Sharing Crossbars - Logo Lesson

     

The crossbars of letters can provide a means to link them together and determine placement on the page. When selecting a font to use for this type of logo look carefully at the crossbar. In this example I used the font "Parisian" which had a delicate crossbar which extended beyond the letter and was a major design element for the letter.

1. Open a new PhotoShop file width 100 height 100.

2. Enter Text (Parisian 72pt). I entered the letter "A" on one layer and "F" on the other. I decide to use two neutral colors for the letters, and use a bright accent color for the linking crossbar. I line up my letters so their crossbars are even.

3. Next I drew in a line which would cover the existing crossbars and unify the 2 letters.

4. Now I typed in the corporate name in red, I again used the Parisian font this time with lowercase letters.

5. I decided that a red border would help define the logo. When I tried to add a red stroke to my background layer it wouldn't work. I solved the problem by creating a copy of the background and applying an inside stroke of 2 pixels. Here is my finished logo.

To view this file as a Photoshop document access the CD > CIS 58.53B Advanced Class > PSD > logo > logo-crosshair.psd

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Sometimes just using the crosshair as an alignment guide can also give letters an interesting look. I raised the "e" so that its crosshair was aligned with the letters "f" and "t". I also enlarged the letter and changed its color to draw the eye to the center of the logo.

To view this file as a Photoshop document access the CD > CIS 58.53B Advanced Class > PSD > logo > logo-cross-align.psd