How to create a simple Logo & Watermark... in a few simple steps!

It would appear that to ensure that we do not lose the identity of our original designs, we need to add a watermark to our photographs before posting them on the internet.

Giant Tropical Flowers by Sue Bowler

In a recent blog that I wrote:  'Someone is using my photographs on their website, what can I do'? I talk about how Lily Tan uses her own very distinctive logo on all of the pictures that she posts and shares,  and in my opinion it really does not interfere with the beauty of the original design but I always know immediately who's work it is.

If like me you are not very computer savvy, I have found a really simple way to firstly create your own unique logo and then how to create a really easy way to watermark all your pictures! There are many ways to do both and I looked at a number of different options, but found these to be so easy... even for me!

Your Logo

As I said, looked at a variety of different options for this, some free and others at a minimal cost and found that "CoolText' - www.cooltext.com was very easy to use and perfect for the job and it's free to use.

When you first visit this website you will be greeted with a fantastic selection of logo styles, just run your cursor over these to see what styles capture your interest?

I played very safe and selected 'Simple' as my logo style, just click on the logo that you like and you will open a new and very easy to use window.

Just type your name or company name in the box that currently says 'simple' - your's will be different if you choose a different logo and the name of the logo style will be in the box, and you will see your name appear above, replacing the word 'simple' with your name.

Now you need to select which font you would like to use if you want to change the one that is pre-set. I chose one called MISHMASH, I liked the clean look and shape of the letters, there are so many to chose from this could take you a while :)

You can now select your text colour and font size, I changed the colour to white, you can see that the colour graduates from white through to black in this logo style, which I thought would stand out well on my photographs, I also selected a text size of 35, but you will see when we move on to watermarking we can change this to any size when we add it to our photographs.

Once you are happy with your logo, just click on create logo and then you can download it to your computer, saving it in an easy to find place!

Now that was fairly quick and easy, I am sure like me that you spent a while looking at all the great logo's and fonts.... keep playing with different styles until you find the one that you think works best for you, and again like Lily, keep to that same logo as it will become your trade mark, easily recognisable, especially on Facebook and Pinterest!

Watermarks

Now we move to another website www.picmonkey.com, this is a great (free) site and you can do so much with your photographs including adding a watermark, which is what we want to learn to do now.

The first thing that you need to do is click on Edit Photo which is to the left of create a collage. You can either click to open or drag and drop an image straight from your computer.

Once you have done this you will find that this window opens and it looks like this... you can now (if you want to, adjust your picture, 'Auto' adjust is usually pretty good, but try out some of the other features until the picture looks like you want it to look!

The next step is to click on the 'Butterfly' on the left hand side:

This will open up your photograph in the overlays window.

Now this is simple, just click 'Your Own', this features at the top above general. This will ask you to select the file that you want to use, so now select the logo that you have just created and saved in an easy to find place!

This will add your logo to the centre of your photograph, but you can easily move it to wherever you want it positioned, not only that, but you can change your logo colour if it does not stand out well enough, you can change the size and you can fade your logo so that it is more transparent if you do not want it to be too bold... you are in control and once again I recommend that you have a little play and see what you like best. And finally, if you right click on your logo overlay it gives a even more options!

Once you are happy with your 'editing' you can save your picture to your computer or share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media sites!

Giant Tropical Flowers by Sue Bowler

I love both of these tools, they are easy to understand and use. I can see me using PicMonkey for so many things, I think that I might upgrade to get all the extra features that they have.

So here you go, time to get started, create your logo and then start adding your watermark to all your pictures that you want to post on the interest... you know it makes sense!!

Happy Ballooning!

(sorry, I got a little carried away playing with CoolText)

www.suebowler.com