I’m constantly incorporating my client’s logos into Photoshop images – on the sides of trucks, on road signs, on buildings, and most recently, on the front of a shopping cart. When the logo is made up of basic vector shapes filled with a flat color, I simply select it, copy it to my clipboard, switch to Photoshop and paste it into the image (Edit > Paste) as a Path (by selecting “Path” in the dialog window that opens and clicking OK). I save my new Work Path in the Photoshop Paths palette by double-clicking on its listing, naming it and clicking OK. Now I’m free to Scale the Path, Rotate it, Distort it, throw it into Perspective or even Warp it (all found under Edit > Transform Path). Once the Path fits perfectly into my Photoshop image, I can make a selection under the Options menu of the Paths palette, and on a new Layer, Fill the Selection (Edit > Fill) with the client’s corporate color. I can also apply a Gradient Fill, Transparency, or even Effects to make the logo work beautifully as part of the image.
Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.
Author: jeff witchel
Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since.
Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination.
Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 19 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the “go to” guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics.
As an Adobe Certified Expert, he’s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2. Jeff is one of just a handful of Adobe Certified Instructors in the New York metropolitan area. He also is a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6 as well as a master of Adobe Photoshop and related applications. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, illustrators, and photographers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
