This tutorial is in response to another good suggestion I received from one of my readers via the Community Suggestion Box. Here’s what Caroline had to say…
Hi - some fantastic tutorials here - thanks - learning so much
Please could I ask for a simple way to write text that fits around shapes? People shrug and say - vectors and pen tool but I can’t work it out
Thanks.
In this tutorial I want to detail how to create text along a path in an interesting way and apply it to a common application. Although the circular logo has been used forever, it can still be effective if done well, while mixing in some modern design. In this case, we are going to use some vector art, then grunge it up. This will give it that worn beach look I’m going for. I hope you enjoy it, here we go…
Step 1
Open up Illustrator and create a new document. Grab the ellipse tool. Draw out a new circle while holding down shift to maintain the proportions. Fill the circle with a light blue, I used #A1BEE4. Set the stroke to none.
Step 2
With the circle you just drew selected, hit ‘ctrl + c’ to copy it and ‘ctrl + f’ to paste it in place in front. Now resize it down while holding ’shift + alt’ to scale it proportional in place. Change the fill color to a nice brown, I used #766352. Keep the stroke at none.
Step 3
Next up, I went in search for some free vector palm trees for our logo. I found some nice ones at vector4free, you can download them here. Place them in your Illustrator document. Size the trees and birds and place them in the logo using the image below as a reference. Change the fill color to the same light blue you used before. I also ungrouped them by selecting Object->Ungroup. Then I moved one of the birds up and to the right. I just thought it looked better there
Step 4
Now we are going to start work on the text of the logo. We’ll need a path to work with, so select the inner brown circle and click ‘ctrl + c’ then ‘ctrl + f’ to paste a new copy in place, in front of the old one. In the tool bar on the left, click and hold the text tool to reveal all the options within that block. Select the ‘Type on a Path Tool.’ Now change your font settings to the same brown color, Trajan Pro for the font, and 45 for the Font Size, set the text alignment to center. Lastly, open up your Character palette. If it’s not already open, then click Window->Type->Character. Change the Tracking to 50, the Vertical Scale to 90% and the Baseline Shift to 10pt. All these settings are suggestions for those who are following along, they may vary for you, if you’ve sized things differently. So use trial and error until things look just right.
Step 5
You should still have the ‘Type on a Path Tool’ selected, now click on the top of the circle you copied and pasted in the previous step. This will send your cursor to the bottom of the circle, because you’re working on type on a closed path (a circle) and this is the center point. No problem, will fix this in the next step. Type in your words, in this case, “Blue Palms.”
Step 6
Now we need to rotate that text along the path and into the correct spot. To do so, grab the direct selection tool, and hover over the text at the bottom where the blue vertical line is (it’s circled in the image below). When your cursor is over that line, you’ll notice that your cursor changes to an arrow with a small upside down ‘T’ next to it. When you get that cursor, click and drag your text to rotate it along the confines of the path. Place it evenly at the top. If you used different settings, you may have to adjust some of the character attributes to get it to sit properly.
Step 7
We add the text “Beach Resort” in much the same manner. This time copy and paste the bigger blue circle in front of itself, we will use this as our path. Change the character settings to 200 for the Tracking, 12 for the Baseline Shift, and 43pt for the Font Size. With the “Type Along a Path” tool selected, click at the top of your newly pasted circle. Type in your text. Now click Type->Type on a Path->Type on a Path Options. Check preview and flip, you will see the text flip over it’s path right away. There are some other interesting options in this window that are worth learning about, but this will suffice for our logo.
Step 8
Grab the ellipse tool and with the same brown color you used previously, draw two small circles between the words on each side. Use the align options to align the circles.
Step 9
In the last steps we are going to add our grunge. Select everything and choose Object->Group to group our entire logo together. Now find a texture that you want to use as an transparency mask. Below is the one that I used, which you are welcome to use as well. It’s modified from a texture I found at Grunge Textures.
Step 10
Open up your transparency palette, if it’s not already open click Window->Transparency. Click on the small arrow in the top right of the palette and choose “Make Opacity Mask” from the list of options that appear. Then click File->Place and drop in your texture that you are using. Resize it and adjust it until you have the texture you like. Make sure to click back on the image thumbnail within the transparency palette when you are done to get out of the transparency mask mode that you are in.
That’s It!
I hope this tutorial sheds some light on the possibilities of text on a path and texturing a logo within Illustrator. Have your say, drop me a comment below. Also as always, if you do this tutorial and come up with a cool result, I’d love to see it showcased in my Flickr Group. Lastly, if you have an idea for a tutorial, let me hear it, share your ideas in the Community Suggestion Box.
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September 2nd, 2008 at 8:06 am
Very unique logo design - I like the idea! Thanks for sharing, mate!
