Graphic Design / Imaging Question

[Azalee]

As a surprise for my mother for Christmas I would like to take the image from her tack box and turn it into an image that can be used for things like business cards and window decals. She has been showing and breeding dogs for over 25 years and I think it would be a good gift for her.

About 20 years ago her friend made a tack box for her. On the front of the tack box is an image that I would like to use as a logo for her Kennel. Here is the picture:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...s/SANY0328.jpg

I tried asking a friend of mine to take the image from this, and what he produced was completely useless. I don't want anything from the box, just the image itself. It is a total of 3 pugs, with a tree and some flowers/grass and then the words.

I don't know crap about graphic design, the most I do is resize and crop pictures. I don't know if my best bet would be to have someone re-create the image or if layers can be taken away to leave just the dark outlines on the box.

If anyone has any ideas on how to get an image from this I would love to hear it. It just needs to be a basic black and white outline at the end.

Thanks~

[Zhais]

Below is better!

[Furtwangler]

I ended up with this, it took 3 seconds and someone with more experience could def do a better job.

http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/attac...1&d=1251136008

[Shade]

What Furt managed to do is pretty awesome, for a few minutes work. But if she is going to be using it professionally, as it sounds like she is, I would make sure it gets cleaned up a lot more and looks professional as well. The only way to really do that is to have someone who knows how to draw manually clean it up, preferrably either in Illustrator (so it is an infinitely scalable vector image), or at a high enough resolution that it can be printed comfortably at various sizes. Furt's b&w image is a very good starting point for this, though.

[Furtwangler]

All I did was grayscale > changing levels > erasing some odds and ends. Having a higher resolution picture will get better results. Also having a tablet to draw on and better photoshop knowhow (neither of which I have) will get you the professional image you're looking for. Can't help you there though

[Azalee]

Thanks, Furt. This is what I was looking for. I have a few friends I could ask to clean it up, but having the basic image is what I needed to get started. Even using it professionally, it doesn't need to be perfect. I would like it to look sort of rough like it does. Thanks again. =D

[Casty]

Considering how it is etched into the wood, someone would need to do what Shade said and start with a trace in Illustrator, then manually clean it up.

I could give it a try, do you think you could provide a centered image? It isn't necessary but it might help. Also, did your friend who made the box use a pre-existing outline to work that into the wood? I know nothing about wood work like this, but if he does it would save a lot of time.

[Isiolia]

Ideally what you want to get from it is a vector image. That would allow it to be scaled to any size and not lose detail (from a file perspective, obviously different methods/sizes of output have practical limits for detail).

Addtionally, when doing that, what you -don't- want are a bunch of lines. You want shapes. Even basic lines are shapes.
The reason for that is keeping things proportional if/when you do scale it. If, for example, you made the outline for the tree a 2 point line, it may look fine at the size you create it at. If you scale it down to 1/4 that size, the outline then becomes too thick, scale it up, and it becomes too thin. What you actually -want- are shapes with a 0-width outline.

Your basic options are either to trace it (or have someone trace it) by hand, from scratch, or to use trace functions in a vector app. The latter may provide you with a nice shortcut...or it may just net a mess that needs plenty of work to clean up anyway.

IMO, it's going to take a good bit of work to really pull out the detail and make it sharp, worth using for print and things. So I would say to just trace it by hand, redoing portions that may not be as clear in the pic. Either way will take a good bit of time to do right, but I think that the end result would be better by hand.

You may also want to consider simplifying it, depending on what the primarily use is. It's got a lot of detail for a logo to be used as you described. What I would say is to focus on the text element and maybe come up with a more iconic type logo to be used with that. The "full" image could then be used for certain types of things, like T-shirt prints, where the detail could be seen. Use the smaller one for things like watermarking images, letterhead, keychains, what have you.

edit: A good free vector app is Inkscape - Illustrator is quite nice, but not a requirement. Inkscape does have a Trace Bitmap option as well if you want to try that method.

[Azalee]

Casty - The box was made for my mom by a friend of hers over 20 years ago - so I have no idea how it was originally done. I can try to take a more centered picture, this was a quick snap while my mother was outside - as it is supposed to be a surprise.

Isiolia - I definitely see where you are coming from. I might try and focus the Main Tree and the Fantasy Pugs to make a smaller logo to use on Business cards and such. I appreciate all the tips. =)

[zoobernut]

Furt produced a very good starting point. Someone with any decent skill should be able to clean it up and make it very usable.

[Demosthenes]

vector it.

[Amelya]

Meh, bored at work, PM me your email or something if you want a high res and a vector version. It's not perfect but it's a better start than that globby mess photoshop will give you.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/westwood/Pugs.jpg

[Senoska]

Damn, that's really good.

[Furtwangler]

Damn, that's really good.

qft

[Azalee]

Meh, bored at work, PM me your email or something if you want a high res and a vector version. It's not perfect but it's a better start than that globby mess photoshop will give you.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/westwood/Pugs.jpg

I didn't even see that anyone else had responded lol. I came back to this thread to bitch about how the friend I asked to help never even responded to my e-mail. This is perfect! I will PM my e-mail for the other versions. Thanks so much. =)

[Aerides]

In the original the 2nd dog is darker... the last rendering he's the same as the others. Would not have mentioned but it reminded me of the Microsoft Ad from a thread earlier this week.

[Azalee]

Haha. =P The original is supposed to be one fawn pug and one black pug.

[Caiyuo]

Wow, that is an awesome vector and that's awesome you did that for her. D:

[millionsknives]

Meh, bored at work, PM me your email or something if you want a high res and a vector version. It's not perfect but it's a better start than that globby mess photoshop will give you.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/westwood/Pugs.jpg

Wow great work, awesome sig too. You got a DA account?