Creating a repeating bitmapped texture is best done in Photoshop. Illustrator is made for vector textures.

Any thoughts, help or directions would be great.

Okay. Just remember; you asked.

...new to Illustrator and design in general....We are looking to update or re-create our company logo...

You just said you want to recreate your business's primary identity mark, and in the same breath essentially said you know nothing about doing it yourself.

wondering how to take a photo that i can then use to create a texture.

A  "texture" is just a graphic. Do you mean a repeating texture that automatically repeats to fill a shape? If so, see the Illustrator documentation about Pattern Swatches.

I took a few with a digital camera...when they applied the texture to some of the logos it is out of scale and way to large.

Did you clearly communicate the real-world scale when you provided the photos to the designer? Did you communicate that you want the texture to be "actual size", regardless of the size of the artwork that contains it? (That will be a practical impossibility for online use, by the way.)

If you're simply asking how to communicate the true-measure of the metal surface to the deigner, then just lay your pocket scale down on the metal and include it in your photo.

"With a digital camera" means nothing. That could be anything from a cell phone using its cheezy built-in flash to a professional fully-adjustable camera with good lenses and studio lighting.

...you will notice some design use gradient silver instead of my image I sent...

If the textures are actual photos, that means they will be raster images--comprised of pixels. The resulting "logo" files will not be freely scaleable, without having to take into consideration the raster resolution appropriate for each use. That's no doubt why someone has been suggesting grad fills to simulate metallic surfaces rather than raster images. Usually, you want identity marks to be infinitely scaleable for multi-use versatility. That's the inherent advantage of vector-based graphics and why they are most commonly employed for logo master files. Incorporating raster images largely obviates that advantage.

We are...wondering how to take a photo that i can then use to create a texture.

That's like asking 'how do I take a picture of a house?' (or anything else). It depends on the specifics and what kind of end result you want.

The appearance of metal largely derives from its reflectivity. If you take a photo with flat, uniform lighting and no reflections, then it will work as a repeating tile, but it will also look flat and un-metalic and uninteresting. If you take a photo with an attractive metalic sheen, then it will not work as a repeating tile fill because the reflections will repeat, making obvious the edges of the tiles of the pattern.

So if you insist on using raster images for the fills, you will need to either:

• Use a single image (not tiled repetitions) large enough to fill the whole object(s) with a single instance.

or

• Treat the repeating elements separately from the spanning reflections. There is a number of ways to do that; but that's best left up to your designer--someone who knows how to use the design tools.

Look; what I'm saying is, you're obviously going to be rather "picky" about this. And that's fine. A true logo is your business's first-impression identity--And you know what they say about first impressions. But some of your expectations are probably unrealistic. If you are attempting to do this yourself when--as you readily admit--you know next to nothing about it, you're better off confering with your designer who has the skills, knows how to coax out of you the specific requirements of what you want, knows how to explain to you the technical realities of what you want--and charges accordingly.

Just like flame cutting and grinding steel plate for the tool and die industry, proper logo design is not a simple matter of owning a tool. Having a digital camera, a copy of Illustrator, and a little bit of free instruction in an online user forum doesn't equate to knowing how to get a job done well. An amateurish "logo" doesn't make a professional first impression.

JET

no marketing, no art guys, etc.

so the bosses assume that "whipping up" a logo is a drag and drop project

More clueless "bosses." Go figure.

Tell 'em I said so, and ask them why they aren't expending more of the company's resources on other activities in which it doesn't specialize; trail law, building airports, toy testing, and so forth.

Didn't want any special help, or a free lunch...

And I'm not hearing you say that. You've made it clear your bosses do think that way. They, in your own words, "assume that 'whipping up' a logo is a drag and drop project..."

I'm not beating you or anyone else up here, bico. You solicited candid advice and received it. A company's logo is serious business. Decent logo design is not kid stuff.

JET