Final Image Preview

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Tutorial Details

• Program: Illustrator Version: CS4 (but it should also work in earlier versions)
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 30 min

Step 1

Create a new document (Command + N) for print in A3 (297mm by 420mm).

Step 2

Make a rectangle with the Rectangle Tool (M) that covers the whole artboard and make it black. While the rectangle is selected go to Object > Lock > Selection (Command + 2), which will lock the object so that you can’t select it.

Take your Pen Tool (P) and make a vertical stroke (click to make a start point, then click somewhere over or under the start point while holding Shift to make a vertical stroke). Make the stroke white and the fill blank. Set the weight of the stroke to 0,05mm.

If your units are set to something else, like points or inches, make sure that you type in “mm” behind 0,05, or hit Command + K. Choose units and display performance from the drop-down menu and change the units to millimeters.

Step 3

While your stroke is selected grab the Selection Tool (V), then hit enter and type in 0,05mm for horizontal and 0 for vertical. Click copy and hold Command + D (Object > Transform > Transform Again) for around 20sec, which will perform the Tranform Again command multiple times.

Step 4

While all of your strokes are selected, set the blend mode to Screen and Opacity to 8. Then group it (Command + G).

Step 5

Take your Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape that looks something like that shown below.

Step 6

Now for the magical step! Make sure that the shape you just made is on the top and click it, then hit Command + Shift + Right Bracket key (Object > Arrange > Bring to Front). Select the path and the strokes and go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make With Top Object (Command + Alt + C). Check that the Blend Fidelity is set to 100 (Object > Envelope Distort > Envelope Options, there you should set the Fidelity to 100).

Now that’s pretty cool, but if you take a closer look, you will see that the strokes are pretty clear. If you do not intend to make a stroke out of this you can fix it by clicking Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and type in 7.0px, but since we are going to make a stroke out of it, we’ll do that later (shapes you want to turn into strokes can’t have effects like this one added).

Step 7

Now drag your smoke into the brushes panel. If you can’t see it then hit F5. Check the New Art Brush and hit OK.

Step 8

Name your brush whatever you want to, set the Direction to Up, and Method to Tints and Shades, then hit OK.

Step 9

Now you have your brush, but do you have something to use it for? If yes, remember to chose Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and type in 0.7px when you have assembled your brush. If no, continue reading.

Take you Pencil Tool (N) and draw some letters, one letter at a time. Group them, add the stroke and set the stroke weight to 0,5pt.

Step 10

Copy your smoky letters (Command + C) and paste them behind (Command + B). Set the stroke weight to 3 pt. Now go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and type in 7 px.

Yes, this is a Photoshop effect, so it will rasterize, but if you hit Command + K and check the Scale Strokes and Effects, then you’ll be fine when you want to scale it.

Final Image

I hope you learned something new, and that it will come in use sometime, if it does, I would love to see what you make out of it.

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Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator
• Version: CS3
• Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes to 1 hour

Introduction

Most of you are probably familiar with the Average command in Adobe Illustrator. This is not a very popular tool though, as it is mostly used only for specific needs. However, today we will explore the math behind it and use it for creating some surrealistic swirly shapes. The technique is rather simple, but we’ll spend some time for theory – as I am a teacher and I like explaining and making everything clear.

The “Average” Theory

Let’s spend some time on the theoretical part first. This way you will better understand the mechanism of the “Average” tool and the three integral laws of the “Average Smooth Abstract Swirls” (ASAS) technique I recently invented. However, if you just don’t like much theory, you can move right to Step 6.

Step 1

When do we usually use the Average command and what does it do? I am sure most of you know the answer. The “Average” command is hidden under the Command + Alt + J shortcut, or in the Object > Path menu, and its job is to bring the selected anchor points… right, to the average point between them. Sounds rather simple, doesn’t it? In practice, this command sometimes becomes an irreplaceable helper.

For example, I have few open paths that I want to unite in one single shape, but they don’t exactly touch each other (for those who want to repeat the shape: create a rounded rectangle and delete the two bottom points. Now Press R and Alt-click below it, then enter 72 degrees. Copy and enter Command + D three times to rotate, as shown below.

In this case I cannot just move 5 shapes towards each other and join (Command + J), as the symmetry will be lost – but the petals of this flower has to be perfectly equal, composing the exact angle. If I join the paths now, the program will draw straight lines between open anchor points, which is not what we need.

Step 2

To get the perfect composite shape, first we need to place all five paths correctly so that open points touch each other. That is when the Average command comes in handy! We just grab the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the endpoints of two neighboring paths and choose Object > Path > Average. In the window select both, press OK, and voila – the points are at the same place now!

All we need to do is join them (Object > Path > Join). Now we can repeat this step four times for every pair of endpoints: selecting with Direct Selection Tool, then apply Average and Join. But in order to save a couple of seconds, I would recommend you to combine these two commands into one single shortcut: Command + Alt + Shift + J.

Step 3

Now we know that the Average command brings anchor points to the center between them (what a surprise!). Well, you may think it is rather obvious, but let’s go further. Let’s try this command on various objects.

I created a rectangle and tried the Average command on it (the shape has to be selected). What do we get? Trying all three options of the command, we get different outcomes: Horizontal axis brings vertical points to the center, creating a horizontal line; Vertical axis does the same with horizontal points; both axes options result in one center point, bringing all points to the center.

The same outcome you will get with a hexagon or star. It does not actually look interesting, but it helps to understand how this tool works. Let’s break these down into rules.

Rule 1: The shapes with corner points only will always result in either line or point! Even if you draw an irregular asymmetric shapes with the Pen Tool, as long as it has corner points only – the effect is the same.

Step 4

Let’s draw an ellipse and do some experiments. Make two copies of it and try the Average command on them, again, all three options. As you see, now the outcome looks more interesting, creating some curvy lines. This happens due to the smooth anchor points on Bezier curves, where the final curve direction is controlled by handles.

Rule 2: For smooth curves we need smooth points, and handles are very important in achieving that smoothness!

Step 5

Rule 3 for the Average Command: The anchor points of shapes should not be situated symmetrically, composing horizontal or vertical lines.

To illustrate this principle, let’s take an ellipse from the previous step and rotate it by 30 degrees with the Rotate Tool (R). Select your ellipse, press R and enter the value of 30. Now, let’s make the same manipulations – copy twice and run the Average tool.

See the difference? Both axes options did not change much, but the horizontal and vertical options created some nice curvy shapes. This result is caused by the positioning of anchor points. In the previous step the points in the ellipse formed vertical and horizontal lines, and now they created asymmetric crossing.

Abstract Swirly Shapes

Well, enough theory for today! I’m sure you understood the three Rules of ASAS (Average Smooth Abstract Shapes). Let’s put what we’ve learned into practice now.

