I have opted to keep this in line with the Sci-Fi theme and call the company FarReach.
I envision the logo as just the name itself 'Far Reach' in blue-ish and black colours (maybe a fast gradient between the two) with a dark hand coming from behind it and wrapping it's fingers over the logo (like it is coming from far and reaching for the logo).
I originally planned on only using Illustrator for this, but because I needed to use a lot of layer masks it ended up being more practical to start it on Illustrator and then move to Photoshop to add the hand.
Just a simple, blue logo, in Rockwell Extra Bold. I chose this font in particular because to make a 3D effect look good I needed thick letters. As a personal preference, for this type of work, I like to use Serif type instead of Sans Serif.
Added Kerning for better readability once I do the 3D effect.
Duplicated the blue text, removed the fill and gave it a slight black boarder to help with the 3D effect.
Duplicated the black boarder, removed the outline, and filled it with black, then moved it slightly lower and to the left. Afterwards I used the Blend Tool on the black boarder and the new black text and increased the repetition amount.
The reason I chose to do it this way, instead of the conventional 3D effect, that comes in Illustrator, is that to use the 3D tool I would have to convert the text to a Path. By doing so I essentially lose control over the text, and if I want to modify anything on it, I would have to start from scratch. This way I still get a nice 3D effect, while being able to change the effects on the text or even the text itself.
Went to the Appearance tab and gave it a gradient look, from blue to 80% Opacity White.
Time to save this as an .Ai file and move on to Photoshop.
My hand stock Image, unmodified. I simply used the Quick Selection Tool to select the hand and Copy-Pasted it to a new layer.
A lot of work has been done, using the Clone Stamp Tool, to erase the watermark on the hand. Normally this could not be done in a professional design, but due to the Academic nature of this project we were allowed to use Copyrighted material.
Used the Black & White image adjustment, and messed around with the settings until I was satisfied Clipped it to the hand layer (so it only affects it).
I duplicated the hand selection (the one in colour) and Clipped it (above the B&W adjustment layer) and gave it a 20% Fill and Color Blending mode, just to give it a hint of colour.
Placed the .Ai file with my text. I tried doing it the other way around (putting the hand on Illustrator and then modifying it there) but the hand kept being imported with strange anomalies that were not visible in Photoshop, and persisted even after I fixed them. That and the fact that Photoshop is superior to Illustrator, when it comes to image composition, I decided to finish this up in Photoshop.
I added the hand under the text and used a Layer Mask to hide areas of the text, so that it appears that the hand is trying to grab the text. The brush was set to 80% opacity, on the areas under the hand, and the hand opacity was reduced as well, to give it a more ghostly appearance.
I saved it as a TIFF format, to preserve all the image's properties.
Final:
(seems this board is not a fan of transparent backgrounds)
