I made another quick logo without too many steps so I could take a shot of my layers dialog to explain what the process is in GIMP. This is my current avatar (just in case I change it soon, which I probably will).


What you see is a colorful tilted V with "vladimir" inside it. This image is the sum total of just a few simple text layers with a few effects thrown in. Here are the layers it consists of:


Let's start at the bottom and work up. I decided to stick with a white background. That takes up the full 100x100 pixel box I chose as my starting point.

The next layer up is the blurred black V. That blur effect gives a shadow effect for what's above it.

Above the blur is a solid white V. I have a white V because the layer above it isn't fully opaque and the white provides the background required to keep the black blur from bleeding through.

I chose to render a plasma effect in the layer above that to provide some color. The plasma effect has several variables that can be changed to adjust it to suit different needs. I didn't adjust anything because I just wanted some variation to make it a little interesting.

The layer with "vladimir" is actually two layers in one, but I'll explain that in a moment. I started out entering text as normal. Then I rotated it to match the angle inside the V so it would fit inside. I didn't like the way the white butted against other colors from the plasma, so I added another layer, changed that from white to black, and applied a blur to give a similar shadow effect so the white lettering stands out from the other colors better. Then I merged the white text layer to the black shadow layer.

Together and in this layered order, I have the V logo or avatar. But that is not the order I made it.

On the bottom of the image showing the different layers you can see up and down arrows along with other buttons. These allow layers to be moved up and down (the other buttons allow creation of new layers, copying layers, anchoring them, and deleting layers).

In order, I started with the white background and made a big black V. I rotated it a few degrees. Then I chose to copy that layer and recolored the new one white. So I had a black and a white V on two separate layers. I applied a blur to the black V layer.

Then I went to the white V layer, chose alpha to selection (which is a way to highlight the filled region in that layer), created a new layer, and rendered the plasma in it. I adjusted the transparency/opacity in that layer so it was just "pleasantly" colorful (compare the final product to the darkness of the layer in the shot of layers).

Then I moved to the final steps of adding "vladimir" inside the V as described above by creating two layers (black and white). I blurred the black one then merged the white one atop it.

Note that files saved in GIMP's xcf format remain in their layers. Conversion to other formats only requires changing the extension suffix to PNG, GIF, or JPG. The other formats, though, are compressed and single layer so the PNG avatar above is now only one layer and each layer it's made of cannot be re-edited (I save most images now in both xcf and png fomats).

I don't know if this is more helpful than my previous explanation for my other avatar. Maybe I need to do a full tutorial with pictures for each step. It really is easier than it looks and sounds.