Step 6

Let’s create a new document in Illustrator, 800px by 500px, in RGB mode. Create the background using the Rectangle Tool (M). Fill it with a radial gradient that goes from white to light gray (#e6e6e6). Name this layer “BG,” lock it and create a new one named “Swirls.”

Step 7

OK, let’s start making the ASAS! We know that Both axes options of the Average command bring all the points in the center creating small shapes. So, let’s focus on the horizontal or vertical direction for curvy swirls. However, we still need the basic shapes to work with. What we want is an asymmetric shape with smooth anchor points. There are numerous ways of creating them.

Let’s start with a simple 5-ended star with no fill and a black stroke. To quickly convert its corner points to smooth ones lets apply Filter > Stylize > Round Corners, 10 pt will be enough. It’s still not the right time to apply the Average command, as the points of our star all lie at the same distance from the center (although the outcome may look interesting already).

Step 8

With your star selected, grab the Wrap Tool (Shift + R) and deform it slightly to make it asymmetric. Try to make it a little wider at the same time. Now you can press Command + Alt + J to bring up the Average window, then choose horizontal axis. Voila! Our first swirl is ready!

Note: You may want to try the vertical axis as well and choose which looks best. But we do not need “both axes” options now!

Step 9

Now let’s create an ellipse (L). This time to make the shape asymmetric we’ll use the Twirl Tool. Leave all options intact, and just touch your ellipse a few times to turn it into an amorphous shape. And now, run the Average command and pick horizontal axis.

Step 10

For the last shape we’ll use a simple method. Take the Pencil Tool (N). Again, the tool options don’t matter, we’ll just draw an asymmetric shape with it. To close the path when drawing, hold down the Alt key and click. And again: Object > Path > Average > Horizontal. Now you have three nice swirly shapes.

Step 11

Now we’ll make a few adjustments and save our shapes. For all three shapes apply a medium gray stroke with no fill. To make a shape longer, duplicate the first swirl and rotate the copy 180 degrees with the selection arrow (hold down the Shift key while rotating), then align both parts to form a single longer swirl and group them. Do the same with the second swirl.

Step 12a

With the last swirl, again make the same manipulation as with the first two, duplicate, rotate, and align. We will also add some dots. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and create a small circle while holding down Shift key. Make it a medium gray with no stroke and position it near the swirl as shown.

Step 12b

Duplicate the circle several times and position it around the swirl to end up with about 10 circles surrounding your shape. Now select all circles, while holding down the Shift key, and go to Object > Transform > Transform each (Alt + Shift + Command + D) and enter these values:

• Scale: 40% horizontal, 40% vertical
• Move: 15 pt horizontal, 5 pt vertical
• Random: checked
• Preview: checked

If you like the result, press OK. If not, then try to change some settings, like scale or move. Your result should be something like the image below.

Step 13

Now when our swirls are ready, we’ll make three brushes out of them. Select the first swirl, go to the brushes palette (F5) and drag-n-drop the shape on the palette. Select Art brush in the window you see next. As your swirl is horizontal, in the art brush options choose horizontal for the direction (however, if you made a vertical one, choose vertical direction of course). Select the Hue Shift colorization method. Name this brush “Swirl 1″ and save it.

Now your newly created brush will appear in the brushes palette. Do the same with two other shapes, naming them “Swirl 2″ (for this one enter 80% for width) and “Swirl 3″ (enter 150% for width and check Proportional).

Building the Composition

Now we come to the most exciting part of this tutorial, building our final composition.

Step 14

Let’s now make our type. Lock the “Swirls” layer and create a new one named “Type.” Grab the Type Tool (T) and type your text. It’s better to use a round sans-serif font (I used Century Gothic Regular) and the font size should be really large (mine was 130 pt). I chose the phrase “I LOVE VECTOR,” so I typed “I VECTOR,” as I’ll later add a heart symbol.

Step 15

Let’s convert the text to a path (Command + Shift + O) and ungroup it. Now, rather than working on the entire text, we ‘ll adjust only one letter first. Choose letter “I,” make it no fill and 1 pt black stroke. Click on the first swirl in the brushes palette. Oh, at last we start having some effect!

Step 16

Now, with the “I” still selected go to the Appearance palette (Shift + F6) and in the flyout menu choose new stroke. With new stroke selected, go to the brushes panel and select “Swirl 2.” Now the letter looks even better!

Step 17

Go ahead and add the third stroke of the last swirly brush, the one with dots. Now you can tweak the settings of either stroke if you want. When you reach the effect you are happy with, go to the Graphic Styles panel. With your letter selected, create a new style named “Black swirly type.” Now you can select the rest of the text and apply the same graphic style on other letters.

Step 18

Our type looks OK now, but you may notice some choppy areas created by corner points. You must remember that corner points are not good for swirls, so we’ll fix it. Select the entire text and go to Filter > Stylize > Round Corners, with a radius of 10 px will be enough. Now your type should look much prettier!

You may want to adjust the kerning now by moving letters a bit to look more harmonious. Also move the “I” letter to the left so that you have enough room for the heart (don’t forget to press Shift while moving to keep the letter properly aligned to the baseline).

Step 19

To make the heart, turn on the rulers (Command + R) and drag a vertical guide between the “I” and “V” letters. Take the Pen Tool and let’s draw the right part of our heart first, choose no fill and a pink 1pt stroke.

Click on the guide to make the top point and drag the handle to the left while holding Shift to create a loop, then click on the right side to create the right anchor point. Finally, click on the guide to create the bottom point and drag a handle to the right while holding Shift for perfectly horizontal handles. See the image below for reference, now you have the right half of your heart created.

Step 20

With a shape selected, grab the Reflect Tool (O) and Alt-click on the guide, choose Vertical and click Copy. Now the heart is ready. Delete the guide now. I have decided to join two halves in the bottom point only: select two neighboring bottom points with Direct Selection Tool (A) and press Alt + Shift + Command + J.

Step 21

Now we’ll repeat Steps 16-17: add strokes to one part of our shape in the Appearance palette and apply swirly brushes to it. For the heart I’ve chosen three 1 pt strokes of pink, yellow, and blue with all three brushes applied.

Step 22

To add a nice detail to the composition, I’ve decided to put three smaller copies above our heart of each color (pink, blue, and yellow). Although it’s possible to simply copy the object three times, transform it and delete unneeded strokes, I wanted to keep all the heart copies as one object. To do it, select a heart and choose the first stroke in the Appearance panel. Now go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform and enter these values for the first stroke:

• Scale: 20% horizontal, 20% vertical
• Move: -30 pt horizontal, 35 pt vertical
• Rotate: 20 degrees
• Copies: 1

For the second stroke do the same with the following values:

• Scale: 15% horizontal, 15% vertical
• Move: 30 pt horizontal, 40 pt vertical
• Rotate: 340 degrees
• Copies: 1

And for the third one enter following:

• Scale: 10% horizontal, 10% vertical
• Move: 0 pt horizontal, 60 pt vertical
• Rotate: 5 degrees
• Copies: 1

Now you have a nice detail, and the small hearts are actually effects applied to the major one!

