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Logo Re-building and Tracing

>> Recreate a logo from a low res or scanned copy....

I was asked by the Deputy Principle of Carrick-on-Shannon Community School to provide a hi-res digital version of their school crest for general use but specifically for a large sign outside the school. The original graphics were done back in 1994 and the designer was not contactable so all we had to go on was a jpeg of the embroidered crest from a school jumper!

I’ve done a few of these and quite enjoy them but this job had a little more detail than normal website logos. The process is normally the same each time, I import whatever low-res original I have into Photoshop and blow it up to the required size and proceed to trace out the detail using mostly the ‘Pen’ and ‘Selection’ tools. I fill each large Pen traced area with colour, using gradients if required. I create ‘Paths’ for the circular text and let the text follow that.

For details that can’t easily be traced with common shapes, ie – the fish, water, etc below, I use the ‘Free-form’ Pen tool and just trace by (steady!) hand then use the ‘Stroke Path’ option and some custom brush settings to get some nice line art effects.

Before and After below:

CCS Crest

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Posted in Recent Projects, Reverb Studios Services on December 2nd, 2011
Tags: carrick-on-shannon community school, graphic design, logo rebuild, logo tracing, school crest
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http://twitter.com/slkav Sarah Kavanagh

Very nicely done. Photoshop would be my tool of choice also, but can I ask why you would not use Illustrator to create outlines for you and speed up the tracing process?

http://www.reverbstudios.ie/blog Leon Quinn

Simple answer..I dont know how to use Illustrator yet! Although, if I can use the Photoshop pen, it might be quick to learn?
http://twitter.com/slkav Sarah Kavanagh

The pen in Illustrator is similar to that in Photoshop except easier and more dynamic. You can do a lot more with it and deselection of a point involves just clicking on the point, not alt clicking which is handier. Also shapes are creates with fills and strokes, not just fill, so you can do an outlines easier for example instead of applying blending options to the path or shape layer.

OR.. you can get Illustrator to do all the hard work for you. Import your graphic into Illustrator >>Object >>Live Trace >> Tracing options (set your parameters) then >> Trace. Once you’ve traced object, go back into same menu and Expand to create individual shape layers for each path.
http://www.reverbstudios.ie/blog Leon Quinn

Thanks for that..have a copy of Illustrator lying around here somewhere, time to fire it up!
http://twitter.com/slkav Sarah Kavanagh

if you need any guidance just let me know.

Barry O’Shaughnessy

Nice Job Leon!
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Very nicely done. Photoshop would be my tool of choice also.You have done a great job.Thanks for sharing it…

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