PHOTOSHOP easy TUTORIAL : Web2.0 icon

Web 2.0 is an interesting topic and with web 2.0 applications currently being developed for the iPhone, I thought now would be the best time to re-introduce you all to the art of 2.0

The Shape

To start of with we use the custom shape tool and select a shape that is not to complex (usually a star or a circle).
For mine, I choose a heart to make it a bit different, create the shape on a new layer from the background and also hold shift while creating it to make sure it's proportional to the original image.



Now to make it more interesting we apply some blending options.
Below is the blending options ticked and what settings have been changed:

Outer Glow
Overlay: Normal
Colour: Darker than desired gradient colors..i used yellow here..

Inner Glow
Didn't change any options

Gradient Overlay
Opacity: 90%
Gradient: Used a default 3 color orange toned one and
Angle: 122'

Pattern Overlay
Pattern: A 3x3 pattern i created of 3 white pixels diagonally on a transparent background

And this produced the following result


And like all web 2.0 logos it must have a highlight and due to my interesting shape, I simply pressed ctrl + J to duplicate, removed all the blending styles and changed the layer to overlay and reduced the opacity and finally moved the layer slightly left and up


Important aspect of Web2.0 is the text,the texts should not be filled with styles it should simple and attractive.Intelligent way to grab attention is using a larger text below an smaller text,u can see it below..!


And now to just finish it off to your liking, i played with some patterns and few satin brushes..and this the final product..!!



I hope you liked this tutorial,do send in me ur comments...!