Moreover, you can save the effects applied to the heart shape as a graphic style just like we did with the type, and name it “Colored swirly heart.” This way the same style can be easily applied to any shape with just one click!

Step 23

Finally I made some minor adjustments like tweaking brush settings for both the type and heart and adjusting strokes to my liking. This is what the final result looks like.

And this is the one for those of you who’d like to add more swirls – you might like the frame I created. Create a rounded rectangle almost covering the whole canvas, cut it into four corners with the Scissors Tool (C) and apply the graphic style you created for the type.

You can adjust the brush settings a bit (I removed the third brush stroke). And guess what I put into the corners? These asymmetric flowers are very simple to make. Take any shape we used to make a swirl from Steps 8-10, and run the Average command with Both Axes option chosen – and copy the shape to put it in every corner!

Conclusion

In this tutorial we’ve learned the power of the Average command in Adobe Illustrator and used it to make a nice swirly type effect. I hope it gave you some inspiration, as this effect can produce interesting and unexpected results. Just be creative and have fun experimenting!

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Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards, as well as a few color variations. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

For this tutorial, I used CorelDRAW but the techniques discussed apply for most vector editing software.

Step 1 – Type, Organize, and Choose the Font

Find the relationships in your copy and organize the text accordingly. For this tutorial, I’ve chosen a calligraphic font called Old Script from dafont.com, but any script font will do.

Step 2 – Convert to Curves and Break Apart

To modify the font we will need curves. Select your text and press Command + Q (convert to curves) and then press Command + K or use the Break Apart icon form the Property Bar, to break apart the components of the font. Since inner parts are separate elements we need to trim them from the rest of the character.

Step 3 – Trim Inner Parts

Shift-select the inner (I’ve altered their color to orange) and the outer parts of a character and press trim on the Property Bar. If you want to have more control over boolean operations, then you can turn on the Shaping docker from the Window menu. Then select the source object, press Trim, and select the target object with the special cursor.

Sometimes after the break apart operation the inner parts go behind the outer parts. In this case, select the outer part and press Shift + Page Down to send it to the back. It is always a good idea to have two different colors for boolean operations.

Step 4 – Give Some Flesh to the Characters

Select an individual letter and drag away. Before releasing your button, click with the right button and you will get a copy of the original shape. Repeat the copy operation, but this time move the copy to the left a little bit to have two overlapping shapes.

Step 5 – Trim and Break

Select the two overlapping copies and click the Trim icon on the toolbar. Select the resulting shape and press Command + K to break apart.

Step 6 – Weld

Move away some of the resulting shapes to the right and weld the rest. The goal is to achieve a more dynamic look by increasing the difference between the thick and thin parts of the character. I find steps 4-6 the easiest way, but you can use any other techniques to achieve the desired alteration.

Step 7 – Clean Up Messy Curves

Remove unneeded nodes to have a clean flowing curve. Select the Shape Tool (F10) and right-click on a point, then select Delete from the context menu, or simply double-click the node with the Shape Tool. After a boolean operations, always check for stray segment and undesired nodes.

Step 8 – Glamorizing Begins

Make a copy of the character by moving it to the left, but just a tiny bit. Select the resulting shapes and press trim in the Property Bar. Repeat the copy and trim operation to the right, up and down.

Always move away the resulting chips and break them apart (Command + K). These small shapes will be the building bricks of the look we’re creating.

Step 9 – The Creative Part

Arrange the chips so that they overlap the original object. Rotate, scale, or duplicate them in a creative way, until you’re satisfied with the outcome.

Make an extra copy of the original shape for later use. Select the original shape and the chips and weld them by pressing the Weld icon on the Property Bar.

Step 10 – Let There Be Highlight

Pick the Interactive Contour Tool by pressing longer on the Effects Tool on the toolbar. In the properties bar, choose Inner contour, Number of steps 1, and a small offset depending on the size of your character. From the Arrange menu choose Break Contour Group Apart.

Step 11 – Finishing the Highlight

Pick the resulting object, clean it up, and position somewhere towards the top-left part of your character.

We are almost there. Make one more highlight if you wish following Steps 11-12.

Step 12 – The Tedious Part

Repeat Steps 4-12 on all the characters.

Step 13 – Bring it All Together

Using the original text as a template move the modified characters to their place.

Get creative on the initials and use swirls and swashes derived from the characters to make the design coherent.

Step 14 – Experiment with Color Setups

When finished, group the characters and highlights in two separate groups to make the color experimentation easier. The ideal color setup would be something like a darker base color and a lighter shade of it for the highlight.

To Sum Up

In this tutorial, we created a typography effect by using only parts of the original type, which makes the whole thing work together. Using this trim and weld technique, you can always give some extra details to your type treatments or vectors.

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Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Step 1 – Draw a Curve in InDesign

Use the Pen Tool (P) or Pencil Tool (N) to draw a wavy line. Use the Stroke panel or Control panel to give the line a 1 pt stroke. We’ll remove the stroke later, but it is helpful to have a visible stroke on the line for the next few steps.

Step 2 – Prepare the Curve to Receive Path Type

Click on the Path Type Tool (buried under the Type Tool, or press Shift + T. With the Path Type Tool, click on the curve you drew in Step 1. This will turn the curve into a text path.

Step 3 – Duplicate the Curve

With the Selection (Black Arrow) Tool, click on the curve you drew in step 1. Hold down the Alt and drag the curve down and to the right to duplicate it.

Step 4 – Duplicate the Curve Three More Times

Choose Object > Transform Again > Transform Again, or press Command + Alt + 3. Repeat this two more times, so that you end up with a total of five curves.

Step 5 – Place the Text on the Top Curve

Click on the top curve with the Type Tool. You should see a flashing text cursor on the left side of the curve. Choose File > Place to import a text file onto the curve, or choose File > Paste to paste some text onto the curve from the pasteboard.

Step 6 – Thread the Text to the Next Four Curves

With the Selection Tool, click on the top curve. You should see a red overset text symbol appear on the right end of the line. Click on this overset text symbol to load the text cursor. With the loaded text cursor, click on the second curve. Repeat this procedure (clicking on the overset text symbol and then clicking on the next curve) until you have clicked on all five curves.

Step 7 – Skew the Type

To make the type look more like it is on a wavy flag, the type needs to be skewed. Select all five curves with the Selection Tool. Choose Type > Type on a Path > Options. In the dialog box that appears, change the Effect to Skew, and click the OK button.

