In this tutorial we will be making a real simple text based logo for our website.
The final should look like the above image but without the reflection.
I am using photoshop cs5 however this will also work in cs4 and may be similar in cs3.
Lets get started…

1. Open Photoshop
2. File -> New
3. Dimensions should be 360px (width) X  90px (height)
   

   New FIle

4. Click OK
5. In the bottom lower left of photoshop are 2 color boxes (foreground to background)
   Click the foreground color box (first color box) to access the color dialog
   

   Foreground Color Dialog

6. Change the hex color to what you see above than click OK
7. Now click the background color (second color box) to access the color dialog
   

   Background color dialog

8. Change the hex color to what you see above than click OK
9. The toolbox to the left, click on the gradient tool
   

   Gradient Tool

10. Look up at the top and make sure the settings look like this
    

    Gradient Settings

11. With your gradient tool still selected, place your cursor about half way on your canvass in both horizontal and vertical directions, hold Shift on your keyboard than drag your cursor to the bottom of the canvass than release your mouse.
    If everything went well your canvass should look like this
    

    Canvass with color

12. Now you want to click on your Text tool from the toolbox
13. Set the settings as follows
    

    Font Settings

14. Click somewhere on your canvass, i would click anywhere that’s close to the left of your canvass.
15. Start typing some text.
    Note that the color might blend in so you wont realy see what you are typing, this is fine or you can change the text color, we will change it later on anyways.
16. If you look to the right you will see your Layers pallet with a text layer of what you just typed on your canvas, double click the layer to open it’s Layer Styles.
17. Inside your Layer Styles click on Gradient Overlay
    Note that if you just click the check box you wont see the gradient overlay properties so click on the word “Gradient Overlay”
    

    Gradient Overlay

18. You see the black to white color? click on it to open the Gradient Editor.
19. If you look at the color blocks above you will see the colors we set at the beginning.
    Click on that box and it will set the colors for you
    

    Gradient Editor

20. Click Ok
21. Back on your Layer Style dialog click on Drop Shadow.
    The only settings we will adjust here is the Distance…set it to 0
    

    Drop Shadow

22. Now click on Inner Glow.
    You will see a Yellow color that’s selected by default, we want to change that.
    Click on the color to open the color dialog and set the color to the following
    Also make sure that Choke = 0 and Size = 5
    

    Inner Glow

23. Click OK
24. Now click on Bevel And Emboss and the settings as follows
    

    Bevel And Emboss

25. The final style we will access is the Stroke style, so go a head and click on Strok
26. Set the Stroke settings as follows
    

    Stroke

27. Now you can click OK
    If all went well your canvass should look something similar to this
    

    Logo Progress

28. We are just about complete, the final item we will add now is the green bar at the bottom.
29. From your Toolbox select the Rounded Rectangle tool.
    Note if you don’t see your rounded rectangle tool, click and hold your mouse down and you will see a flyout appear with different shapes, hover over the rounded rectangle tool than release your mouse.
    

    Rounded

30. Now at the top menu set the settings as follows
    Don’t worry about the green Style you see here, this was set previously.
    

    Rectangle Settings

31. Under your text, click and drag across so it’s about the same size as the text.
32. You will notice it created a Shape1 layer in your layers pallet, double click the layer and set the properties to whatever you wish. for me i just applied a green gradient color (1st #103a02, 2nd #2c9e20)
33. Right click on the Shape1 layer and choose Rasterize Layer
34. At the very bottom of your layers are icons, click the 3rd icon from the left to add a layer mask
    

    Layer Mask

35. You will notice the layer mask has been applied to the layer.
    Select your Gradient Tool from the toolbox.
36. At the top you will see the color box, click the arrow to display a bunch of colors and choose the foreground to transparent.
37. place your cursor to the far left of your green bar or whatever color you chose.
    Hold down shift on your keyboard and drag it about it about as long as the first letter than let go.
38. Do the same on the right side of the bar.

COMPLETE!
Your logo/image is now complete and it should look similar to this

Complete

I know this was a long tutorial but i wanted to do this tutorial from a beginners perspective.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and if you have any comments please drop a line or two below.
Thank you for viewing this tut