Best place for beginners with logos?

[R3G]

I'm talking about learning how to make a logo without tracing, straight from the brain. Looking to learn how to become more creative, innovative, etc.

[wquarton]

This seems like a pretty good place. I'd suggest getting adobe illustrator if you're serious about it, and from there watch youtube tutorials. Theres a ton you can learn there.

[jaker52]

I'm talking about learning how to make a logo without tracing, straight from the brain. Looking to learn how to become more creative, innovative, etc.

Unless you're doing something abstract, you never want to work straight from the brain. You ALWAYS want to reference things in your work. Your mind has a habit of deforming and thinking things are correct but in all actuality, they're off. As far as tracing, it's very smart of you to actually trace your design. Draw it out, scan it, trace it. Someone would be pretty foolish to draw something out and attempt to recreate it in Illustrator just by looking at it. You're doing more work that you don't have to do,

Regarding where is the best place for beginners. Anywhere really, because practice makes perfect. . . or somewhere close. Have people critique your work, and have them be blunt, like here. If they say, "I like it" or "It's good" they're not doing you any favors, you can't get better when no one wants to hurt your feelings.

Pretty good advice. I used to be in the same place as you are not too long ago. I tried and tried to just freehand in Illustrator but it does not work. I learned later that you draw on paper. To make a good logo (which is a moving target and I am still learning as well), you go through plenty of rough sketches and once you have a good idea, you go through many more to clean it up. Then you pretty much scan and trace your final sketch. In the program you pretty much recreate the drawing and maybe adjust a few lines and what not. I would recommend Illustrator or Inkscape for what you seem to be talking about. I never used Inkscape, but with Illustrator master the pen tool and the selection tools and that will b most of what you will need.

[philhiney]

Get illustrator, get on the YouTube then practice practice practice. The only advice I would give that differs from the above is that you don't have to sketch your design freehand first. I do all my work on illustrator and never sketch a thing. This is what works for me. I find the key to a good sports logo is to have a great reference picture, this is half the battle.