Below are some famous logos with silhouettes and a tutorial on how to make a silhouette in Photoshop.

Jumpman

NBA

MLB

James Bond

Wayans Bros. Entertainment

This brief tutorial by Jennifer Apple will show you how to create an iPod ad silhouette in Photoshop:

I See iPod People — The Photoshop Silhouette

If you’re crazy about those iPod ads and want to make one yourself, it’s actually pretty easy. The first thing you’ll need is an image of someone that you can extract from the background without too much work.

Let’s Start
To begin settle on the dimensions of your canvas and resize your original photo. Go Image> Image Size menu. Click on Resample Image and choose Bicubic Sharper from the drop-down menu. This is the best setting for making sure that an image doesn’t blur. For the Dancing Basketball Player I resized so it would fit into a target canvas of 158 x 292.

Make Your Selection
Make sure to do some quick tests before starting the more precise and time-consuming selection work, because some images just don’t look all that great when you convert them to a silhouette.

Use the Magic Wand to select your background, and Inverse it (Select> Inverse), then copy and paste this into a new canvas with your target background color to see how it looks. If it’s promising, then go back and make the detailed selections that are necessary for this to look professional.

Improve Your Selection
If you have a good solid background to work with in your source photo you can select most of it easily by using the Magic Wand Tool. The next step is to blow up the canvas to 300% and start doing touch-ups with some Lasso Tool selections. Once you’ve got the background of the image selected just right, Inverse (Select> Inverse) so that you have the subject selected, and then Copy (Edit> Copy).

New Canvas With 3 Layers
Create a new canvas with 3 layers (Layer> New Layer x 3):
LAYER 3 – will be the silhouette cutout.
LAYER 2 – will be the color cutout.
LAYER 1 – will be the background color [#9369BF]

First fill your background layer with a solid color. Next paste your cutout selection into both Layer 2 and Layer 3. Now make sure Layer 3 (the top most layer) is active, and Command-click (PC: Control-click) to select your cutout. Set your foreground color to black, and use Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selected cutout with the black. That’s it. Save as a GIF. Now I’ll explain why we have Layer 2.

A Perfectionist’s Work Is Never Done
Your file should be fine just as it is, but the following adds a nice touch. Use the Eraser set to 15% opacity and try and reveal some of the underlying color image on Layer 2 by making a couple of passes on Layer 3. I did this to the arm and hand holding the basketball. Also add a very soft shadow near the feet. Almost all the iPod ads I’ve seen include this.

If you’re Bono you’ll also want some of your face to show through as well, which is what Apple did for the U2 TV spot.

Troubleshooting
Jagged Edges — If you find your selection and cutout has left you with some jagged edges, try deselecting the cutout and applying a Gaussian Blur (Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur) set at a very low Radius of 0.2 pixels. This can help soften the edges.
Sore Eyes — Don’t go crazy with electric day-glo colors in your background. Here are some actual iPod ad colors:
Blue #1379F9, Purple #9369BF, Orange #F59110, Green #9FCC39, Pink #EB5297.

Good luck with your iPod silhouette creations!

Apparently, there have been some rumors going around the Web that Pizza Hut is changing its name to The Hut — and with good reason. Pizza Hut has been using “The Hut” in some of its marketing, including using it on its boxes. But according to a recent tweet, the company is still going by the name Pizza Hut. With that said, why on Earth would Pizza Hut put a new name and logo on their pizza boxes if they’re not changing their name? This really leads to confusion, as you can see by the rumors that have been started. It just goes back to the logo design rule that says something to the effect that your logo should be CONSISTENT across ALL platforms! This switching back and forth between “Pizza Hut” and “The Hut” only confuses people. It kinda reminds me of the time they first started using “Pasta Hut” in their TV commercials. I was convinced they were changing their name to Pasta Hut, lol! Maybe in all the confusion, Pizza Hut will realize their mistake and just go back to being good old Pizza Hut.

The Philadelphia 76ers are taking a step back in time. The Sixers have changed their logo and color scheme to revive the old 76ers logo, last used during the 1996-1997 season. The original color scheme dates back to 1963 and was used during the teams two championship seasons. The “new” logo dates back to 1977.

The team’s managment wants to bring back the logo as a way to connect the past with the future and evoke memories of the team’s proudest moments.

The Sixers, by the way, haven’t won a playoff series since 2003. Maybe they think bringing back the old logo will help them win a championship, lol!

In light of the recent election held in Iran, Iranian protesters turn to Google for support. Protesters want the search engine giant to change its logo for one day to the image shown above. The logo bears the Iranian flag, a white dove to symbolize peace, and a drop of blood representing the victims slain in the post-election violence. Supporters of the protesters can log on to http://whereistheirvote.x10hosting.com and vote for Google to change its logo to the proposed logo above.

How do you feel about this situation? Should Google and others around the world get involved, or should Iran be left to handle its own affairs? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Take a look at most logos from the past and you’ll likely notice one thing– they all seem to lack structure. Most logos from earlier times appear very busy, cluttered, often illegible and just down right complex. These logos included detailed illustrations that, more often than not, resembled mini advertisements that told a company’s story. Over time, however, logos became much more simple and refined, making them more memorable and easier to recognize.

Apple

Ford

3M

Xerox