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Dan Rodney/2 min read

Computerizing a Company Logo

Illustrator Essentials

Pen Tool

Bezier paths — the most powerful (and intimidating) Illustrator tool.

Pathfinder

Combine, subtract, intersect shapes — fast complex geometry.

Live Effects

Effect menu — non-destructive transformations on shapes.

Symbols

Reusable artwork — edit once, update every instance.

Master Illustrator at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Illustrator Bootcamp teaches the Pen tool, vector drawing, and pro illustration.

Learn how to recreate logos with our step-by-step Illustrator tutorial, covering topics such as placing templates, converting text to outlines, and subtracting from a shape area using the Pathfinder tool.

Topics Covered in This Illustrator Tutorial:

Placing Templates, Converting Text to Outlines, Subtracting from a Shape Area (Pathfinder)

Exercise Preview

polar template

Exercise Overview

You’ll get more practice creating logos as you recreate the above logo from a bitmapped Photoshop file.

Setting up the File & Importing the Logo Template

  1. Go to File > New to create a new document.
  2. At the top of the dialog that opens, click on the Print tab.
  3. Double–click the Letter preset.
  4. Go to File > Place.
  5. From the Illustrator Class folder, choose polartemplate.psd, BUT check the Template option before clicking Place.
  6. You’ll see that the placed art in your file is already dimmed for you. If it’s too dark or too light for your taste, in the Layers panel, you can double–click the Template layer and change the Dim amount.

Recreating the Logo

  1. Recreate the logo you see with the template as your guide. You will create type that is approximately the size and font of the logo. Keep the following in mind:

    • In this case, you should try Futura Extra Bold Oblique or experiment with different fonts you have installed on your computer to find a similar font.
    • You may have to shear the type to get the proper slope.
  2. Once you have approximated the logo with the type, create outlines (Type > Create Outlines) so that you can work on each letter individually.

  3. Use the Direct Selection tool direct selection tool and the cursor keys to modify the anchor points of each outline to the letter form it is based on.

    TIP: Remember that you can change the Keyboard Increment as follows:

    Mac: Illustrator > Preferences > General
    Windows: Edit > Preferences > General
  4. Once you have created the letter forms, place white boxes across the letters to create the stripes.
  5. Don’t forget to subtract the white boxes from the type by using the Pathfinder panel’s Minus Front command pathfinder subtract. That’s important so you will be able see through those stripes when the logo is placed on a background other than white.
  6. Save the file as yourname-Company Logo.ai.

  7. In the dialog that appears, leave the default options checked and click OK.