Tips on designing your own watermark?

[Jon Lai]

I'm looking for tips on what to look out for when designing my own watermark that will be used to overlay on my photos. I'm not very good at Photoshop although I think I know enough of how it works to make a decent image, however I'm having trouble how to grasp at how to make it usable as a watermark. It seems hard to make one that, for example, can be placed in the same corner of every photo that I take and still have it reasonably visible. Is there also things I should consider when choosing what shades of colour to use for the watermark? I try to use strokes to make the contrast between the photo and the overlay larger but most of the time it looks weird. I'd rather not have to manually choose a location to place the watermark for each picture if possible. I've seen a lot of photos posted on RFD and obviously you guys have it right, so I must be doing something wrong.

For example, are there shades I should avoid? Filters or effects that I can apply? Certain ratios that I should keep in mind?

Thanks!

[smuncky]

my advice is to keep it simple. the simpler it is, the less obtrusive it'll be. the main focus should be on the photo first imo.

when i first started, i kept using complex forms/angles that then had my name incorporated into it. but then i just broke my name up into 3 lines and put a square around it. simple. effective. and can be put in any corner of the photo.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/388434_974575357731_172006360_45082339_303323770_n .jpg

personally, i also like to have a bit of transparency on my watermark. so tone down the opacity to your liking.