Creating a logo with text and a custom shape
Now you’ll create a logo that will overlay the image, using text and a shape layer.
If the rulers aren’t visible, choose View > Rulers to display them.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) the rulers, and if they are currently displaying in pixels, choose Inches. This document will become a printed postcard, and Inches is an appropriate unit of measure for print.
In the Layers panel, make sure the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer is selected, so that the layer you’re about to create will be added above it.
Select the Horizontal Type tool (
), and, in the options bar, do the following:Choose a bold or heavy typeface from the Font Family pop-up menu. We used Arial Bold.
Type 55 pt for the Size, and press Enter or Return.
Click the Right Align Text button, because you’ll soon add a graphic element to the left of the text.
Click the color swatch and set the text color to white.
Drag the Horizontal Type tool to create a text layer across the bottom of the canvas, inset about half an inch away from the sides and bottom. Ours is about 9 inches wide by 1 inch tall.
Type Citrus Lane Farms to replace the placeholder text, click the Commit button (
) in the options bar, and leave the text layer selected in the Layers panel.This font looks better with tighter letter spacing, so in the Character or Properties panel, apply a negative Tracking value; we used −25.
Select the All Caps button (
) in the Type Options group in the Properties panel. If you don’t see this option, scroll down in the Properties panel.If needed, use the Move tool to reposition the text layer so that it looks better relative to the bottom and right sides. Leave space to the left of the text for a graphic you’re about to add.
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Adding a preset shape
When you need a shape such as a symbol or object, one place you can turn to is the Shapes panel, which contains a wide selection of premade graphics. When you add a shape to a document, it becomes a shape layer.
A shape is a vector object drawn using paths, which has two advantages. You can edit it using the same techniques you used to edit the paths you drew earlier in this chapter. Also, like a text layer, a path is resolution-independent, so it will always be as smooth and detailed as the document resolution allows.
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Photoshop includes more preset groups than you see by default in a presets panel list. In the panel menu, choose Legacy Shapes and More to load additional preset groups, including presets that were available in previous versions of Photoshop.
You find shapes in the Shapes panel. It’s easy to use, because it works like the other Photoshop panels that contain preset effects, such as the Swatches, Gradients, and Brushes panels: You see small visual previews of each preset, you can organize them in groups (folders), and you can create your own.
Choose Window > Shapes to open the Shapes panel. The Shapes panel includes groups of shape presets.
Expand the Flowers presets group.
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EXTRA CREDIT: USING CREATIVE CLOUD LIBRARIES WITH LINKED SMART OBJECTS
When you organize and share your design assets using Creative Cloud Libraries, you and your team can use those library items in many Creative Cloud desktop and mobile apps. Let’s take a look:
Open 08End.psd. If the Libraries panel isn’t open, choose Window > Libraries.
In the Libraries panel menu, choose Create New Library, name it Citrus Lane Farms, and click Create.
In the Layers panel, select the Flower layer, and then hold down Shift as you click the Citrus Lane Farms text layer so that the two layers are selected.
Drag both layers from the Layers panel into the Citrus Lane Farms library.
After the Libraries panel finishes syncing the logo to Creative Cloud, it will be available in Creative Cloud applications and mobile apps that use Creative Cloud Libraries.
The appearance of the Citrus Lane Farms text layer was adjusted to look good over the image of the oranges; it should be tested over a wide range of backgrounds and edited as needed for readability. A library item is a Smart Object linked to Creative Cloud, so you can edit it in Photoshop by double-clicking it in the Libraries panel. When you save changes, it updates in all documents that use it.
ADDING A COLOR
A library can store colors for use across Adobe applications.
With the Eyedropper tool, click the flower in the document window so that its color becomes the foreground swatch in the Tools panel.
At the bottom of the Libraries panel, click the Add Content button (
), and click the Foreground Color swatch, adding it to the current library.
COLLABORATING
When you share a Creative Cloud Library, your team always has the current version of those assets. In the Libraries panel menu, choose Collaborate, and fill in the Invite screen that appears in your web browser. Collaborators will see the library you shared in their Creative Cloud applications (to use this feature, you must have a Creative Cloud account and be signed in).
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ADDING ASSETS TO LIBRARIES USING ADOBE MOBILE APPS
Use Adobe mobile apps—such as Adobe Capture—to record color themes, shapes, and brushes from real life and add them to your Creative Cloud libraries. Library assets you add with mobile apps automatically sync to your Creative Cloud account, so you’ll see the new assets in your Libraries panel when you return to your computer.
Drag the last shape preset, and drop it to the left of the Citrus Lane Farms logo.
The flower shape now appears in the Layers panel. The shape currently has a transform bounding box around it so that you can make adjustments before committing it to the document. And yes, there are some adjustments to be made.
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Want to save your own shape preset? Draw a path or shape, select it with the Path Selection tool, choose Edit > Define Custom Shape, name it, and click OK. It’s added to the Shapes panel; if a shape group is active it’s added to that group.