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:11 am
Very nice logo and tutorial, keep up the good work
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 am
nice!!!simplicity+ grunge style= brilliant outcome!!!! nice tutorial..
thanks for the share.im gonna try this in the future.keep it up
Ronald
NaldzGraphics’s last post was… Create a September 2008 Calendar Wallpaper in Grunge Rasta Design
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Nice little tutorial, thanks!
Nick’s last post was… Proper Copyright Notices
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Thanks guys! I’m glad this tutorial was received so well!
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Looks good Andrew! You could additionally make this graphic entirely vector by bringing the texture into Photoshop, adjusting the threshold to just the black areas. Using the magic want to grab the black areas then converting the selection to a path. Once you do that copy the path to Illustrator and intersect it with all of your layers. That will give you a 100% grungy vector logo.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
@Grant Thanks! That’s good advice, it’s definitely worth going the extra mile
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Nice result!
Ross’s last post was… Carbon Fiber Layout
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Really cool result, looks vintage / grunge / retro style, nice one. stumbled
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I’d like to request the same tutorial for Photoshop please
Simon SC’s last post was… Google enters browser wars with Google Chrome
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:22 am
@Simon SC I think if you follow along trying it in Photoshop you’ll be able to achieve a similar look. Most of the tools are about the same. I don’t ever want to “reinvent the wheel” on this site. For the grunge you could use a layer mask instead of a transparency mask. The rest, the circle and text along a path should be almost identical. I hope this helps you.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Very nice and helpful tutorial, thanks!
Angie Bowen’s last post was… The Net Goes Chrome
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Great post Andrew, I’ll definitely try and give this a go in Photoshop. Thanks.
Tom Ross’s last post was… Create a Realistic Wine Bottle Illustration From Scratch
September 4th, 2008 at 4:20 am
nice. I love the references you used as well.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:25 am
hey, just wondering how to ungroup the downloadable vector art. i tried everything and doesnt seem to work.
im working on a mac by the way.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:15 am
@agon On the mac the equivalent of right clicking is ctrl + click. If you do that on the vector it should bring up a list of the same options. Alternatively, you could select the vector and then click Object->Ungroup. Hopefully that does the trick, let me know if you still have any trouble.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:55 am
hey thanx for your reply but it didnt wanna work, when i go to the options bar the ungroup option is greyed out.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Very nice outcome mate, will try this one later…
Steve Tolley’s last post was… Creating A Vector Style MacBook From Scratch
September 4th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Hi ya,
Can’t remember how I stumbled over this one, but It’s been in my tabbed menu for some days as it’s one of those things that I have wanted to do for ages, but just thought it was trickier than it was.
Great effect and straightforward explanation.
Catch you on Twitter.
Graham Smith’s last post was… Follow the best 50+, now (100+) Designers on Twitter
September 6th, 2008 at 9:52 am
where can i find the transparency pallete?, im using cs3
September 6th, 2008 at 11:20 am
@007 Click Window->Tranparency to bring up that panel.
@agon Do you have the vector selected?
September 9th, 2008 at 4:52 am
How to cut picture at Step 3 ?
September 9th, 2008 at 7:20 am
@santikkkx You have to bring the vector art into Illustrator using File->Place. Then select the artwork and click Object->Ungroup. Select off the artwork, then back on the palm tree and birds you’d like in the logo. Change the fill color, resize and position it within the logo. I hope this helps, if not, please let me know.
September 27th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Thanks! Explained very well
October 7th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
very nice tutorial. But how do you fit the graphic to a circle at the last step? Thanks
October 7th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
@farbflash Make sure you add the opacity mask and have that thumbnail selected when you go to place the texture. Doing that step correctly will reveal/hide only on top of the logo. Let me know if that helps.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Thanks for the tutorial. I loved it but cannot get the last 2 steps to work. When I make opacity mask the logo goes into outlines and I file place the texture and it just sits on top. Nothing happens? Any idea what I’m doing wrong?
Thanks
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Thanks for a great tutorial! I am stuck on the last step…all I can see is my texture file and I can’t see my logo at all….its like it disappeared…any suggestions?
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
@Nicole Make sure you have the opacity mask thumbnail selected and not the image thumbnail, within the transparency window. Let me know if that does the trick.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Thanks for the awesome tutorial! I was having trouble with the last steps as well with the opacity mask, but I finally figured it out. I wasn’t seeing the thumbnails in the Transparency palette, so I had to select Show Options from the flyout menu and there it was! Then it all made sense. Hope that helps out some people. Thanks again Andrew!
November 7th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
when you download the vector, where to extract the files to,
im not sure?
any help please?
November 7th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
did u make this on photoshop?
November 7th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
@John Extract the file somewhere that you want to save it, just remember where you save it to, so you can find it when you place it later.
@Lee This tutorial is for Illustrator