Step 8 – Format the Type

Select all the text with the Type Tool, and then use the Character and Paragraph panels, or the Control panel, to format the type as you’d like it to appear. Note that I applied full justification to all the text, to ensure an even right edge, even on the last line.

Step 9 – Remove the Stroke from the Curves

Select all five curves with the Selection tool again, and use the Swatches panel to apply a stroke of None.

Step 10 – Create Two Colors

To make the flag text look more realistic, we are going to apply a gradient to the text that consists of alternating light and dark colors. In the Swatches panel menu, choose New Gradient Swatch, and create two colors, a bright red and a darker red, or any colors you’d like.

Step 11 – Create a Gradient

In the Swatches panel menu, choose New Gradient Swatch. In the dialog box that appears, click on the left-most square under the Gradient Ramp. This square is called a Color Stop. Then change the Stop Color to Swatches, and choose the light color you created in Step 10. Next, click under the colored gradient ramp to create a second color stop, and make this color stop the dark color you created in Step 10. Repeat this three more times until you have five color stops, alternating from light, to dark, to light, to dark, to light.

Step 12 – Apply the Gradient to the Text

Select all of the text with the Type Tool, and then click on the gradient you created in Step 9 in the Swatches panel. You will not be able to see the effect of the gradient until you deselect the text.

Conclusion

Use the Pen Tool to create a path for the flag pole, and add a background photo if you’d like, and you’re ready for Independence day!

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Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Step 1

Create a new document. Now with the Text Tool (T), type out the appropriate text. For this tutorial I typed “Western,” but you can type whatever you like. I used the font Country Store from the County Fair Picnic set through Font diner. Even though it cost $28 for 12 fonts, you can download something similar for free, like the Western font from Dafont.

Step 2

With the text selected, go Effect > Warp > Arc Lower. In the Warp Options dialog, change the Bend to -20, keep the Horizontal and Vertical Distortion at 0, and press OK.

Step 3

Use the Text Tool (T) and type some more text below “Western.” In the tutorial example I typed out “Bar and Grill,” but again, you can type whatever you like. In the Type panel, change the font to Glypha (or similar Slab Serif font), change the font size and adjust the Tracking so there is more space between the letters.

Step 4

With the Star Tool (the Star Tool is grouped under the shape tools in the Tools panel) create a star in-between the “Bar” and “And” text. Make the star’s height about half the size of the text. Next, create another star, the same size, and in-between the “And” and “Grill” text.

Step 5

Select the “Bar And Grill” text, the stars, and Group them (Command + G). With the new group selected, go Effect > Warp > Arch. In the Warp Options dialog, change the Bend to 20, keep the Horizontal and Vertical Distortion at 0, and press OK.

Step 6

Type “The” with the Type Tool (T), change the font to Glypha Bold, make sure the Tracking is set to zero, and place it directly above the “Western” text.

Step 7

Select the two warped areas and go Object > Expand Appearance. Next select “The” and go to Type Create Outlines (Command + Shift + O).

Step 8

With the Pen Tool, create an uneven shape extending from the left of the “W” in “West” to the right side of “The.” Don’t worry about making the shape very consistent, you want the shape to have some unevenness and jagged edges.

Step 9

Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F) the new shape. Next, go Object > Transform > Reflect and choose Vertical from the Reflect dialog. Now, move the copied shape to the other side of the “The” word.

Step 10

Create a rectangle the size of your document with the Rectangle Tool (M) and place it behind the text and other shapes by going to Object > Arrange > Send to Back (Command + Shift + Left Bracket key).

Step 11

Fill the rectangle with a linear gradient from the Gradient panel. For this gradient we are going to add an extra Color Stop to the gradient. To do this, click in the middle right below the Gradient Slider in the Gradient panel. Change the first Color Stop to a khaki color, the second to a light khaki color, and the last Color Stop to a darker khaki color than the first.

Step 12

With the Gradient Tool (G), adjust the gradient by clicking at the top of the rectangle and dragging to the bottom.

Step 13

With the Rectangle Tool (M), create a rectangle that is very small in comparison to the gradient rectangle just created. Make sure the rectangle is taller than it is wide. The one I created is roughly 13 px wide by 90 px tall. Your measurements might vary depending on the size of your text and document. Place the rectangle towards the bottom-left of the document.

Step 14

Fill the rectangle with a 40 percent gray and then go Effect > Sketch > Graphic Pen. Once in the Graphic Pen dialog, change the Stroke Length to 15, the Light/Dark Balance to 100, and the Stroke Direction to Horizontal.

Step 15

With the Graphic Pen rectangle selected, go Object > Expand Appearance. Once expanded, the Control panel defaults to the Live Trace Option. In the Control panel, press the Tracing Presets and Options button (the small arrow button in-between the Live Trace and Mask button) and chose One Color Logo from the list. Next, press the Expand button in the Control Panel.

Step 16

With the texture selected, use the Selection Tool (V) and scale the texture vertically and horizontally until it is slightly bigger than the gradient rectangle.

Step 17

Select both the texture and the gradient rectangle, then Send them to the back (Command + Shift + Left Bracket key). Next, select the gradient rectangle, Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F).

Select the copied rectangle and the texture, then press the Intersect button in the Pathfinder panel. Now, change the fill of the texture to a khaki color and change the Blending mode to Multiply from the Transparency panel.

Step 18

Select the “The Text” and fill it with a Radial Gradient from the Gradient panel. Change the first Color Stop to red and the second to a darker red. Next, change the blending mode to Multiply from the Transparency panel.

Step 19

With the “The” text selected, Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F) twice. Select the top copy and move it to the left and down slightly.

Select the moved copy and the copy underneath, then press the Minus Front button in the Pathfinder panel. Change the fill on the new shape to a light brown and set the blending mode to Multiply from the Transparency panel.

Step 20

If you zoom into some of the “The” text you will see little areas where the Minus pathfinder command went into the next letter. To clean some of this up, use the Delete Anchor Point Tool (-), and selectively delete some point to create a more consistent shape.

Step 21

Repeat Steps 18 through 20 with the “Bar and Grill” text. Make sure to Ungroup (Command + Shift + G) the star shape from the text before you start the steps.

Step 22

Select the “Western” text, the shapes above “Western,” the star shapes, then fill them with a light brown color, and set the blending mode to Multiply.

Step 23

Repeat Steps 19 through 20 for each of the “Western” text, shapes above “Western,” and the star shapes.

Step 24

Select the “Western” text and the shapes above it, then go Object > Path > Offset. In the Offset dialog change the Offset to -5 px (this measurement might actually be different depending on the size of you text, basically you want the offset to inset the original shape slightly).

Step 25

Fill the Offset shapes with a 20 percent gray and change the blending mode to Soft Light from the Transparency panel.

Step 26

With the offset shapes still selected, go Effect > Stylize > Feather, then in the Feather dialog change the Feather Radius to 8 px (again, depending on the size of your text, the Feather Radius might be larger or smaller).

