I started out on my name plate, by choosing my properties. One property was my gradient background. The background I chose was The "Wave" effect. The Wave Effect doesn't originally look like this one. What I did was I, stretched and moved the middle centering bar. Which changed the design. I then typed my name In the picture, I gave it a "Glow" Effect and a Colored Shade effect behind the letters. I figured since I don't want a boring checkered outline background. I then changed the Canvas color making all the plate match.