in red). This gives our logo that little shine that you can see on the original.

13. There's a little too much white around the image so let's get rid of it. Select the crop tool (C on the keyboard) and drag it around our logo. Don't worry about trying to do a perfect job as you can always adjust the selection. When you're happy with it press 'Enter' on the keyboard.

14. Now it's time to resize our work. Go Image->Image Size. In the pop up window change the width to 300. If you have 'Constrain Proportions' checked the height will automatically change too.

15. Here's our logo next to the original. Pretty close.

16. But not close enough. our drop shadow is a tad too big. That's an easy fix. Click the 'Add Layer Style' icon again and from the drop down menu choose 'Drop Shadow'. Now just change the 'Distance' to 5. Much better.

17. While we have the layer Styles box opened, let's save the style for future use. Click the 'New Styles' button. When the text box pops up type 'google' and click ok.

18. To see and use our new style go Window->Styles.

19. The style window opens and we can see our style added at the bottom. If we move our mouse cursor over the last it should say 'google'. Now we can use it whenever we like.

20. There's just one more little correction to make. If you look at the original Google, the letters are much closer together than ours. But that's an easy fix. Select the Type tool (T on the keyboard) and we are presented with a few options at the top of the screen. Click the Character palette (circled red-A). When the pop up screen appears, we have to change the tracking to -25 (circled red-B). That's it! Our logo is now finished.