Spoiler Alert: Adobe Photoshop is not the end all, be all of design. It is not the only design software on the planet and as a designer; I am telling you that any designer worth their salt does not only use Photoshop. Each of the different software programs that Adobe makes is a “tool” used in the creation and design of print graphics, digital design graphics, motion graphics, etc. Depending on what I am designing, I may use three different programs in conjunction with each other to make the final product. Each one has specific strengths and specific weaknesses that make it a good candidate for certain types of design and functions.
Photoshop is not a good candidate for creating a logo. If you are a new start-up, entrepreneur, small business owner, etc and you want to create your logo yourself, do not use Photoshop. You will be doing yourself a disservice. I am a strong advocate for having a logo professionally developed and designed, not just because I am a designer, but also because I see it as an investment for your business. I feel that it hurts a business more than it helps, to try to create one on their own. I understand that in the short term, it is a cost savings option, but in the long term, it can hurt your brand and end up costing you further down the line.
If you must create it yourself, use a vector based design program like Adobe Illustrator. Do not use Adobe Photoshop, MS Paint, MS PowerPoint, MS Publisher or MS Word. You are probably thinking that you will design something quick to use in the short term and then later down the line, when you have more money, you will hire someone to “clean it up.” You probably also think that it will not cost too much money or will be a simple job to “clean up” your design. If the logo you are furnishing to the designer for clean up, is not a vector graphic; they will have to redraw/recreate your logo first, before they can do anything to modify it. Opening a jpeg, gif or bitmap file in a vector program and saving it as an .eps file will not make it a vector graphic. You have the right file type, but the image, is still an image.
Image files are raster-based files that are made up of pixels. Pixels are tiny squares that make up the image you see on screen. Certain image file types are even designed to “knock out” some of these pixels to make the file size smaller and render a visual faster (low resolution vs. high resolution). Photoshop is a raster program whose strength is image manipulation and screen ready graphics. It has a few other strengths, but image manipulation is a large one. It’s where the term “Photoshopped” comes from as it pertains to magazine covers, duped images, etc. Your source logo file should not be an image or image file.
Vector graphics are made up of lines and points. Those lines and points create shapes with fills. Think along the lines of geometry. Even the fonts are turned into shapes with lines and fills for each letter in the final file output for a logo. With a vector graphic, you can scale it as large or as small as you want without suffering any quality loss. You cannot do that with a raster image. With a vector graphic, you can output as a raster image. If you try to use Photoshop to create a vector version of a raster image, it will look like crap. Trust me. You can easily change the colors of an element within your logo graphic with a vector graphic. You may need to do some bootlegging to do the same thing in Photoshop with a raster image.
You may also run into problems later down the line when using vendors to create packaging, embroidered items, etc. because they will not accept anything other than a vector file for your logo.
In the end, you will probably spend more money later to “fix things” than you would upfront to have it created. I often feel that it would be of more value to spend the money to have a logo created to be a good fit for the brand, it’s industry and it’s demographic/target audience; than to fix something that the owner previously created when they first started out. They end up spending almost as much money for me to recreate and then fix, refine and clean up. So if you must create a logo yourself, you can save a little money later, if you do not use Photoshop. Use a vector program instead like Adobe Illustrator, to create the first iteration of your logo.
Colleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it make your customer buy your product or use your services? My design tries to answer with a YES!”
