In this tutorial, which has a video version on our YouTube channel, I’ll show you how to create a professional logo using GIMP 2.9.8 (download it here), which is the latest version of GIMP and is considered the “version of development” as there are still some bug fixes that the developers are working on. However, I have found this version to be much more stable than GIMP 2.9.6 and quite close to the next stable version: GIMP 2.10 (which will be a game changer in my opinion).
It That being said, this version of GIMP contains many of the new features that will be found in the next stable version of GIMP, and we’ll go over some of those awesome new features in this tutorial.
You can also use older versions of GIMP (i.e. GIMP 2.8.22) as there are only a few cases where we will use features found exclusively in newer versions.
Let’s get started, and don’t forget to press ctrl+s on your keyboard to save your composition while you work to keep track of your progress. You’ll have to name your image and choose the location where you’d like to save it at first, but then you’ll overwrite that same file every time you press ctrl+s.
Step 1: Create a new document/image
To To create a new document/image (after you have opened GIMP), go to File>New (shown in the image above). This will open the “Create a New Image” dialog, where you can choose the dimensions of your new composition.
For this tutorial, I’ll choose 1920 pixels for the width and 1080 pixels for the height (which are the same dimensions as HD video, indicated by the red arrow in the image above). Click the “Advanced Options” dropdown menu to change the image resolution, which can be 300 dpi or 72 dpi by default (indicated by the green arrow). If you plan on printing this logo at any time, I suggest setting it to 300dpi. If you only intend to use your logo on the web, stick with 72dpi. Click OK to create the document.
Step 2: Design your background (using the maze filter)
Now that your new document is open, we’ll start by designing the background we want set our logo against. Since I’ll be creating a logo for a hypothetical tech company, I’ll create a cool maze design as the background using the maze filter to give it a more technological feel. Go to Filters>Render>Pattern>Maze to open the Maze dialog (shown in the photo above).
Set the width and height of your maze, which I have set at 25 (indicated by the red arrows in the photo above). The taller and wider you set up your maze, the bigger the lines will be in the maze (and therefore the fewer lines there will be). Next, choose your foreground color, which will be the color of the lines in your maze, and your background color, which will be the color of the area behind the maze lines (indicated by the green arrows above). I chose a darker blue for the foreground (Hexcode #1f80c9) and a lighter blue for the background color (Hexcode #60aee8, indicated by the purple arrow above). Click OK to apply the color to your foreground or background, and OK again to apply the filter.
Step 3: Blend your background using the Blend Tool (gradient tool)
Go to your dashboard of layers and click on the “Create a new layer” Icon (indicated by the red arrow). Name the new layer “Maze Overlay” and, if you’re using GIMP 2.9.8, choose a color label to assign to your layer (this simply helps organize your layers by covering them with color). I’ll choose purple for my color tag (indicated by the purple arrow above), then click OK to create the new layer.
Go to your toolbox and grab the Blend Tool or the Gradient Tool (indicated by the arrow green above). Choose dark gray as the foreground color (Hex code #282828, indicated by the blue arrow above) and black as the background color (Hex code #000000), then click OK. Change the shape of the Blend Tool to Radial (indicated by the purple arrow above) and change the gradient to “Foreground to Background (RGB)”, indicated by the red arrow above.
Draw your gradient on the Maze overlay layer by clicking in the middle of your image and dragging it to one of the corners of your image (it doesn’t matter which corner as this is a radial gradient , which means the gradient is circular.) Release the mouse and you can “live edit” your gradient if you’re using GIMP 2.9.8 (ie you can change the shape, color, position, etc. of your gradient in real time without needing to draw a new gradient each time.) Once you have all the settings you want, click another tool (I always click the move tool) to solidify or apply the changes to your gradient. you will not be able to live edit your gradient once you do this.
Next, with the Maze Overlay layer still selected, drag the opacity of the layer up to about 84 so that part of the maze layer we created earlier shows through.
Step 4: Add Your Te xt
Take the text tool on your toolbox (indicated by the green arrow above) and choose your main font (indicated by the blue arrow). I used a free font called Nexa Bold that you can download here. Change the foreground color to white (hex code #ffffff, indicated by the purple arrow). Next, change the font size to 300 (indicated by the red arrow). Click anywhere in your composition and type your company name (in my case, I used the fictitious name GEOTECH); you can keep caps lock like i did to keep all letters uppercase. If you need to make any changes to the text (ie adjust the size, change the font, etc.), be sure to highlight all the text first with the text tool, and then make any adjustments. You’ll know the text is highlighted or selected because it will have yellow boxes around each letter of the text (as shown above).
Next, take your alignment tool (indicated by the green arrow) and click on the text you just created Then click “Align Target Center” and “Align Target Center” to center the text (indicated by the purple arrows).
Take your text tool again (green arrow) and change your font to a font lighter, in this case Nexa Light (purple arrow). Decrease the font size to 125px (blue arrow) and click anywhere on the image and type Industry (or whatever caption text). Highlight the text and increase the space between the letters by increasing the “kerning” (red arrow). I increased the kerning to 15.
Then, using the move tool (green arrow), click and drag your text (red arrow) so that the “Y” in “INDUSTRY” lines up with the last letter of your main text .
