Logo software advice

[Kezzer]

Hi guys, I've got some really good tips and advice on your forum but as part of an assignment I have I am a bit confused as to why people would use Photoshop to produce a logo if it needs to be converted to a vector image? any advice or opinions on this would be much appreciated.

[Paul Murray]

Possibly because they don't have or know how to use Illustrator/vector software?

[dedwardp]

Could be perhaps that they would feel more comfortable playing around in Photoshop and therefore draft up some ideas in Photoshop before producing them in vector via Illustrator or something?

[SparkCreative]

Because nobody's told them NEVER EVER DO THAT!

Illustrator every time. IMO you should start on a pad, then go to Illustrator and work them up in black and white only. Grads, colours, drop shadows and stupid effects are irrelevant to whether a logo works or not.

[pcbranding]

I'm with Spark.

There are many reasons why people do use these tools in the way they do and that's fine and personal choice and the comments below are from my experience.

In general, because of where these two applications have come from Illustrator is the tool for creating/drawing 'things' (logos, illustrations for print) and Photoshop for retouching/image modification.
Because Illustrator now has access to 'raster'-based filters and Photoshop has some vector tools, it can be confusing to newcomers which to use.

It may well be fine to create a logo in Photoshop if the style of the logo requires the effects that it has available, but these should only really by applied to a sound/well crafted logo. Effects alone don't make a good logo.

Logos created within Photoshop are bound by the document's physical size and the document's resolution. Creating a beautiful logo that can only appear on screen is fine as long as the client doesn't then want it to be used on their letterhead/van/advertising etc.

This is where Illustrator comes in...logos created as vectors allow for this scaling up and down as they are based on maths rather than numbers of dots.

Illustrator also handles Pantone colours more easily which is critical for line/spot colour jobs (i.e stationery, corporate identity, vinyl signage), but this again has blurred due to popularity(cheapness) of digital/process printing.

My advice: create good 'flat' logos in Illustrator. That's it!
Only use Photoshop to work on the 'flat' logo for specific applications (web page banner) etc.
If Photoshop is the only application available, work on a logo at A4 in size at 300dpi which should allow sufficient 'scalability' for future use.

[Kezzer]

Thank you very much guys your posts have been really helpful to me for my research task and I am now getting a much better understanding.

[am:pm graphics]

I think it's often what people feel comfortable with when they start out and often photoshop is quicker to pick up than illustrator etc.

[Minuteman Press]

People migrate to software they feel comfortable with.

Business cards in Powerpoint! etc.

[Paul Murray]

Please tell me that's a joke!

[wdltd]

I often use photoshop for logos, though only to generate drafts and concepts as it is more fluid for drafting your initial marks and shapes.

Then you can transfer these concepts into illustrator and work over the top of them to create a more structured marque, making sure that it will always work in black & white.

A good article for logo generation from the computer arts website:

Computer Arts - Refine your logo design workflow