This colourful text effect transitions through the colour spectrum to produce a
rainbow effect. I'll show you how to make it, along with a useful
tip that enables you to easily alter the wording of all the text elements at once.
Begin by opening Adobe Illustrator and create a new document. Use any size to suit your
final application, but ensure the RGB mode is set so the most vivid colours are available.
Set out your chosen wording as a text element with the appropriate
font styling. Bold geometric fonts work best, so I’m using the Proxima
Nova Black typeface. Click the link in the description to activate this font.
The key to ensuring the text can be edited without having to manually update every single text
instance is to turn the element into a Symbol. Click the New Symbol icon in the Symbols panel.
Once the text is contained within a symbol, it can’t be selected to change the fill like normal.
Instead, click the menu icon at the top of the
Appearance panel and choose Add New Fill. Choose a bright blue swatch.
In order to place one extra copy of the text at the top of the rainbow stack,
save a copy to the clipboard under the Edit > Copy menu. We’ll make use of it later.
With the Move tool active, hold the ALT and Shift keys while dragging the text
to create a duplicate. Position this copy around halfway down the original.
Go to Object > Transform > Transform Again, or use the CMD+D (or CTRL+D
on Windows shortcut) to repeat the duplication to place another copy the same distance again.
Repeat the CMD+D Transform Again command a few more times to create 5 elements in total,
all stacked an equal distance apart.
Select the second object and change the fill
colour. Choose the darker blue swatch in the Swatches panel.
Change the fill colour for each of the remaining words by choosing the
next colour along in the colour spectrum, so from blue to purple, to red to yellow.
I’m just using Illustrator’s default swatches,
but interesting effects could also be generated using custom colour schemes.
Draw a selection around all the objects,
then go to Object > Blend > Make. Head straight back to the Object > Blend > Blend Options menu.
Change the Spacing setting to Specified Steps,
then adjust the value to determine how smoothly the colours transition.
Go to Edit > Paste in Front to place that backup we saved
to the clipboard earlier back onto the artboard.
Change the fill of this text object to black.
The stacking of the rainbow text is the wrong way around.
Go to Object > Blend > Reverse Front to Back.
The black text now sits perfectly in place on
top as the coloured instances below gradually change colour.
You can also see what the effect looks like with the colour spectrum in reverse. Undo
the blend reversal then choose Reverse Spine to place the last colour first in the stack.
The black text is perfectly aligned to the top coloured text instance,
but that means it is totally obscuring it. Move the black text vertically to
match the spacing to make the brightest colour visible again.
Because the original text element within the Symbol has a black fill,
you can see a subtle glitch that causes a faint black outine around the coloured text instances.
To fix the issue, double-click the Symbol and change the original text fill to a mid-grey,
or better yet, remove the fill altogether.
Within the Symbol is where you can also edit the wording and even the font of the original text.
When you exit back out of the symbol using the arrow icon in the top left,
you will see the effect has been updated.
Converting the text into a Symbol right at the start means all the text instances
are updated at once, rather than having to manually edit each one individually.
Draw a large rectangle to act as a background for the design.
Give it a pale yellow fill, then right-click and choose Arrange > Send to Back.
No Spoon Graphics tutorial would be complete without the addition of a subtle texture!
Download and open one of my Free Photocopy Textures in Photoshop.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Invert to flip the texture to black on white.
Use the shortcut CMD+A to Select All, followed by CMD+C for Copy,
then switch back to Adobe Illustrator and paste the texture graphic with CMD+V.
Adjust the size of the texture image to match the background rectangle,
then in the Transparency panel, change the blending mode to Multiply.
Reduce the opacity of the texture to leave a subtle
amount of grain to complete the retro appearance.
The final result is a colourful retro style text effect with a rainbow gradient that
works perfectly for poster art, quote designs, and even brand identities.