Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The following lesson incorporates skills acquired from the first part of Illustrator's online video series
and adds new techniques to enhance type.
First we'll start by creating a vector type graphic then add color, gradient, and glare to get the final effect.
To begin, we'll need to open a new document in Illustrator.
Go to the File menu and select 'New'.
We're going to know our doucument 'Text'.
From the New Document Profile list, select 'Print', then in the Size list select 'Letter' which is 8.5 by 11.
Set the Units to 'Points' and the Orientation to Landscape.
When finished click OK.
In the Tools panel, find and select the Type tool.
Click in the center of the artboard and type 'FRESH'.
Go back to the Tools panel and select the Selection tool.
Go to the Control panel and open the Character panel.
From the Font list, select 'Poplar Std Black' and for the Font Size, enter '250'.
Lets click and drag our text to the center of our artboard.
Next click on the Stroke box and select None.
Lets close out of our Stroke box option and open the Align panel.
Under Align To, select 'Align to Artboard'.
Then under Align Objects, select Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align center.
When finished close the Align Panel.
Lets expand our panels and start adding our effects.
Click on the Layers panel and rename our layer to 1 by double clicking directly on the name of the layer and typing in '1'.
Afterwards, click OK.
Next we want to duplicate this layer by clicking on the Layer
panel's flyout menu located in the upper right hand corner.
When the submenu appears, select 'Duplicate'.
Lets rename this new layer to '2' then click OK.
Make sure the Selection tool is still selected then select the text on layer 2.
Go to the Effect menu, point to 'Path', then select 'Offset path'.
In the Offset box, type '10pt' then hit OK
Back in the Layers panel, duplicate layer 2 and name it '3' then hit OK.
We're going to repeat the same steps by selecting the text on layer 3,
going to the Effect menu, pointing to 'Path', then selecting 'Offset Path'.
If a dialog box appears like this, simply click Apply New Effect.
We're going to keep the offset path at 10 points, then click OK.
Duplicate layer 3 and name it 4.
Then again go to the Effect menu, 'Path', then 'Offset Path'.
Apply New Effect, then keep the Offset Path at 10 points, then click OK.
Lets reorder the layers in the Layers panel.
1 should be on top then 2, then lets bring 4 to the bottom.
On layer 1, click on the Target icon.
A double ring icon will appear next to layer 1.
Next, hold down the [Alt] key and click the Eye icon to hide all other layers except layer 1.
Now that we are set up, lets add color to our text.
With layer 1 selected, select the Type menu then select 'Create Outlines'.
In the Gradient panel, click the Gradient Fill box and in the Angle box enter '90'.
Double-click on the black Gradient Stop and when the Color panel opens,
click on the fly out menu in the upper right corner and select 'RGB'.
For R, enter '63', for G, '169', and for B '245'. This will create a blue gradient.
And in order to create a vertical gradient,
we're going to go back to the gradient panel and change the angle back to '0'.
Next, in the Layers panel, make layer 2 visible, then target it like we did before with layer 1.
Hold down the [Alt] key and click on layer 2's visibility icon.
In the Control panel, change the Fill color to white.
Next, on layer 3, lets make that visible and target that layer.
Go to the Color panel, and change the Fill color to light blue by entering '41' for R, '171' for G, and '226' for B.
Finally on layer 4, make that visible and target it then go to the Color panel, and change the Fill color to blue.
For R lets use '0', '113' for G, and '188' for B.
Now that we've added color to our text, lets add some other effects.
On layer 1, go to the Appearance panel, click the Add New Effect button and point to 'Stylize' to select 'Drop Shadow'.
In the X Offset box, enter '2' points then in the Y Offset box, enter '4' points then in the Blur box type '5' points.
When finished click OK.
Lets go back to the Layers panel and target layer 2 then go back to the Appearance panel to add a new effect.
Go to 'Stylize', then again to 'Drop Shadow'.
This time, in the Opacity box slide it down to '50'.
And in the X Offset box, type '1' as well as in the Y Offset box.
In the blur box, type '5' then click OK.
Lets go to the Layers panel to target layer 3 and repeat the same exact steps.
Go to the Appearance panel, click on Add New Effect, then to 'Stylize' and select 'Drop Shadow'.
We're going to keep the same exact settings so just click OK.
Back in the Layers panel, we are going to do the same thing to layer 4.
Target it, go to the Appearance panel, click on Add New Effect, point to 'Stylize' then 'Drop Shadow'.
Again, just click OK.
In the Layers panel, create a new layer by clicking on the Create New Layer button.
Drag the new layer above layer 1 then while holding down the [Alt] key,
click in the Edit column to the left of the new layer to lock all other layers.
Select the Pen tool, then on the artboard we're going to create
glare objects to place on the upper right corner of each letter.
For each letter, the glare object should take on the shape of the upper right hand corner.
For the 'F', lets set our first anchor point, then on the 2nd anchor point,
click and drag to make a curved segment,
then after releasing the mouse we're going to reclick on the 2nd anchor point
to get rid of half of the direction handles,
then click back on our 1st anchor point and drag that to create another curved segment.
Lets continue with the rest of the letters.
For the R lets create our 1st anchor point, then click and drag on our 2nd anchor point,
click back on the 2nd anchor point to remove half of the direction handle,
then click and drag on our 1st anchor point.
For the E, we're going to do the same thing but create something a bit smaller.
Then for the S, we'll create a glare object by making our 1st anchor point, clicking and dragging a 2nd anchor point,
then click back on the 2nd anchor point to remove the direction handle, then create a 3rd anchor point,
then click and drag back on our 1st anchor point.
Lastly for the H, we'll create a longer glare object by using the same steps as we did for the other letters.
Now that we've finished creating our glare objects, select the Selection tool,
hold down the [Shift] key, then select all the glare objects we just created.
Go to the Colol panel, change the Fill color to white.
When finished click OK.
Then in the Appearance panel, lower the Opacity level until you have the desired effect.
Click anywhere on the artboard, outside the text to see the final result.