When I design a new Web Site one of the first things I do is create the logo and then use the logo as a way of inspiring the rest of the layout. Sometimes this technique doesn’t always work for me but most of the time it’s a great way of establishing a creative direction for a project. To give you an example of how it works I am going to briefly go through the development process of a site I did a while ago called Nintendo Fire.

This site was particularly special because it was the first time I used my newly purchased Intuos3 WACOM Tablet to create sketches and preliminary concepts for the design. In this way it was a bit of an experiment for me to see how I could use this tool to benefit my work.

I spent a good few hours playing around in Photoshop with the Tablet until I eventually came up with a concept that I was happy with for the logo.

As you can see it is pretty basic at this point. Having the logo in black and white helped me focus on the shape of the flame. The tablet pen allowed me to quickly transition from different brush sizes and opacity’s based on pressure sensitivity. I also found a font that was similar to the original Nintendo logo from dafont.com which really helped create some continuity. I didn’t want the word ‘Fire’ to look too detached from the original.

The next step was to ad colour and make the flame look more appealing.

This process was a bit more challenging but once I was happy with the shades of orange it was pretty easy to finalize. I used some blend options in Photoshop to create the gradient/glow effects. The outline was done with the tablet.

Now that the logo was done I was ready to start on the site interface. I used some very basic tablet sketches to get things started and had the new logo integrated in the header. I worked outwards from the logo until the entire layout was basically complete.

The result is a well themed web site that fits together in an effective and compelling way.