In this tutorial I'll teach you how to make a web 2.0 logo so damn sugary sweet it'll give your website a cavity. Then I'll give you the PSD, the font, and all the patterns used in the image so that you can play with it yourself. If you want to skip the tutorial altogether, you can download the PSD here. The beauty of the correct way to design logos in Photoshop or Illustrator comes when we keep everything as editable text layers from start to finish. That way if we need to make changes or reuse the idea, we can just pop open a Photoshop file and quickly output a new version of an old idea. This will also make it easy for you to duplicate my steps.

1. Open up Photoshop and Create a new layer.

2. Use the Text Tool to write something in black using the "Creampuff" font.



3. Choose "Color Overlay" from the Layer Style options.



4. Select a pinkish color. Because it makes most people think of candy or something edible(....like babies). For your reference, I'm using these settings..... Color Overlay >> #9e5859. Let's name this layer 'Base'.

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In the past few years we've seen an explosion of free, web and open source alternatives to popular, often expensive, design programs. Well, today I'm raiding my del.icio.us to show you how I started a 100% no-overhead graphic design studio (excluding the cost of my Macbook and internet connection) and began accepting jobs to turn an immediate profit!

Before I begin, this list is not meant to be comprehensive, it's meant to show you my workflow and how it makes me money by saving me boatloads on software. For a more comprehensive list of all the things out there you may want to try this post...

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ONLINE WEB DESIGN

1. Wordpress Theme Generators
One Request I get from a lot of clients is for custom Wordpress Templates. TemplatR and Yvo Schaap's Wordpress Theme Generator both offer quick WYSIWYG options for designing themes. Depending on your skill level you can create themes from the very basic to the very complex. I tend to use these sites for the basic skeleton of a good Wordpress Theme. Since I'm fairly knowledgeable of xml, I'll go in and tweak my layouts on the client's server.



These fantastic tools have helped me build a very elaborate portfolio of Wordpress ready 'sketches' in a very short period of time. They've also helped me understand the inner workings...