Negative Space - Logo Lesson

Negative Space is the area in and around your letters. To create the look of a logo that uses negative space to shape a letter I need to analyze letter shape carefully. Three letters work best in this situation. The first and third letter provide columns which the middle letter can be carved from. My example is HON. The "H" and "N" both have strong vertical columns which I can use to carve out the "O". The letter "O" is also very easy to recognize and does not look like any other letter. Here we go.

1. Open a new PhotoShop file width 200 height 150.

2. Enter Text (Arial Black 72 pt). Wide sans serif fonts are best for this type of logo. I entered the letter "H" on one layer and "N" on the other. Both letters were displayed in lime green. I created the letter "O" in a lighter shade of green so I could see it easily.

3. Next I scooted the letters closer so that the "O" was carving into the "H" and "N".

4. When I change the "O" to white, the middle will disappear, so I add a new layer below the letter "O". I use the lasso tool to select an area which surrounds the center of the "O".

5. I dump the lime green color into this area and name the layer "center patch".

6. Finally I select the "O" layer and turn the letter to white. Now the "O" is created by the negative space of the other letters and the center patch. I do some last minute adjusting so the letters scoot together even closer and I am done.

This look is also effective with a logo that has a contrasting color as the background.

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