I just finished this logo for a group that requested one for website use. Having a traditional look, I welcomed the challenge that would give me a break from the streamlined, tech-look so common these days. What was good about this challenge was the groups openness to whatever came to mind. Their prerequisites were minimal, and they trusted in the creativity of others. I like getting starting ideas, but those can be had by just talking to your client and what they express as values. In the end, I gave them about four really solid designs that can be used in whatever capacity they wish.
Anyway, in creating the logo, I decided to try out the Adobe Paper Texture Pro by Flypaper Textures plugin available for Creative Cloud users. It would help give me that parchment traditional look. The plugin comes with 54 different patterns and lets you use them in combination, adjusting tones, hues, a multiple of variables. It is accessible through the Windows>Extensions route.
Now, I have been running Photoshop for some time now, and I really like the way Adobe has it running so crash-free. Adobe Photoshop CC2015 has ran so smooth. Well, then comes Paper Texture Pro. The plugin was squirrelly and crash-ridden from the start. It also can be very unpredictable in the way it blends shades. For instance, a grey and a brown shade mix can give you purple or red appearing mixes. The plugin is especially bug ridden when using the deselect command. The screen artifacts it leaves behind can disappear when you move the mouse over them, or can actually be part of your work.
Overall, the plugin is far more trouble than it is worth. But, it does offer 54 really good textures. How best to use them? Get the Plugin, install it, quickly go through the 54 textures, making a 4000px x 4000px PNG "picture" of each, save them to one paper texture reference file, then get rid of the plugin. Just use the textures as you would any PNG, and they are really good. I'll give credit to Flypaper Textures for that, very useable.
Logos and Plugins
Adobe Paper Texture Pro by Flypaper Textures plugin available for Creative Cloud users