1. Here’s the original vector-based logo we created for John.
Lightning uses a simple chrome-airbrush fade,done with gradient fills pasted into the lettering. Signs was made prismatic by hand in Freehand.Then we added some gradients to the different sides of the letter.We then saved the file as an MS-DOS PC .EPS file,and added an outline path,which Roland’s ColorChoice RIP recognizes as the cutline.John was then able to scale and print this logo at any size he needed.What we needed for Photoshop was a CMYK .EPS file,so we saved it as that and then imported into Photoshop and rasterized it.

2.Opening the file:
For the purposes of this article,we made the size 18×10.125 at 144 dpi.Depending on the capabilities of your printer,you would want to increase that to match approximately 300 dpi at final size of out-put.Keep in mind,however,that even 144 dpi at 4 feet away will look pretty tight to begin with,but when observed close up may have some pixelation.Were this to be a set of truck doors,I would have gone about 30 inches wide at 300 dpi.

3.After the file opened, I expanded the canvas size by a few inches top and bottom,and then added a layer for the black background.Next,I was ready to start adding some highlights.

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