Step 27

Now that the text is done, we can dress it up with some bullet holes! First, pick a spot for your first bullet hole. With the Pencil Tool (N), draw small uneven ellipse shape. Fill the shape with a light brown and set it to Multiply.

Step 28

Draw another smaller ellipse shape with the Pencil Tool (N) and fill it with black. Also, draw some black ripple like shapes around the black ellipse with the Pencil Tool (N).

Step 29

With the Pencil Tool (N), draw a smoke shape coming out of the bullet hole. Fill the Shape with a 10 percent black and set the Opacity to 0 from the Transparency panel.

Step 30

Draw another smoke shape within the first, fill it with white, and change the Opacity to 50 percent.

Step 31

Select both smoke shapes and go Object > Blend > Make.

Step 32

Create as many bullet holes throughout the piece as you want. All done!

Final Image

Again below is a final image of the text treatment.

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Upselling and Promotion

When you run your own freelancing business as I used to, you quickly learn that part of your job is to sell your own services. I don’t know about you, but I kind of suck at selling in person. So given the choice, I’d much rather do my talking through design.

So let’s say that I was still freelancing and wanted to promote my print design services – after all I’m more of a web designer than anything else. A great way to do this would be to create some little promo cards and attach them to my quotes, estimates, and other communications. I could also use them as leave-behinds when I go to meetings or present my work.

Assembling the Components

I don’t want to spend too much time designing these because I (supposedly) have a freelance business to run! So let’s keep it simple.

Since I’m promoting print services, I’ll make four cards each one using one of the four process colours of most print work – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

I spent a few minutes and came up with four simple catch phrases that use the word "print" which I think will be easy to represent visually:

1. Say It In Print
2. Think Print
3. I Love Print
4. Print Starts Conversations

They aren’t going to win me any copywriting awards, but they’ll do the job nicely.

A quick search of GraphicRiver’s Vector category found me two simple vectors that will work perfectly: speech bubbles and hearts:

Setup the Artboard

We’re going to be using MOO.com to print these promo cards and we’re going to use their Mini cards product. The neat thing about Mini cards is that because they are digitally printed we can provide 100 different designs for 100 different cards and that won’t cost any more than providing 1 design for 100 cards. This is as opposed to more traditional offset printing where for each print run someone would need to setup the plates and therefore trying to get 100 designs would cost a small fortune. In our case we only want 4 different designs, one for each slogan.

So from the MOO.com website I gather that the dimensions for the cards are: 28mm x 70mm

For many print jobs you also need what is called Bleed. This is just extra space on the edges of the design so that if the cutting isn’t precise your design will still run to the edge. For some silly reason MOO.com doesn’t mention anything about bleed, but later on it turns out that they do actually require a bit of it.

So we’re going to add 5mm of bleed to each edge, that means the overall dimensions will be 38mm x 80mm (5mm on each edge = 10mm extra to the width and height each).

Create a New Document

So first I’ll create a new document sized at 38mm x 80mm.

Add Guides for the Bleed Area

Now because I’m still using Illustrator CS3 I’ll need to draw in some guides to mark off the bleed area. In Illustrator CS4 as we saw in the tutorial earlier this week you can actually specify this in Document Setup.

In any case I go to View > Show Rulers to switch them on and drag out some guides so they are 5mm away from each edge. The space in the middle is where my artwork should mostly sit since anything off in the bleed area shouldn’t actually show up (unless the printer has the worst aim in history!)

Simple, Bold, Typographic Design

Now to make our designs. There’s not much to them, so I’ll walk through creating one and assume that the rest are pretty much just the same process of placing items on a page.

So to begin I’ve just added a rectangle to the page coloured as C:100, M:0, Y:0, K:0 – in other words in plain Cyan.

Next I’ve opened up the speech bubble set in Illustrator and copied over an appropriate speech bubble. As you can see it’s not quite the right size. No worries, just grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) which is the white arrow tool. As you know this tool is useful for moving points around. You can either move a single point or if you click and drag a box around a group of points you’ll move them all together. In the image below you can see I’ve selected all the points on the right hand side, after which I just hit the left arrow a few times until the speech bubble is appropriately sized.

After a bit of moving around I ended up with a speech bubble sitting nicely in the boundaries of my card. Note that it doesn’t stray into the bleed area because that’s going to get chopped off later.

Next I just turned the speech bubble white and added some big, bold text in Gotham a nice typeface that was famously used on Obama’s campaign. As you can see I’ve placed one word in Magenta (C:0, M:100, Y:0, K:0) and the rest in plain Black.

When you use black in print you have to decide what sort you want. In my case I’ve used straight black in line with my theme of using the print process colours, so it’s C:0, M:0, Y:0, K:100. But to get a richer black you could add some Cyan, or all sorts of variations really.

And here are the three other designs. With each one I’ve simply moved objects around so that:

• The words are expressed graphically
• The text is bold and nicely contrasted (e.g. blue text on magenta is a bit eye tearing while yellow on magenta is nice)
• The little graphics are placed so that they are either centered and bold, or right-aligned with lots of empty space to make it more interesting.

Awesome, that’s the design out of the way! That took no time at all, now on to the printing. So we go to MOO.com’s minicards page and click Start Designing Your Mini Cards. At this point you can do lots of interesting things like use Flickr images or premade designs. Whatever, we’re not interested in that stuff, we want to click Start Uploading Images so we can add our own!

So next we see this page where MOO tells us that apparently we have to provide the images as .GIF, .PNG or .JPG. That’s actually pretty strange for a printer, most take PDFs, so if you’re new to printing don’t expect this to be the norm.

They’ve also got some minimum dimensions which are pretty minimum!

Now we’re going to make our files into .PNG. To do this we’ll copy them into a Photoshop document and save from there. In Illustrator there is actually a "Save for Web and Devices" option, but it always seems to make things tiny. Beats me, if anyone knows how I can skip the Photoshop steps, leave a comment!

So anyhow, we open up Photoshop and create a new document. We’re making it 80mm x 38mm again, and at 300dpi so there’s enough resolution to make a nice print. Remember that print is different from the screen where you can get away with just 72dpi.

Once we’ve got the document set up, just copy and paste in the designs. They are the right size so should just slot in.

And then go to File > Save for Web and Devices and choose PNG-24 from the options to create our .PNG files!

Back at MOO we upload our four images. As you can see you could actually upload 100 different images which is actually pretty cool, but totally unnecessary in this case.

Next MOO asks us to resize our images, we don’t need to do anything. As you can see that bleed area that we added has come in handy and is in the no-print zone.

Next we get to customize the back with a few lines of text. There isn’t much room for customization here, but that’s OK we’ll just add a brief message for our clients to find out about print services. With a bit of judicious placement, even though it’s just simple text it still looks kinda nice and clean.

