Learn how to create a Futuristic Logo in photoshop

Glowing? check. Metallic? check. Awesome? Double check! Sometimes when you’re ready to create a logo, it needs a futuristic edge. This tutorial will help you create a futuristic logo that you can play with and change to make your very own.






First let’s see our final result:-

Let’s get started. Fire up that Photoshop – and let’s slip into the space-age!

Step 1:-

First, let’s open up a  new document in Photoshop. To get started, I usually just select a “U.S. Paper” sized document. That’s 8.5”x 11” at 300 dpi. Let’s also name it “Websoulz Futuristic Logo” by clicking in the name box. This will give you a high quality, large sized document to start with – just to make sure that when you resize the finalized logo, you won’t have any blurring or un-readability.

Step 2:-

Since we’re making a mainly landscape logo, go ahead and flip your original page 90 degrees clockwise to make it a long rectangle rather than a tall rectangle.

Step 3:-

To get that deep space effect initially, fill the background with a dark color. I like dark charcoal gray – #363636.

Step 4:-

Let’s start with the globe. It takes a few steps, the first of which is to create a circular shape by clicking on the shape creation tool on the left-hand toolbar. It doesn’t have to be any certain size, but you want it to be large enough to work with. Fill it with the color of your choice – I’ve used #d3f819.

Step 5:-

Now we’re going to give it some depth. Create a new layer and select the exact shape of your original green globe by holding down the “CMD/Ctrl” or “Ctrl” key and hovering your mouse over the picture of the circle in your layers palette. You should get a little hand with a square over it – click layer with the green ball in it when you see that – you should see a new dotted circle on top of the original green ball.  The dotted line is called a selection and we need it just a little bit smaller, so go to Select > Modify > Contract… Contract it by 10 pixels.

Step 6:-

Now that you’ve got a contracted selection, make sure the new layer you created is the one you’re working in and change your foreground color to white. Select the gradient tool in your left-hand side toolbar and make sure the selection looks like the picture above. Drag your gradient over your selection and then deselect it by hitting “CMD+D” or “Ctrl+D”on your keyboard. Your result should look like the image below.

Step 7:-

Rename the layer that you just created – call it “Gradient”. Duplicate the layer by going to Layer > Duplicate Layer and call the new layer “Glow.” We’re going to be working with “Glow” now – so first flip “Glow” by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. It will become the bottom glow that gives your sphere that 3D look.  Select the whole layer by again hovering over it while pressing the shift key, then clicking when you see the hand. You’re going to want to fill it with a complimentary color – I used #a5e902 – by going to Edit > Fill and selecting Foreground Color.

Step 8:-

Lower the opacity of the “Gradient” layer to 70% by clicking on it in the Layers palette and the opacity options are on the top right corner. This just gives it a little bit better of a blend and makes it a bit more believable.  Now, working with the “Glow” layer again, go to Edit > Transform > Distort and change the settings to something like the image above. Double click to confirm the changes. Then, still working with “Glow,” go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and change the radius to 70 pixels – then click okay. Then add in whatever text you’d like on the sphere. I’m going to use a “w” for Websoulz!

Step 9:-

We’re not going to working with the individual layers of the green sphere now, so what I’m going to do is just go ahead and combine those layers to make everything easy and make sure nothing gets messed up. You can do that by selecting all of the layers in the Layers palette and pressing “Ctrl/CMD+E”.
The green globe is now one image called “Green Globe”!

Step 10:-

Now we’re going to be creating the metal bracket that goes around the globe as a whole. Go ahead and make a new circle shape, like we did in the beginning to create the green sphere. It doesn’t matter what color it is because we’ll be applying a metal gradient to it – to make it shiny! Rasterize the shape, so, we can edit it without Photoshop yelling at us by going to Layer > Rasterize > Shape Layer. Go ahead and duplicate that layer and hide it by clicking on the little eye in the Layers palette – we’ll be using that later.

Step 11:-

Select the first, visible white circle. Apply a gradient that looks like this to it to get that metal-y effect.

Step 12:-

The next part is a little tricky, but we’re almost at the end – so keep hanging on! Go ahead and make your second white circle visible and bring it to the front of everything that’s going on by going to Layer > Arrange > Bring to Front.

Step 13:-

In order to get that peeking out feeling, we’re going to need to take away a chunk of the circle. To, do that, going to your shape tool on the left-hand side toolbar and go to the “Autoshapes” section. You’re going to want to use a simple moon to get that cut out of your second white circle.

Step 14:-

Move the moon around until you get it to the part of the second white circle you want deleted. Then, select the whole layer again, and go to Layer > Select > Inverse. Then click on the layer with the White circle in it and hit delete. Delete that black crescent moon as well – we won’t be needing it anymore! The section you want gone should disappear! Next, we’re going to give it that metallic look to make the whole thing come together!

Step 15:-

Using the same gradient you applied to the back circle, apply it to the metal cutout circle you just created. Since the edges can look a little rough, apply a stroke by going to Layer > Layer Style> Stroke – I just used the same color as the background.

Step 16:-

Now, it’s time to personalize. I like to change the texture of the metal pieces by using the “Burn” and “Dodge” tools in the toolbar. They look like a little hand making the “Okay!” sign and a pin that you’d see used in sewing. Just play with them and remember that metal isn’t perfect – it has ridges, even scratches, hotspots, and spots where the sun doesn’t shine. You can also rotate your original green sphere around to get it to look exactly how you want it – use your creative judgment!  I also like adding a little bit of a Black Grunge Texture to mine. You can download the texture from here.

Step 17:-

Last but not least, add in a last circular shape just like this one to get your bottom shadow, just to make it pop a little bit more.

Step 18:-

Then, you’re going to apply a Gaussian blur to it to soften its look and make it look more like a shadow.

There you have it – our finished product. Thanks for sticking with me – I hope you had fun and created something totally futuristic!
Let’s see what we’ve created:-

So this is it. Hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial and learned something new. Do share your thoughts and your results. Now you can enjoy the free original PSD of this tutorial. I’ll be back with something new and exciting. Till then enjoy this. See ya!