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If the magenta Smart Guides prevent you from making precise adjustments, hold down the Control key as you drag.
Drag any handle on the shape to resize it to be about 1.5 inches tall.
Drag the flower to position it between the left edge of the document and the Citrus Lane Farms text.
Click the Commit Transform button (
) in the options bar, or press Enter or Return. The transformation bounding box disappears.
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Do you wish one of the preset shapes was slightly different? All shapes are paths, so after you add a shape to the document, you can edit it by using the Pen tool or any of the tools grouped with it, or the Direct Selection tool.
A shape is added using the current fill and stroke settings for shapes, which were the ones set for the practice shape earlier. The flower shape is intended to have a solid yellow fill. That change could not be done while the bounding box was active, but now that it’s been committed to the document, the colors can be changed.
Make sure the flower shape is still selected in the Layers panel.
In the Layers panel, double-click the name of the shape layer, type Flower, and press Return or Enter to rename the layer.
Select any shape tool, such as the Rectangle tool or any tool grouped with it. The options bar now displays settings for shapes.
In the options bar, click the Fill swatch, expand the RGB swatch presets group that appears in the drop-down menu, and click the yellow swatch.
In the options bar, click the Stroke swatch, and set it to No Color. Close the pop-up menu by pressing Enter or Return.
Choose Select > Deselect Layers. Now you can see the flower shape without its path being highlighted.
If needed, use the Move tool to reposition the flower and text, composing them relative to each other as a logo, and relative to the edges of the document.
Save your file.
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You’ve combined an image, a color adjustment layer masked with the help of a path you drew by hand, a pre-made shape, and a text layer. The postcard is ready to go!
EXTRA CREDIT: QUICKLY ADDING COLOR AND EFFECTS USING PRESETS
You can use presets to quickly enhance the look of both the text and the flower in the logo. The way that you do this is similar to how you added the flower shape with the Shapes panel and changed its color using the Swatches panel.
Open 08Working.psd (if it isn’t already open), and save it as 08StylePresets.psd.
Start by applying a preset to the flower. In the Styles panel (Window > Styles), expand the Basics preset group.
Drag the second preset from the Basics group, and drop it on the flower in the document window. The style is applied to the flower shape layer. Then drag the same style and drop it on the text.
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You can apply a preset by dragging and dropping it on a layer, or by clicking a preset when the layer is selected. Either way is fine.
In this example, the Basic style applies a simple stroke and drop shadow. But the possibilities are much wider. Explore your design options by freely editing the presets in the Styles, Gradients, Patterns, and Swatches panels and applying them to layers until you get the look you want. And you can add your own presets to those panels.
You can see that the effects have been applied in the Layers panel, and you can fine-tune those effects in different ways:
Click the eye icon for different layer effects to disable or enable them.
Double-click an effect name to open the Layer Style dialog box, where you can edit effects.
If you try to apply a style and it doesn’t seem to change the layer, you may first need to delete effects already applied to the layer: In the Layers panel, drag that layer’s Effects heading to the Delete (trash can) icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Note that a preset may also alter a layer’s Opacity and Fill Opacity, so you may have to set those back to the default of 100%.
If you don’t see any effects listed after a layer after applying a style, the preset may have been applied as a fill or stroke instead of a layer style. To edit it, double-click the shape layer thumbnail (not the name).
If you applied a preset to a shape, select any shape tool, such as the Rectangle tool, to display shape options in the options bar. Click the Fill or Stroke swatch to edit the preset.
EXTRA CREDIT: USING SMART GUIDES TO MAINTAIN ALIGNMENT AND EQUAL SPACING
Let’s take this design to the next level. You can use the Citrus Lane Farms logo to make a repeated motif for packaging or other signage. Smart Guides can help you position the images evenly.
Open 08End.psd, and save it as 08SmartGuides.psd. Choose View > Show, and make sure there is a check mark next to the Smart Guides command, indicating that it’s enabled. If not, select the Smart Guides command to enable it.
Select the Flower layer. Then select the Move tool, and hold down the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) key as you drag a copy of the Flower layer up about 4.5 inches, making sure to use the magenta Smart Guides to keep the Flower copy perfectly aligned with the original, and then release the mouse button. Without Smart Guides, you’d have to also press Shift to keep the copy aligned. The Alt or Option key copies the selected layer.
In the Layers panel, change the Opacity of the Flower copy layer to 50%.
Make sure the Move tool and Flower copy layer are still selected. Hold down the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) key as you use the Move tool to drag a copy of the Flower copy layer to the right, until the magenta values indicate that the layer and its copy are about 1 inch apart and still aligned. Then release the mouse button.
This time, with the Flower copy 2 layer still selected, hold down Alt or Option as you drag the Flower copy 2 layer to the right; release the mouse when two transformation values boxes appear between the three flower layers across the top. The boxes let you know that the distance between the three flower layers is now equal. Using Smart Guides is a fast and easy way to make sure layers you drag are evenly spaced, without having to do math or use a distribution command.
Repeat step 4 so that you have four equally spaced flowers.
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