After that MOO manages to get some money off me, not too much though, 20 dollars plus shipping! And we put in an address and thanks to the magic of online printing a few days later ….

There they are!

100 of these little promo cards should last ages. So all in all it cost $20 + shipping and an hour of my time. That’s not half bad at all!

While MOO.com is certainly not appropriate for all types of print job, I hope this tutorial has shown that even someone with very little prepress or production skills can very quickly make some professional looking print work in the time that it takes to watch an episode of 24.

Graphic Design Week

To celebrate the launch of GraphicRiver’s new Print Design Templates category we’re putting on a whole week of graphic design tutorials on both Psdtuts+ and Vectortuts+. The new category means you can now sell your design work to make extra cash On the flip side if you’re coming up short on inspiration, you can get a kickstart by grabbing a Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign template via GraphicRiver. So to give the new category the launch it deserves, all this week we’ll be bringing you articles and tutorials just like this one, on graphic design as part of our Tuts+ Graphic Design Week.

The building blocks in this case are the logo (a spoon), the name of the store (Vectortuts),the description of the store (Spoonfed Vectors) and any additional information (like since 1935). For this tutorial, I used CorelDRAW but the techniques discussed apply for most vector editing software. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Step 1 – Organize the Text

The store name is the most important so this will be the biggest, while the description part should be about 2/3 of the size for a good visual contrast and legibility. Any other elements should be much smaller (like the logo and additional information) to avoid stealing focus from the main parts.

Step 2 – Find the Fonts

You will need two different fonts with as much contrast as possible. Bear in mind while selecting the font that the final work should be ready for cut on a vinyl cutter-plotter and these machines don’t really like too many nodes.

The shop name should be a fancy and bold font while the description should be a solid, legible one and preferably sans serif (once again consider cutter-plotters). For this tutorial, I’ve picked two great fonts from dafont: BigTop by Shamrock and MarketDeco by Steve Ferrera.

Step 3 – Convert Text to Curves

Once you are satisfied with your typography, grab the text and make curves out of them, which means their nodes will be editable. In CorelDraw use Command + Q or select Convert to Curves in the right click context menu.

Step 4 – On to the Board Design

Surround your text with rectangles and put the logo in a circle. Weld the geometric forms together making one object out of them. Shift-select all the rectangles and the circle. When two or more shapes are selected simultaneously, CorelDraw offers Boolean operations like Weld. These icons are shown in the Property bar. Press the weld icon.

Step 5 – Visual Detail

Add some more small circles and rectangles for visual detail and weld them to the main shape. If you are planning to make a real world sign board don’t overdo this part, as it will make it difficult cutting the board.

Step 6 – More Visual Detail

If you have any additional information, you can expand your board by pulling down the lower part of the shape. Select the Shape tool (F10). Right-click on the line of the lower part and choose the To Curve option from the context menu.

Double-click the middle of the lower part with the Shape tool – thus adding an extra node. Grab this node and pull down a little creating an extra curvature on the board. These lower curvatures make the board look really cool and can be used for placing additional information or some kind of design element, for example a flourish or swirl.

Step 7 – Contour Over Contour

When the board shape is ready, give a wide contour to it. Actually, we are going to make three contours: a thick one and two thin ones. Select the Interactive Contour tool from the special effects fly-out. Click on the board shape and in the Property Bar select the outside option and type in a contour offset. Experiment with this setting until you are pleased with the outcome.

Step 8 – Second Round of Contour

With the board still selected, choose from the Arrange menu the Break Contour Group Apart Option, or press Command + K. If this option is not active, click on the board shape once again with the Interactive Contour tool. Now select the offset shape and give it a new contour like in the previous step, but this time make it thicker.

Step 9 – Third Round of Contour

Following the previous steps create one more contour, preferably the same thickness as the first one.

Step 10 – Trimming Contours

If everything went right you have four shapes: the original board shape and three offsets. Select the original shape and Shift select (add to your selection) the offset below it. When two or more shapes are selected simultaneously, CorelDRAW will offer Boolean operations like Trim. These icons are shown in the Property Bar. Select Trim, which is our best friend in this process.

Step 11 – Giving Depth

Select the resulting shape and move it down a bit. Before releasing the left mouse button press the right mouse button thus making a copy of the original shape. Trim the original from the duplicate. Select the resulting shape and press Command + K breaking it apart. Delete the lower portions of the broken shape. Grab the bottom most offset board shape, move it down a little, and duplicate it. By the end of this step you should have a 3D-ish effect.

Step 12 – Detailing Text

Grab the two main texts and move them down and sideways a bit, then make a copy of them. Trim the original text from its copy and move the resulting shape once again down and sideways.

Step 13 – Color Scheme

By now you have a pretty neat sign board design, so you can start looking for the right colors. Wash out and pastel colors make a great old time effect. You can further improve the overall atmosphere of the design by adding some extra text effects.

Step 14 – Text Effect

Offset the main text with the Interactive Contour tool, but this time chose Inside. The contour offset should be minimal. Break apart the contour group and pick the smaller top shape.

Step 15 – Steampunk Gradient

Draw two rectangles wider than the main text. Place one of them about the middle of the text shape and make it really thin. Place the other rectangle at the bottom of the text shape and make it six to seven times wider than the other (thin) rectangle. Pick the thicker rectangle and select the Interactive Blend tool from the effects fly-out and pull the blend to the thin rectangle. Change the Blend Steps to 5 in the Property Bar.

Step 16 – Doing the Trick

Select Break Blend Group from the Arrange menu or simply press Command + K. Shift-select the resulting rectangles and group them (Command + G). Trim the group of rectangles from the text shape offset. Delete the group of blended rectangles and you have the infamous steampunk gradient effect.

Conclusion

Using the techniques discussed above you can create almost infinite variations for a shop sign board. The strength of this procedure is that you will have a custom shape sign board perfectly adopting to the text. If you are preparing the design for a real world project, always pay great attention to minimize the number of nodes deleting stray or unneeded nodes. Keeping your nodes tidy will ease the work of the cutter-plotter resulting in better cuts.

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Final Image Preview

Below is the final design we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join VECTORTUTS PLUS for just $9/month.

Step 1

We will start with the magnifying glass. Open a new document and draw a circle with the Ellipse Tool (L). Apply a gray Stroke of 4pt inside and leave the fill empty. Set the Layer Opacity to 46%.

Step 2

Create another circle slightly smaller and apply a blue Stroke of 2pt inside. Set the Layer Opacity to 46%.

Step 3

Place the shape over the first circle and center the them both next to each other.

Step 4

Create another circle and set the Stroke to 4pt inside in white. Next, apply an Opacity Mask and create two circles in the mask to reveal and hide parts of it.

