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I'm trying to create a website for a friend and I'm having trouble enter image description here

I tried adding a transparent white or black background on the logo and it just doesn't look good.

The text is okay, it's just the logo with strong plain colors.

How should I remedy this?

With the skyline suggestion, it now looks much more readable. I also removed the blur because my initial reasoning for the blur is it would give more focus to the logo and text.

enter image description here

As for the request for the whole photo and logo (please do note that these are both licensed so you cannot use it for commercial purposes), I attached them below :

enter image description here

enter image description here

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  • Hugely related, if not actually a duplicate: graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/29256/…
    – Andrew Leach
    Nov 13, 2015 at 11:39
  • @AndrewLeach Actually, that's where I got the idea for the subtext! Haha.
    – Zaenille
    Nov 13, 2015 at 12:42
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    I would suck a lot of blue out of the background photo. I think that's one of the main problems. go-meek's suggestion of more sky seems to look pretty good aswell.
    – Dom
    Nov 13, 2015 at 16:22
  • Can you edit to let us see the skyline on its own? I'd like to leave an answer but would be a lot easier if I had the city and logo as separate images.
    – Ryan
    Nov 13, 2015 at 19:56
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    I'd suggest you propose a re-colored logo. It's kind of odd as it is.
    – DA01
    Nov 13, 2015 at 20:03

4 Answers 4

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Alright, the main point I want to emphasize is somewhat a combination of the other answers plus a bit more. You've got a very powerful compositing tool in your hands, and are barely using it.

This is just one take, and its very much subject to opinion, but hopefully the reasoning behind it leads you to some ideas for your own take, and helps others.

I don't know how big this is supposed to be so I took your original and cropped the menu portion of as a size which gave me, 779px x 390px.

First I'll understand that this is about windows and glass. Going off of Hitchcock's Rule that should be a fairly large item. The road and grass is less important but does help ground the image so we'll make it very small. Then I know I'll need space for a logo too. So maybe something like this:

enter image description here

Alright, now this picture already looks pretty Color Corrected but because our logo is Blue we could probably use some Compositing and/or Color Grading to really enhance it a bit. Here it is with the Logo:

enter image description here

One of the most popular color combinations in cinema which will work well for this is Blue and Gold/Yellow.

So I can drop in a Curves Adjustment layer and this was what I went with:

enter image description here

Which gives us much more contrast:

enter image description here

Then we can really edit it with some more fine adjustments. Like the blue logo on the building right by our logo is distracting, especially if you then want to add that subtext around there. So I can remove that. And I'll remove the crane for the same reason:

enter image description here

And it's probably pretty good now but to further emphasize my point maybe that building is still distracting, so let's just shorten it real quick:

enter image description here

The main point I hope this shows is, don't feel like you're limited to - this is my photo, where can I shove in this logo? Oh it doesn't quite look right, well lets add either a box, a shadow or a glow. There's a lot more compositing you can do.

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    Besides the text under the logo being small, this looks far better than the other options IMO
    – Zach Saucier
    Nov 16, 2015 at 19:11
  • Agreed - combine this with a slight outer glow to pop it off the darker shades - not as much as @Alin suggests, though, sorry. If you play with the size and opacity you'll find a spot where the glow itself isn't visible, but the effect of isolating it from the background still appears.
    – Rob Craig
    Nov 16, 2015 at 20:26
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You can have a look at this question for some ideas:

Making text stand out in front of images.

Additionally, why not simply add more sky on top and shrink the city building to be below the logo and not interact with it.

Right now your high building is what takes away the contrast; the tower is dark and so is that part of the logo.

Here's a suggestion, and it can easily be used as a responsive banner design.

example how to add emphasis on logo with busy image background website

It doesn't require many layers, you simply need to use a gradient on your layer masks in Photoshop to merge the sky with the city, and change the blending mode IF you want. You can also cut out the city to make the sky fit perfectly behind that scene, it's up to you.

You can also tint your background with a light blue if you prefer. I chose gray because it creates a nice color theme with the blues, and also makes the logo more as the central point of interest.

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    It looks much better now thanks to adding more sky at the top! I'll just wait for other answers but if there's no other answers, I'll update my question with what the new front page looks like and select this answer :)
    – Zaenille
    Nov 13, 2015 at 8:28
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Whenever I encounter such a situation, the first two things I think of is adding a Drop Shadow or an Outer Glow, considering the logo and colors, you should use and Outer glow to make your logo stand out from the background.

This way, wherever you wanna place it on your image, it'll still be readable and look nice, see:

enter image description here

enter image description here

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  • I really like this idea. It's strong and you wouldn't really notice it unless you try to notice it, but it looks like a more "universal" and safe solution. I'll try this as well!
    – Zaenille
    Nov 14, 2015 at 14:25
  • @MarkGabriel It's not about playing it safe, it's about keeping it simple and keep the focus on what's really important.
    – Alin
    Nov 14, 2015 at 15:12
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    This stands out wayyy too much for me. Looks pretty cheap and rushed if you asked me
    – Zach Saucier
    Nov 16, 2015 at 19:09
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I've found that a white outline with a black blur underneath seems to take care of practically any text problems. Edit: Here's what it would look like regularly - using your professional graphics:

my idea

In this case, I think it would also be beneficial to brighten up the image in the background - perhaps purchase another which was taken on a sunnier day. That will also save the darker colors for your logo - meaning that you will have to do less to make the text stand out.

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