Hello everyone this is Chris from Spoon Graphics
back with another video tutorial for Adobe Illustrator.
Today I'm going to take you through the process of creating a colourful gradient logo icon.
I'll show you how Illustrator's shape tools make it easy to construct the basic vector
design, then we'll apply a vibrant colour scheme using gradients.
Create a new document in Adobe Illustrator to begin.
It doesn't matter what size the artboard is, but make sure the colour mode is set to RGB
so you have the most vibrant colours available.
Select the Rectangle tool and set up the appearance with a black fill and no stroke.
Draw a long, thin rectangle on the artboard, then go to Object > Transform > Rotate.
The three angles of an equilateral triangle are all 60 degrees, so enter 60 and hit the
copy button to make a diagonal rectangle.
Go to Object > Transform > Rotate again and hit the copy button to make a duplicate of
this second rectangle.
Select the Move tool and reposition these rectangles to form a triangular layout, as
if you're building a teepee.
It doesn't matter how you position the rectangles, it will always form a perfect triangle because
of those 60 degree angles.
Select all the rectangle shapes, then choose the Shape Builder Tool.
Hold the ALT key while clicking the portions of each rectangle that protrudes to trim them
away, leaving a simple triangle shape.
Click and drag with the Shape Builder tool to join a short and long segment together
along each edge.
Switch over to the Direct Selection Tool to make the little corner widget handles visible.
Hold the Shift key and select the widgets at each point of the triangle. Click and drag
them to max out the corner radius.
We can also create a cool effect by rounding off some of the other points, but without
an extra step it doesn't quite work right.
To fix these gaps, go to Edit > Copy, followed by Edit > Paste in Front to make a duplicate
of all the shapes.
Click on some empty artboard space to deselect for a moment, then Shift and click the three
points you want to adjust again.
Drag the corner widgets to around the halfway mark to round them off. This time the duplicate
underneath prevents the gaps from showing.
Go to Select > All to make a selection of all the shapes, then choose the Shape Builder
tool again.
Click and drag to merge these shapes together so the logo icon is made up of three separate
curved segments.
To apply some colour to the design, first give the shapes the default black to white
gradient fill.
Deselect everything, then select the first shape. Double click the first gradient handle
to change its colour.
This default black to white gradient uses only the K channel, so click the little menu
icon in the corner and choose RGB.
Set this first colour to red.
Configure the second gradient colour to orange by maxing out the Red and Green channels.
Select the second shape and set the colours to green, followed by a light blue by maxing
out the green and blue channels.
For the third shape, use the same light blue colour to a darker blue using just the blue
RGB channel.
Select the gradient tool and click and drag each gradient in turn to adjust its angle
so it flows in the direction of the shape.
These colours are nice and bright, but we can add more depth by adding a darker hue
to each gradient to act as shading.
Select one of the gradients and move the location of the first colour to 50%.
Add an extra colour right at the start.
To make it easier to find a darker colour of the existing hue, simply change the gradient
colour mode to HSB. You can then alter the brightness value to find a darker shade of
red.
Repeat the process for the other two gradients to add the same shading effects to add depth
to the artwork.
An extra little trick is to adjust the hue for the shading colour, which can really enhance
the gradient, especially the red to orange spectrum.
The final result is a trendy vector logo icon with interlinking shapes and colourful gradients.
Using these same techniques, you can create modern logo designs with all kinds of shapes
and layouts.