Step 5

Align the circle with the Opacity Mask on top of the two other circles. It should look like the image below. I placed the black background just to make it more visible.

Step 6

Create another circle bigger than the original circles, fill it with gray and place it under all shapes and center all these shapes.

Step 7

Make a duplicate of the gray filled circle and apply a radial gray to white gradient to it. Place the gradient highlight towards the bottom left. Then copy the shape, go to Make Opacity Mask, activate it by clicking on the black square and paste the circle in there. Now we need to delete some path points so we’ll get a shape similar to the image below.

Step 8

Now apply a linear white to black to white gradient to the opacity mask shape and then angle it. This will hide and reveal only the shape plus some of the radial gradient. Of course this is only one way to create a reflection.

Step 9

We need to give the lens part some sort of beveled depth. To achieve this, create another circle and fill it with a white to black radial gradient. Apply the gradient so the white color is in the center. Set the Layer Opacity to 46% and make sure the shape is on top of all other shapes.

Step 10

Create a shape similar to the one shown below. You can use the same circle that we just created, delete points, and then reshape it. Fill it with a gray color at 60% K. Then set the Layer Opacity to 18%.

Step 11

Place the shape into the middle of the loop. As you can see, it will give us an illusion of a lens reflection.

Step 12

Let’s have a look at the handle that we’ll create. We need to focus on highlights, reflections, bevels, and gradients. We will create a highlight (1), a bevel with gradients (2), and accent pieces (3).

Step 13

Create a rounded corner rectangle (corner radius depends on your size of the rectangle, I chose around 8pt). Next, fill it with a dark red to black linear gradient. This will be a base and act as a beveled shape.

Step 14

Create a very thin rectangle but keep it as wide as the base shape. Then fill it with a linear gray to white to black gradient.

Step 15

Make a copy of the base shape and cut it, so you will have a shape like in the image below. You can either do that by using the Cutting Knife (Scissors Tool) or cutting the shape with the Scissor Tool (C) at the path points before the rounded corners and then joining the paths and extending the shape. Be sure to fill it with the same silver gradient as used for the small accent shape.

Step 16

Make a duplicate of the silver top shape and rotate it 180 degrees. Resize it so it is not as tall.

Step 17

Create a rectangle smaller in width then the base shape and fill it with the same silver gradient. Make sure when you place it underneath the two top silver shapes that the gradients align.

Step 18

Now let’s move on to the highlight. It’s a simple shape filled with white. Place it on the left and let it run from the top to almost the bottom. Next, apply an Opacity Mask and hide the bottom part so the shape seems to fade into the red.

Step 19

Group the loop shape together, then group the base handle together, and then place the handle close to the loop. I grouped both together and rotated the loop counterclockwise. Next, I added a Drop Shadow (Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow).

Step 20

Ah, you thought you were finished, but let’s move on to the paper. Create a rectangle, portrait size and fill it with a light gray, then apply a Drop Shadow (Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow).

Step 21

I outlined the text columns for the layout. We will be creating three columns.

Step 22

First, we need some text. I grabbed some lorem ipsum text from lipsum.com/ and copied it. Next, select the Text Tool (T), click on the top left corner of the first column grid, hold down the left mouse key, and start dragging downwards.

Step 23

You’ll see that we are creating a rectangle text box.

Step 24

Now it might be a little hard to place it exactly to the guidelines, but there is a handy tool for resizing text boxes without distorting the text itself. Go to Window > Show Bounding Box (Command + Shift + B) and resize the text box. Paste the text you copied there.

Step 25

Since we created one text box, the text we pasted into it is too long. Illustrator lets you know that by adding a red plus sign on the bottom right of the text box. Select the Selection Tool (V) and click once on the red plus sign. About half a second later you will see a text line image underneath the cursor.

Step 26

Zoom out so you can see the guidelines and draw another rectangle text box. You don’t need to select the Text Tool (T), since you already activated it by clicking on the red plus sign.

Step 27

Repeat the previous steps and add another column. Delete any unnecessary text.

Step 28

I created another text box above the three columns and added a title.

Conclusion

Last but not least, I placed the loop on top of the text. To give the illusion that the loop magnifies the text, I made a copy of the column and increase the text size. Then I applied a mask to hide the rest. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

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Final Image

Below is the final type treatment we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join VECTORTUTS PLUS for just $9/month.

Step 1

Download the Anivers Font and install it on your system.

Step 2

Create a new document and type some text. Apply the Anivers font to your text.

Step 3

In my example, I have two lines of text. To visually distinguish the main part of the text from the tag line, play with the tracking and caps. For the tag line in my example, I changed the font to All Caps, changed the Tracking to 400, and changed the font size, all from the Character Panel.

Step 4

With the text selected, outline the text by going to Type &gt Create Outlines.

Step 5

Next, we are going to add a simple element to the text. We are going to create a stylized spoon to go with the "Spoonfed Vectors" tagline. You can recreate this spoon or create you own element with the brush we are going to create. Before that, select the main text and Ungroup (Command + Shift + G) the text by going to Object &gt Ungroup.

Step 6

In this example, we are going to delete the O. If you are using different text, choose which letter you want to delete and be replaced with an element.

Step 7

Now we can make the Art Brush we will be using to create the spoon. Start by Drawing a 40 px by 40 px ellipse with the Ellipse Tool (L). Fill the ellipse with black and no stroke. With the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the right anchor point and drag it to the right – doubling its length. With the point still selected, the Control Panel defaults to the Anchor Options. To the left of the Control Panel, press the Corner button, converting the anchor point to a corner.

Step 8

With the new shapes selected, drag it into the Brush Panel, and Choose New Art Brush from the New Brush dialog. When the Art Brush dialog appears, change the Colorization Method to Tints from the bottom of the dialog.

Step 9

With the Spiral Tool click on the artboard to bring up the Spiral dialog. In the dialog, change the Radius to 40 px (this size might change later when you scale the spoon shape to fit the empty letter area), Decay to 80, Segments to 8, and check the second Style option.

Step 10

Place the spiral shape where you deleted the letter. Rotate and scale the shape until it fits in the space.

Step 11

Apply your brush to the path by selecting it in the Brush Panel. You might have to change the Stroke Weight from the Stroke Panel if the stroke is too thick.

Step 12

Create four more paths with the Pen Tool (P). Make one path for the handle of the spoon and three smaller paths above the spoon.

Step 13

Select these paths and apply your custom brush. Adjust the stroke if needed.

Step 14

Select the spiral, handle, and sprite paths that you applied the brush to, then go to Object &gt Expand Appearance to outline the brush stroke. Next, it’s good practice to clean up the leftover paths by going to Object &gt Path &gt Clean Up.

Step 15

We have created the type treatment and now it’s time add some color to it, but first let’s add a background. Create a rectangle the size of your document and fill it with a Radial Gradient from the Gradient Panel. Change the first swatch to a 90% black and the second swatch a 100% black.

