I'm a complete novice with all this, and have no clue, but how would you go about creating a logo for your site or company, on the computer, and have it look professional ? I don't know where to start, no programs, etc.
I'd like to be able to create things like I've seen others do with their signatures, from scratch I assume ? And website design layouts, etc. How do you do all of that ?

Get Adobe Photoshop to start and do some tutorials. http://www.pixel2life.com is a pretty good tutorial site.

If you want to make logos I suggest getting Adobe Illustrator also.

GIMP is ok. http://www.gimp.org/

Its free

yes gimp is great if you don't want to spend a bunch of money on adobe products. However dreamweaver is best for overall web page design.

Dreamweaver is only partially useful for coding the pages. You really can get by just fine without it. A program like Photoshop or GIMP is basically necessary for design.

Gimp is atrocious, how dare you compare it to Photoshop

you don't need dreamweaver to code anything

i can do the same stuff with gimp as i can with photoshop without spending 500$ though. Im not saying photoshop is bad thou...

gimp is poopoo, don't bother.
get photoshop - and you don't have to spend 500 dollars. there's a free trial on the adobe website
mess about with it before trying out other people's ideas through their tutorials.
illustrator is also brilliant for making vector artwork that can be resized without damage. you might wanna use it for your logos.
the best thing you can do is just mess about, get comfortable with whatever program you're using and practice it.

GIMP would be alright if you just want to mess around and create some really simple stuff. Photoshop is a must if you plan to do professional work.

definently get photoshop, anything related to logo and website layouts will be done with photoshop, at least its what most people use. Photoshop is THE program. Ok its exepensive,but its worthed... plus if you do not want to spend the $$$ then put it on your Christmas list.

Alex - fixed your post, removing "warez" suggestions

MrTouz, you say bad things! Stop giving people bad ideas or i will hurt you in many ways using sharp things.

I use Gimp and Illustrator...and I do pretty good. Never used Photoshop thou...

I'd like to suggest to use either PhotoShop or, if you're not able to buy it, use the trial version of it. It's exactly the same and you don't have to pay for it, but, of course, it ends after 30 days. Then, register with an other e-mail address, download it again, etc. and you'll be fine. When you've got it installed and working, try some things yourself first (i.e. so you know what actions can be done) and then you should look for some tutorials. I strongly recommend not releasing, selling and whatsoever anything of your work made by using a tutorial. Use them for practise only. =]

I used the 30 day trial for photoshop and it was pretty good. I would just be messing around with it and out came a cool graphic xD with gimp i actually have to try and focus.

yea, i use photoshop and dreamweaver... photoshop is a must for graphics in my opinion.

How many people actually paid for their photoshop though, and didn't download it off of winmx or limewire or kazaa or something? Hmm?

Photoshop owns.

lol, no comment..

Of course, cracking it is also an option, but I'm just trying to keep it all legal here. ;-]