Hey guys! Since my logo making service was so popular on the old Relic, but I am super busy all the time, I thought that I would make a tutorial showing you guys how I made them! Now there are two ways, and one way is rather simple, so I won't go too in depth on it.
Basic Rules
To start off, you MUST know a few of the basic rules or guidelines to logo making. Keep in mind that these are more just trends that I have discovered when looking at Pokemon logos and these trends do not apply to all types of logos, but can be applied to most logo types anyway. Pokemon games generally have similar styled logos, so let me tell you a few things I have noticed that work and a few things that don't.
1) FONTS! The size of the font isn't usually bigger than the Pokemon logo you are using. The best fonts for Pokemon logos are thick, bold, closer together, almost every time has no lower case letters, and never overly complicated. You should avoid using thin fonts, script/handwriting fonts, hard to read fonts, fonts with lots of transparent pixels aside from anti aliasing, extremely bold fonts, fonts with lots of space, or extremely busy fonts. Here is an image of fonts you should and shouldn't use:
(I included some official fonts in there just to show the similarities, however, I wouldn't recommend using official fonts unless your game has to do with those games, like if you are making Pokemon Stars or something.)
2) Logos usually do not have very thick outlines, but you can make them work. If you experiment a bit, you can make them work.
3) Logos always use some form of gradient. I will show you how to use them later, but for now, just remember that adding texture is a good thing, but don't overlap multiple textures, as that gets a little odd looking.
4) As mentioned before, Pokemon logos are almost ALWAYS in all caps. However if you can make lowercase letters work, go ahead, but I advise you to stick to caps.
5) DO NOT USE NEON, CLASHY, OR RAINBOW COLORS! It just hurts your eyes.
6) You may want to add a symbol like in the logos for Sun and Moon or like my old Pokemon Aura logo. You can do this, but don't make it distract from the words and certainly don't forget to anti alias. Also, I'd recommend using a gradient for the colors of the symbol since that just looks nicer.
7) If your game has more than one word, putting the words side by side can work, but if it looks odd to you you can also put them one below the other.
8) The name of your game ALWAYS goes UNDER the Pokemon logo, and the Pokemon logo just barely touches the name of the game.
9) For a nice touch it helps to outline your logos in white or black, or a combination of the two depending on what you want. This looks really good if the logo is going on a specific color background, which brings me to my last point!
10) PLEASE leave the background transparent. It looks nicer and will look a lot less out of place wherever you put the logo. For example, Relic has a nice light background, and if you make your image with a black background, you would see the boundaries of the image and that just doesn't look good at all... If you know the color background of the website or other place that you are posting your logo, a little outline as mentioned before can make it really pop. If I was posting on Relic I would use a darker outline that fades to give it a better, smoother looking effect.
That's about it for the General Rules! Please keep in mind that while these are just guidelines, it looks a lot better if you follow them. However, don't be afraid to get creative, and if something looks good to you, stick with it!
Method 1: CoolText
So, this way is fairly simple, and is how I started out. This way is for people who don't have a very large art experience and/or are not familiar with art programs such as Photoshop or PaintDotNet I wasn't good at making logos myself so I had a website do a lot of the work for me. It basically takes out all the fancy overlay layers and transparency work you normally would have to do and allows you to make a logo in a few simple steps.
To use CoolText, go to https://cooltext.com/. Then, select the Epic Stone logo style.