Step 16

Fill your type treatment with white and place it in the center of your document over the gradient rectangle.

Step 17

Select the main text and fill it with a Linear Gradient. Change the first swatch to white and the second swatch to a 30% black. Next, Use the Gradient Tool (G) and click and drag from the middle of the main type to the bottom, making the lightest part of the gradient at the top of the type.

Step 18

Select the tag line and fill it with a 30% black.

Step 19

Select all of the spoon elements and fill it with a Linear Gradient. Change the first swatch to a light cyan color and the second swatch to a cyan color. Use the Gradient Tool (G) and adjust the gradient by clicking and dragging at the top of the elements down to where the handle starts.

Step 20

Select all the text and spoon elements and Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Back (Command + B). Change the fill of the copied elements to black.

Step 21

With your arrow keys move the copy down and to the left slight. Next, set the copy to Multiply and change the Opacity to 40 from the Transparency Panel.

Step 22

At this point the treatment is looking pretty good. You can even stop here if you’d like, but I will show you how to add a little more movement to the type treatment. For these next steps I use the Brush Tool (B), but you can easily use the Pen Tool (P) if you wish. Start by creating a flowing line over you text. Adjust the Stroke Weight to your liking.

Step 23

Add some leaf like strokes around the outside of the stroke you just created. The Stroke Weight for these is going to be smaller than the main stroke.

Step 24

Continue creating brush strokes like in the previous steps.

Step 25

Select all you swirly elements and go to Object &gt Expand Appearance. Clean Up the paths like you did before and send the shapes behind the type treatment artwork.

Step 26

Fill the elements with a Radial Gradient with the first swatch a 85% black and the second swatch black. Use the Gradient Tool (G) to click in the middle of the document, then drag to the top of the document, making the lighter color in the center and the darker color blend into the background.

Final Image

That’s it! Wasn’t that easy? Below is the final image again. Now try applying these techniques to other type treatments and illustrations.

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Final Image

Below is the final image of the type treatment we will be working towards.

Video Tutorial

The VECTORTUTS editor Sean Hodge has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Step 1

Download the 04b_03 font from Dafont and install it on your system.

Step 2

Create a new document and type out some text with the Text Tool (T) and apply the 04b_03 font. Once typed out, outline the text by going to Type &gt Create Outlines (Shift + Command + O).

Step 3

Change the color of the type to an orange so we can see the shading effect when we use the Extrude and Bevel Filter, but we will be changing the color later.

Step 4

With the outline text selected go to Filter &gt Effect &gt 3D &gt Extrude and Bevel to open up the 3D Extrude & Bevel Options dialog. Once in the dialog, keep the default measurements except the Extrude Depth. The default setting should go as follows: -18 for the Rotation around the X axis (red arrow), -26 for the Rotation around the Y axis (green arrow), 8 for the Rotation around the Z axis (blue arrow), 0 for perspective, and 50 for the Extrude Depth. Once the settings are set to the default, change the Extrude Depth to 40.

Step 5

With the 3D text selected, go to Object &gt Expand Appearance.

Step 6

Use you Magic Wand Tool (Y) and click on the lightest orange color. This will select all the objects containing the lightest color. Change the fill of the selected orange to a Linear Gradient from the Gradient Panel. Make the first swatch in the Gradient Slider an orange color and the second swatch a darker orange.

Step 7

Next we are going to adjust the gradient on each individual letter with the Gradient Tool (G). Start by select the shapes of the first letter with the Direct Selection Tool (A). If you use the Selection Tool (V), you will select all the text, we just want the to select the gradient in the first letter. With the Gradient Tool (G), click at the top of the letter and drag to the bottom of the letter, making the lighter orange at the top of the letter.

Step 8

Repeat the previous step to all the letters of your type.

Step 9

Use your Magic Wand (Y) and select the the second lightest orange.

Step 10

Fill the selection with a Linear Gradient, and make sure the first swatch in the Gradient Slider is the dark orange from the previous gradient and the second swatch is a dark orange-red color.

Step 11

With the new Linear Gradient still selected, change the Location in the Gradient Panel to 180 so the darkest part of the gradient is on the left side of the letters.

Step 12

Use the Magic Wand and select the last dark orange.

Step 13

Fill the selection with a Linear Gradient, and make sure the the first swatch in the Gradient Slider is the dark orange-red from the previous gradient and the second swatch is a darker orange red color.

Step 14

With the new Linear Gradient still selected, change the Location in the Gradient Panel to 90 so the darkest part of the gradient is at the top side of the letters.

Step 15

Now that the type is done, we can start looking at the background. Create a rectangle with the Rectangle Tool (M) that is the size of your document and place ti behind all your other artwork.

Step 16

Fill the rectangle with a Radial Gradient from the Gradient Panel, and change the first swatch in the Gradient Slider to a light cyan color and the second swatch to a cyan color.

Step 17

With the Gradient Tool, adjust the Radial Gradient by clicking close to the first letter of the text and drag right to the center of the document.

Step 18

Create an ellipse with the Ellipse Tool that is 730 px by 730 px with no fill and a white stroke, then place the center of the circle over the first letter of your text. Once placed, send the artwork behind the text.

Step 19

With the ellipse selected, change the Stroke to 800 pt from the Stroke Panel. While still in the Stroke Panel, check the Dashed Line check box and change the Dash to 50 pt, giving you a nice radial burst.

Step 20

With the ellipse still selected, change the Transparency to 20% from the Transparency Panel.

Step 21

Now we can start creating the cloud shapes. With the Ellipse Tool (L), create ten to fifteen ellipses overlapping each other to create a cloud shape.

Step 22

Send the set of ellipse behind the type, Copy (Command + C) and Paste (Command + V) the ellipses and place them around the text.

Step 23

Create another set of clouds with ellipses and send them behind the original clouds.

Step 24

With the new set of clouds selected, fill them with a Linear Blend with the first swatch white and the second a light blue.

Step 25

With the Gradient Tool Adjust the gradient so the white is at the top of the clouds.

Step 26

Copy (Command + C) and Paste (Command + V) the gradient clouds a couple more times around the first set of clouds.

Step 27

Almost done, but let’s add some shadows to the text. Create an ellipse that is 70 px by 70 px. Fill the ellipse with a Radial Gradient, and make the first swatch if the gradient a dark cyan and the second swatch white.

Step 28

With the Selection Tool (V), squish the ellipse to about a third of its original size and place it behind the bottom of the first letter.

Step 29

Copy (Command + C) and Paste (Command + V) the ellipse under every letter. If the shadows overlap, chose Multiply from the menu. All done!

Final Image

Below is the final type treatment. I suggest trying this treatment with other fonts, or draw your own pixel letters to experiment!

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