Step 5: Style your text (Bucket Fill Tool and Cubism Filter)
Now I want to change the color of the letters “TECH” in ” GEOTECH” to orange to make my logo stand out. To do this, I’m going to grab my text tool and click on the GEOTECH text. Next, I’ll highlight just the TECH text and double-click the “Change Selected Text Color” box (indicated by the green arrow above). I’ll change my color to orange (hex color #f4892a, indicated by the red arrow), then click OK. I’ll grab the move tool from the toolbox, or hit the “M” key on my keyboard, so I no longer have my text tool and the main text selected.
Next, I want to add a geometric style overlay to the orange TECH text. With the GEOTECH text layer selected, I’ll start by selecting my main text by going to Layer>Selection>Alpha to Selection. This will select all of my main text, but I only want to select the TECH text.
To remedy this, I’ll grab the rectangle selection tool (green arrow) and change the mode to ” Subtract From Selection current” (red arrow). I will then click and drag my rectangle over the GEO text, which will clear the selection area around this text (purple arrow). Now only my TECH text is selected.
I’ll create a new layer by clicking the “Add New Layer” icon in the layers panel and name the layer “TECH Overlay” – set the label from color to green (optional) Make sure this layer is arranged above the GEOTECH text layer in your layers panel.
Take the Bucket Fill Tool (red arrow above) and make sure make sure the foreground color is still set to the orange we used for the TECH text Fill in the selection area we created by clicking inside that area with the bucket fill tool To test if it filled correctly you can hide the original GEOTECH layer by clicking “Show/hide” in the layers panel (the icon next to the layer that looks like an eye, in the location donated by the green arrow in the photo above). If, when you hide the main text layer, all you can see is the orange TECH text as in the photo or above, then you’ve done this part correctly. Show the layer to return the visibility of the GEOTECH text layer before continuing.
Now, with the TECH Overlay layer still selected, go to Filters>Artistic>Cubism.
Set the Tile Size to about 102 and the Tile Saturation to between 2.9 and 3 (or adjust these values until you get the look you want). The “Random Seed” is the algorithm that generates the cubism pattern, and you can use the arrows in this box to cycle through the different random patterns, or click “New Seed” to randomly generate a new pattern until you get one. as. You can also type the same value that I used in my logo (1280115689) and you’ll get the same pattern. Make sure the preview box is checked so you can preview the pattern before you decide. Click OK to apply the filter.
Go to Select>None to deselect the TECH text.
Step 6 – Add a drop shadow to your text
Select the main GEOTECH text layer and go to Filters>Light and Shadow>Drop Shadow. This will open the Drop Shadow dialog.
Set the X and Y values, the distance the shadow will be from the text, to around 10.7, and the blur radius, which determines how much blur the outer edges of your shadow have, at 8.44. Make sure the color is set to black and set the opacity to around 0.5. This will determine how visible the drop shadow is under your text (the lower the value, the more transparent it is, and the higher the value, the more opaque it is). Click OK to apply the drop shadow.
We want to apply this same drop shadow to our INDUSTRY text, and luckily there is an easy way to apply the same effects we just created. With your INDUSTRY text layer selected, go to Filters > Repeat “Drop Shadow” or press ctrl + f on your keyboard. This will apply the drop shadow with the same settings to your text.
Step 7 – Add a Trademark Symbol (if applicable)
If your logo requires a trademark symbol (®) or any other legal symbol, add it by copying the symbol (ctrl+c on your keyboard) from somewhere like a Google search (type “Trademark Symbol” and it should appear in the first search result) and paste it (ctrl+v on your keyboard) next to your main text using the text tool. Remember, just click anywhere in your composition with the text tool to be able to type anywhere in the composition, and then paste the symbol. Since I still have my text size set to 125 from when we wrote the caption text, I’ll change the font size to something smaller (65 in my case) and make sure my font style is still set to Nexa Light (If not, be sure to change it.)
Once you’ve styled your text, move the Trademark Symbol layer by clicking and dragging it in the layers panel (red arrow) to the right. top of the layers panel if it isn’t already.Then grab your move tool from the toolbox and move the symbol so that it is next to the main GEOTECH text and lines up with the top of the letters (green arrow).
Step 8: Save and/or Export your composition
Go to File>Save to save your composition in the native .XCF file format for GIMP. This will save your file with all the original layers so you can go back and edit them if necessary. If you want to save your work as a JPEG, PNG, or other file type, go to File>Export, which will bring up the Export Image dialog.
Name your artwork, choose the file location where you want save it and click the “Select File Type By Extension” drop-down menu to select from the various file types you can export to from GIMP. Once you’ve chosen your file type, hit Export.
An additional dialog will appear, asking you to select settings for your file, such as quality. If you’re trying to save space (ie, you’re uploading the file to your website), I recommend reducing the quality to 60-75%. If you plan to print the artwork, keep the quality high (90% to 100%).
If you need to save the artwork without a background, you can hide the background layers (in this case the “Maze Overlay” layers ” and “Background”) and save the file as a PNG file.
That’s it for this tutorial! Visit our Tutorials webpage for more text and video tutorials, or check out our GIMP YouTube channel.
.