I always use Epic Stone because I find that it allows for the most customization, but feel free to try out the others! Next, you need to choose a new font, since if everyone used the default BatmanForeverAlternate font the logos would look so similar it would be hard to distinguish the games. Now I'm not saying that it's a bad font, but I am just SO used to seeing amateur logos made with that font that it looks silly. Click the BatmanForeverAlternate font and it will bring you to a list of fonts. now, remember those basic rules I talked about? Here is where they come in. If you took the time to read the previous tab you'd know that there are some basic guidelines to making a logo look professional. You must NEVER use a skinny font, you always want to search for nice, thick, bold fonts. However, you don't want them to be too thick. Look at the Basic Rules tab to see some examples. Anyway, to search for a font you can choose a category you think may suit your logo or you can choose a letter, if you know the name of the font you want. CoolText has over 1,900 fonts, so you shouldn't have trouble finding the perfect font! Next, go to the "logo" tab. It'll be positioned right here:
Now is where the fun begins. Choose which color gradients you want to use by clicking on the gradient next to "Text Gradient" or "Outline Gradient". Text Gradient will change the gradient inside the text, so the lighter part of the words, and Outline Gradient will change the gradient on the outline, or the darker part of the text that is outside the light part. From there you must choose an overlay. Overlays are images that go over the text with a low opacity to give the text a more interesting texture. Click the current rocky one and search for one that suits your needs. After that, you just copy the image! Now, you may want a larger, more high quality version of your logo, which is completely understandable! If you go back to the text tab, you can see a "Text Size" box. Simply type in a number around 200 and you'll have a much bigger, more high quality version of your logo! You can also adjust the outline size of your logo. Remember though, that most Pokemon games do not have very thick outlines on their logos! Lastly, Google an image of the Pokemon logo, making sure it matches the quality and size of your logo, and place your logo underneath the Pokemon logo. Typically the Pokemon logo just barely touches the name of the game. Keep in mind the basic rules and you should have a professional looking logo without having to do all the complicated art stuff!
Method 2: Manually Making a Logo
Alright, this is where things get interesting. If you are experienced in art and have a computer program that you use to edit images, as long as you are familiar with it, this style of logo making is for you! Now, I would recommend starting out using CoolText if you are a beginner, but if you have experience, then this is the way to go, as it is even more customizable. A lot of things will be relative, and so at the end of the day, it's all up to you on what styles you go with and how you make your logo, but this is the general way I make logos. You will need a program that supports layers and transparency, and having effects and different brushes isn't a bad idea either. Some examples of a program like this are:
-Photoshop (Probably the best program to use as it has SOOOO MANY FEATURES! However, it is not free, so if you don't have the money to buy it, then the next two programs are for you!)
-Gimp (I'm not familiar with it but I know Gimp is a good editor, and is free!)
-PaintDotNet (This is what I use, as I am most familiar with it, but a lot of what I do can be done in most image editors.) Here's a download link.
-Possibly PaintToolSai if you know how to use it, but I haven't tried it in PaintToolSai so I am not sure. Also PaintToolSai is not free, it does cost money.
Now, first thing's first. You need to decide on a font to use. I assume you already know the name of your game, so you should have an idea of what kind of font will suit your game. I usually use a 1,600x1,200 canvas, as that is the largest Pokemon logo I have found and I am a big fan of quality, but you can use whatever you'd like. Now, the font size will depend on what you want it to look like, but you should try not to make the font bigger than the Pokemon logo you are using. I usually only make it bigger if it's a small word like Aura. And even then it's only slightly bigger. Now, I will be doing an example for a request I got for a fangame, Pokemon Dark Venom. So, as you can tell from the title, I will be working with darker colors, and since poison or venom is typically associated with the color purple, I think it's safe to say that a dark purple will be my main color. Now, I have many fonts on my computer, but you can look at different fonts online to find the perfect font. As for me, I like to type in the name of the game in the size I want, and scroll through my fonts to see how it would look with different fonts, and then choose the one I like most. So, I type in the name of the game in a dark purple, and look for different fonts. You should always make a new layer when you add something new to the image, such as more text or a shadow, etc. So, on layer two I have the words "Dark Venom" wrote, and I have decided on a font.
