In this hands-on activity if you haven't been following along in the
previous lessons, hopefully you have, but even if you're not, maybe you just learn better just by
watching it and taking notes. In this activity it's really important to
actually follow along and hopefully it'll be a fun chance to create a custom logo.
Just go to File, New to create a new file here and we're going to use the Type tool,
the Type on a Path tool, Character and Paragraph panels in the outlining text
text function that we learned in this section to create a logo. So I've got an idea in my
head for a logo and so whenever you have an idea, go ahead and sketch it out and just
think about what you want to create a logo for. I'm just going to create a
company, my last name, Neumann
and then surfboards. So the first thing you want to do obviously is create the text.
Depending on what your final product is going to be, you might want to draw shapes
first but I'm going to do the text first. So I'm going to click and let go and type in
Neumann here and I wanted a specific font here that looks good. I'm going to click and drag the
corner there first, bring that out again. If you don't see that, go to View,
then Show Bounding box but it should be there by default.
Click and drag out, holding. You can click and drag out holding SHIFT to maintain a
proportion and this font is not going to work. So what I'm thinking is... You can experiment with
different fonts.I think this one will work. I want the same exact font for the one below. So ALT or OPTION on the MAC.
Click and drag down. Hold SHIFT if you want it aligned and then
do the same, actually I think I'm going to do a different font for this one for the area
below it and so I'm going to make this smaller and notice the smart guide there if you
got those turned on.
You'll see it when it aligns the edge there.
Say we wanted to adjust the tracking. That's the first thing we want to do.
I'm going to actually make this smaller, about half instead of having it that large
compared to the type above it. So make it smaller and then I'm going to go to
Window, Type then Character. I think we're fine as far as chracter drag so we're going
to adjust the tracking I think so just make this stretch out a little bit. I'm going to
jump down, actually going to type in, see what 50 looks like, maybe a bit more, so 250.
So I think that looks good. Again the
tracking is right there under Character Paragraph. If it was aligned here down the
sides a text frame we could just align it center but I'm just going to keep it left aligned
for this and I'm going to bring this to the edge there so that the Newman is little bit
larger but more close together and then the smaller text is more spread apart
with higher tracking. Alright, so that's looking OK. I actually want to use Type on a Path though for this.
I think I'm going t o click and drag and select this, copy it and put it this over to the side here
I'm going to draw a slight, I was going to use the Pen tool but I think I'll experiment
Try and see what that looks like, I don't want to over do it, or something like that. Then do the
Type on a path tool. Hover over here and I'm going to go to Edit, Paste and it kind of works.
It''s not quite as long as I need them though so this actually would be too long so what I need to do
is click and drag. I deselected. I clicked on the background and then click
right on the edge and stretch out a little bit. It might be too large. I might need to change that
font size, maybe not. So that's one idea and I would of course change this color to something
relevant but I've got another idea I think I'm going to do. So I'm going to move this up here
and try something completely different.
This is just kind of showing you the brainstorming process, kind of sketching in Illustrator.
So I'm going to start with the surfboard somehow like that. Maybe have one be in the negative space.
So I'm going to copy and paste that and so I have two copies of it. And I'm going to do Type on a Path. Let's see.
Copy this right here and then go back down here with the Type on a Path
I'm actually going to select it down here,
copy there in the clipboard, then so I'm going to type on a path, not the
Type on a Path tool, put it up there and paste it up there and that looks pretty good.
It's maybe a little bit over to the right too much so remember again we can adjust it with this right
here. It just needs to be a slight adjustment. I'm looking at the left and the right hand side so it's
perfectly centered here, right, put that over there and so there's two things we can do here.
I could just put this right below it and have that, I think actually like that
rather than making this curved up. So I'm going to change this to a color, maybe blue
You need to select it first, case in point, and then surfboards, I'm actually going to change to
white second so I can put it on top of that surfboard. It needs to be a little bit smaller
text though and it needs to be in front. So I'm going to go to Object, Arrange, Bring to Front,
instead of changing the font manually, I'm just going to click and drag the corner here with
the SHIFT, select it and get a little breathing room on the sides
and there we go. I think you don't want to overdo logos. I think that looks pretty good.
I think actually adding some kind of wave up here might round it out.
So I'm actually going to click and drag up using the Pen tool is a good practice,
especially with the wave, you've got to reset that angle. Remeber, it'll come around like
this and then come back up so I'm going to click on the most recent anchor, reset
that angle, bring it back in like that. I just want to settle the wave here and then we
want to actually curve it up a little bit to match that text. And I want the same
Fill as this, so I'm going to the Eyedropper tool pull that. I don't want it touching, just kind of close.
There they go. I made this really quickly and there's one last step I almost forgot.
Remember, we need to outline type so click on this, right click over, Create Outlines.
Click on this, right click, Create Outlines and now you can actually
customize it even more. For example, you can use the white arrow and just adjust this
even more or give it more of a stylized look.
and so on.
Later we'll be getting into different tools like the Width tool so you can really
customize. So whatever you're coming up with as far as your logo goes, go ahead and share it
with the class and the discussion board. All you need to do is go to File and then you go to
Save for Web and you might not be able to see. Just go over here. You can use GIF can use
because there's not many colors in it or you could use JPEG or PNG, either way.
But whatever you have, just save it. You might want to crop out before you save it so
go to the Artboard tool and just click and drag this down so it's to the edge of
it or you can resize it in Photoshop if you know how to do that but either way. So I'm going to
make this a lot smaller and show you what I mean.
Bring this one in over here. right. So once you got something like that. It almost looks like a burger.
I may need to redo this. It reminds me of the bottom of like, a cheeseburger and then the top, I can put
another one up there and it would be like a Surfside burger place but so, I need need to
redo it because it's not a restaurant, it's a surfboard shop. Anyway go to File,
Save for Web and then you can save it as GIF JPEG, PNG but it'll end up saving it at the right size.
size right there as you can see. So insert it as an image in a new post on the discussion
board and then other students can check it out and I can provide feedback as well.
Thanks.