Create an Origami Logo
Create an Origami Logo in Photoshop with this tutorial, getting a little taste towards one of the predicted trends for 2009 Logo Design. Also by popular demand, if you’re looking for an Illustrator way of creating an Origami Logo, click here!
Along with a few other predicted trends for Logo Design in 2009, the one that most caught my eye was the Origami Logos. I am extremely fond of Origami and while I am by no means an expert in the art of folding paper, I was very keen to see what sort of techniques could be written for creating such pieces in a digital environment.
An important exercise
Before you pick up any pencils and start sketching, try this. Take a piece of paper and fold it. Take a strip of paper and fold it. Observe how the paper folds, the shape that is created and the shadows that are cast.
Step 1 – The inevitable ‘New Document’
Open Photoshop and create a New Document.
For the purpose of this tutorial, I’ve gone with my personal favourite, 750 by 500 pixels.
Step 2 – Sketch to Basic Shape
Once you’ve sketched up the concept for your logo (digitally or on paper for scanning later), identify each of the areas and how paper would fold to create your new origami logo.
Step 3 – The Individual Panels
Depending on the complexity of your origami logo, you may have separate layers and paths for each individual panel. For the purpose of demonstration and the simplicity of the logo we’re creating here, we manage to use two main paths for a ‘front’ and ‘rear’ paper set.
Step 4 – Taking Shape
Now that we have our basic shape and panels set out, we can go ahead and fill them with the colour of our choice. Use a slightly darker shade for the rear paper set, which will create some depth to your origami logo.
Next, we need to crop down the ends of the paper strip by using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, holding Shift to get a good 45 degree selection area.
Step 5 – Folded Shadow
Make a duplicate of the front paper set [ Select the layer then press Ctrl + j ] and darken the layers contents to a solid black. You can do this quickly using the Hue/Saturation controls [ Ctrl + u ] and dragging Lightness down to -100.
Next, apply a Gaussian Blur [ Filter » Blur » Gaussian Blur ] of around 2.5 – 3 pixels and click OK.
Finally, clip the shadow layer with the rear paper set below it [ Alt-click between the Shadow layer and Rear Paper Set ] OR [ Layer » Create Clipping Mask ]
Step 6 – Shadow
Holding Ctrl + Shift (on a PC), click both the Front & Rear paper Sets and in a new layer, fill with any colour. Drop the Fill down to 0% then access the layers style options.
Apply a small drop shadow of around 1 to 2 pixels and leave it quite sharp. This just lifts the logo from the surface giving it a little more dimension.
Step 7 – Final Details
Try not to be tempted to play with the Texturizer settings! It is really not something that is needed.
All that is left to do is incorporate the company name in with our new origami logo and save!
Some other uses for this technique could include origami icons, badges, wallpapers, etc! If you’ve created an interesting Origami piece, please share it for others to see by linking it below in a comment.
Thank you for reading.
Alex | Zen Elements
Never thought of creating a logo like that before, but that is a pretty neat idea! nice instructions too:o)
@loswl | Thank you for your feedback. I’m glad to hear you liked the tutorial and found a little inspiration from it too =]
Well described tutorial, thank you for that bit of knowledge.
Well, this is pretty useful! Kinda like the idea for my own website! Thx u
Nice work. Great blog. Thanks!
@ptamaro | I’m glad you enjoyed the tutorial and thank you for your feedback!
@Mike | If you go ahead to create something along these lines, I’d be really glad to see it when it’s in place. Give me a nudge =]
i like it!
wow! very professional, but very simple!
you rocks Zen!
@lawrence77 | I’m glad you liked it and sounding off with such energy too! =] Thank you!
Nice..
What’s the advantage of using a Gaussian Blur over an outer glow? :)
@B Snow | There is no real advantage in terms of end result and just in this particular instance, using a gaussian blur was my preference :)
Outer Glow, if others want to play:-
Apply an Outer Glow layer style (set blend mode to ‘Multiply’, colour Black) then separate that layer (Layer » Layer Style » Create Layer) then as above, mask that layer (Layer » Create Clipping Mask).
Nice tutorial you did there. Althought I did some things different with the same result AND I personally would recommend doing logos in Illustrator. It’s basicly the same workflow.
Yeah, i have seen a few in this style. And i love it! A really nice design man! Love the color you chose as well. Thanks! :)
Very nice tutorial, very impressive results. Subtlety is always professional.
Awesome! Nicely done, you make it look so simple :)
Excellent tutorial!
Easy stuff, but have never tought about doing it like this.
Thanks mate!
Greate tutorial! I was wondering if it can be done with illustrator though.
It looks so easy, but is it really? Guess you have to have an idea, then anything is possible
you’re wonderful!
This looks really effective. Great tutorial. I have seen quite a few shading style logos recently so is nice to see how it’s done by other designers.
Amazing tut!
Origami logo designs is the new trend and are trully beautiful, nice tutorial, thanks for share.
Awesome design. Its really effective. Now it becomes more simpler because of this tutorial.
Thanks for the post.
We are LogoProDesign as a Creative Logo Designer, We checked your artwork collections. Those are amazed us. Thanks for that type of good work collections. We regularly checked your website for good artwork example.
Thanks
David Thomas
Nice logo, very creative. Thanks for sharing
Thanks very creative and great tutorial
Normally I do not read article on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to take a look at and do it! Your writing style has been surprised me. Thank you, quite nice article.
Awesome. this a perfect illustration for me and others those are learning about it just like me ;)
Just now I tried it in adobe Illustrator CS3. Although a beginner I made it.
cool …..concept … love it :)
really simple but cool….. love it….. thanx…. :)