Next I am going to apply an overlay. This part can be tricky, so here is what I usually do. Since Dark Venom sounds kind of evil I'm going to go with a sheet metal overlay, so I search "metal" on google. If you are stumped on what overlay to use, go with a sheet metal overlay, as they look nice and you can't really go wrong with them. Make sure your overlay is of a good quality, in other words, it isn't all blurry and pixelated. You also want to make sure it fits over your words. If it looks a bit pixelated but is still pretty good, you can use the oil painting effect under the artistic effects in PaintDotNet to make it look a bit cleaner. I don't know about other programs, but there should at least be something similar to that effect. Now, copy and paste your overlay onto a layer above the words you are using. Position it so it completely covers the words. After that, use the magic wand tool to select all the transparent pixels around your word. Then take that selection out of your overlay later so that the overlay completely covers the words and nothing else. (I uploaded two pictures, one with the oil painting effect and one without)
Now we need to make it translucent so that it retains the color of the words but still gives them that texture. Go to the layer properties and change the opacity until you can see the color and the texture. You can also change the layer settings to overlay. Play around with the opacity level and the layer settings and you should find something you like!
We're almost done! Now all you need to do is add an outline. I prefer to do a black outline and then a second white outline, but you can do whatever you want. I usually make the white outline smaller than the black, and the black outline to be a bit thick but not too thick. I can't really describe a right amount, so just do what you think is best. Lastly, I like to add a little background of sorts, so I decided to add the bio hazard symbol in the background. Notice I added a few effects that I had, such as a fur blur and a feather, as well as a gradient to give it more depth. It doesn't distract too much from the words but it really adds to the logo and makes it look professional! I also made the logo glow a bit for an added effect.
Here's the final product!
Final Product
Now the letters could be a bit bigger but I think this logo looks pretty good! There are lots of effects you can add to the letters and symbol, but don't go overboard. Just test out lots of different things, and remember that you can stray from these steps a bit and add a bit of your own personality! Thanks for reading, and I hope this helped!
Basic Rules
To start off, you MUST know a few of the basic rules or guidelines to logo making. Keep in mind that these are more just trends that I have discovered when looking at Pokemon logos and these trends do not apply to all types of logos, but can be applied to most logo types anyway. Pokemon games generally have similar styled logos, so let me tell you a few things I have noticed that work and a few things that don't.
1) FONTS! The size of the font isn't usually bigger than the Pokemon logo you are using. The best fonts for Pokemon logos are thick, bold, closer together, almost every time has no lower case letters, and never overly complicated. You should avoid using thin fonts, script/handwriting fonts, hard to read fonts, fonts with lots of transparent pixels aside from anti aliasing, extremely bold fonts, fonts with lots of space, or extremely busy fonts. Here is an image of fonts you should and shouldn't use:
2) Logos usually do not have very thick outlines, but you can make them work. If you experiment a bit, you can make them work.
3) Logos always use some form of gradient. I will show you how to use them later, but for now, just remember that adding texture is a good thing, but don't overlap multiple textures, as that gets a little odd looking.
4) As mentioned before, Pokemon logos are almost ALWAYS in all caps. However if you can make lowercase letters work, go ahead, but I advise you to stick to caps.
5) DO NOT USE NEON, CLASHY, OR RAINBOW COLORS! It just hurts your eyes.
6) You may want to add a symbol like in the logos for Sun and Moon or like my old Pokemon Aura logo. You can do this, but don't make it distract from the words and certainly don't forget to anti alias. Also, I'd recommend using a gradient for the colors of the symbol since that just looks nicer.
7) If your game has more than one word, putting the words side by side can work, but if it looks odd to you you can also put them one below the other.
8) The name of your game ALWAYS goes UNDER the Pokemon logo, and the Pokemon logo just barely touches the name of the game.
9) For a nice touch it helps to outline your logos in white or black, or a combination of the two depending on what you want. This looks really good if the logo is going on a specific color background, which brings me to my last point!
10) PLEASE leave the background transparent. It looks nicer and will look a lot less out of place wherever you put the logo. For example, Relic has a nice light background, and if you make your image with a black background, you would see the boundaries of the image and that just doesn't look good at all... If you know the color background of the website or other place that you are posting your logo, a little outline as mentioned before can make it really pop. If I was posting on Relic I would use a darker outline that fades to give it a better, smoother looking effect.
That's about it for the General Rules! Please keep in mind that while these are just guidelines, it looks a lot better if you follow them. However, don't be afraid to get creative, and if something looks good to you, stick with it!
Method 1: CoolText
So, this way is fairly simple, and is how I started out. This way is for people who don't have a very large art experience and/or are not familiar with art programs such as Photoshop or PaintDotNet I wasn't good at making logos myself so I had a website do a lot of the work for me. It basically takes out all the fancy overlay layers and transparency work you normally would have to do and allows you to make a logo in a few simple steps.
To use CoolText, go to https://cooltext.com/. Then, select the Epic Stone logo style.
Method 2: Manually Making a Logo
Alright, this is where things get interesting. If you are experienced in art and have a computer program that you use to edit images, as long as you are familiar with it, this style of logo making is for you! Now, I would recommend starting out using CoolText if you are a beginner, but if you have experience, then this is the way to go, as it is even more customizable. A lot of things will be relative, and so at the end of the day, it's all up to you on what styles you go with and how you make your logo, but this is the general way I make logos. You will need a program that supports layers and transparency, and having effects and different brushes isn't a bad idea either. Some examples of a program like this are:
-Photoshop (Probably the best program to use as it has SOOOO MANY FEATURES! However, it is not free, so if you don't have the money to buy it, then the next two programs are for you!)
-Gimp (I'm not familiar with it but I know Gimp is a good editor, and is free!)
-PaintDotNet (This is what I use, as I am most familiar with it, but a lot of what I do can be done in most image editors.) Here's a download link.
-Possibly PaintToolSai if you know how to use it, but I haven't tried it in PaintToolSai so I am not sure. Also PaintToolSai is not free, it does cost money.
Now, first thing's first. You need to decide on a font to use. I assume you already know the name of your game, so you should have an idea of what kind of font will suit your game. I usually use a 1,600x1,200 canvas, as that is the largest Pokemon logo I have found and I am a big fan of quality, but you can use whatever you'd like. Now, the font size will depend on what you want it to look like, but you should try not to make the font bigger than the Pokemon logo you are using. I usually only make it bigger if it's a small word like Aura. And even then it's only slightly bigger. Now, I will be doing an example for a request I got for a fangame, Pokemon Dark Venom. So, as you can tell from the title, I will be working with darker colors, and since poison or venom is typically associated with the color purple, I think it's safe to say that a dark purple will be my main color. Now, I have many fonts on my computer, but you can look at different fonts online to find the perfect font. As for me, I like to type in the name of the game in the size I want, and scroll through my fonts to see how it would look with different fonts, and then choose the one I like most. So, I type in the name of the game in a dark purple, and look for different fonts. You should always make a new layer when you add something new to the image, such as more text or a shadow, etc. So, on layer two I have the words "Dark Venom" wrote, and I have decided on a font.
Without oil paint:
With oil paint:
With oil paint:
Here's the final product!
Final Product
Now the letters could be a bit bigger but I think this logo looks pretty good! There are lots of effects you can add to the letters and symbol, but don't go overboard. Just test out lots of different things, and remember that you can stray from these steps a bit and add a bit of your own personality! Thanks for reading, and I hope this helped!
- Credits
- -Nintendo/Gamefreak/The Pokemon Company for the Pokemon logo and style
-Overlay: http://www.sancarlossrl.com.ar/pagi...ounds/dark_metal_texture_background-other.jpg
-Ethnocentric RG for the font
-Bio Hazard Symbol: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...rd_symbol.svg/2000px-Biohazard_symbol.svg.png
-.NET Framework for PaintDotNet
