how to create a colorful logo style ribbon graphic

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How To Create a Colorful Logo Style Ribbon Graphic

In today’s tutorial we’re going to look at creating a colorful ribbon graphic. Despite being a typical logo styleicon, we don’t have a live client for this particular design. The tutorial is aimed towards giving you insight intoactually making the cool graphic as oppsed to the full logo design process. We’ll use various tools andtechniques in Adobe Illustrator to create a great looking vector based design complete with subtle gradientsand shading.

(http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk

/wp-content/uploads/2011/ribbon-logo/logo-icon.jpg)

The logo style graphic we’ll be creating is made up of four colourfully striped ribbon style elements. The fourpieces are interweaved to create a kind of pseudo Penrose Stairs type illustration. The addition of subtlegradients and shadows really helps bring the design to life by adding depth and a third dimension.

View the full size ribbon logo design (http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/ribbon-logo/logo-

icon.jpg)

How To Create a Colorful Logo Style Ribbon Graphic http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-create-a-colorful-logo-st...

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Create a new document in Adobe Illustrator and draw four squares on the artboard. Give each one a colourfill to create a simple colour palette. Here I’ve picked out a green, lilac, pink and grey colour.

Select the rectangle tool and click on the artboard. In the options window enter the dimensions of 5x5mm.

Copy the square (CMD+C) then paste in front (CMD+F). Hit enter on the keyboard to bring up the Movecommand and enter 5mm in the Horizontal field. Repeatedly press CMD+F and CMD+D to repeat these stepsthree more times.


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Give each of the squares a colour fill according to the palette then stretch them by dragging the lower mosthandle vertically while holding Shift.

Hold the Shift key while rotating the object to 45 degrees. Copy and paste duplicates and carefully rotate andposition them to form a square.


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For the final shape we want one end to be tucked under the previous shape, but the other end over the top ofthe next shape. Shorten down shape and create the full edge from two pieces.

Carefully align the two pieces to give the impression of a single line, but send the last piece to the top of thestack with the CMD+Shift+] shortcut.


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Toggle on Outline mode (CMD+Y) and zoom in to check the alignment of the elements. Make any necessarytweaks to overlap the lines exactly.

Make duplicates of the four colour swatches, then replace the fills with gradients. Colour pick samples fromthe original swatch, but adjust the gradient handles with light and darker tones.


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Select all the objects with the same colour fill then use the Eyedropper tool to switch the solid colour for thegradient. Repeat this process for all four colours.

All the gradients are currently flowing horizontally, but we can adjust the angle manually with the Gradienttool. Select all the shapes on one edge then click and drag to set the gradient angle.


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The subtle gradients are already bringing the design to life in comparison to the flat solid colours.

Elsewhere on the artboard create a rectangle at the dimensions of 20x5mm.

Give this new rectangle a gradient fill from black to transparent, then adjust the Transparency to Multiply at30%.


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Copy, rotate and position this new rectangle carefully into place where each edge intersects the next to createsubtle shadows. This will help add depth and a touch of realism.

Use the same black to transparent fill to create a circle, but change the gradient from linear to radial.


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Squash this circle down then position it underneath the main logo graphic to give the impression of a threedimensional scene. The logo now seems to be floating in space rather than being sat on a flat surface.

(http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk

/wp-content/uploads/2011/ribbon-logo/logo-icon.jpg)

Our colourful ribbon graphic is now complete. Even though we didn’t have a live client for this project,hopefully the Illustrator tips and techniques will help you create great looking vector logos designs for yourfuture clients.

Download the source file (http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/login)

Written by Chris Spooner

Chris Spooner is a designer who has a love for creativity and enjoys experimenting with various techniques inboth print and web. Follow Chris' daily design links on Twitter (http://twitter.com/chrisspooner) , and be sure tocheck out his second blog over at Line25.com (http://line25.com) .


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25 Comments

Jorden Tually says:July 4, 2011 at 8:22 am

This is very stylish, the colour spectrum you are using is very nice! Thanks :)

Ken Paulsen says:July 4, 2011 at 9:31 am

Once again a very well written guide. I even picked up a few tips along the way, such as using theOutline mode to properly align objects, and the fact that you can line up gradients on several objects atthe same time without changing the colors of the gradients.

Just thought I’d share my creation based on my own logo colors. http://i.imgur.com/SIgyf.png(http://i.imgur.com/SIgyf.png)

Thanks again, Chris!

JAT Source says:July 4, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Very stylish and impressive…..

Will says:July 4, 2011 at 1:19 pm

Simple and effective, I like it!

Design Kanya says:July 4, 2011 at 9:20 pm

Neat n simple!TFS

Markus says:July 5, 2011 at 11:17 am

I love simple but detailed design. Nice one.

Quality Logo Designing says:July 5, 2011 at 1:34 pm

Nice tutorial on ribbon graphic. Its simple but descriptive and resourceful.

cheap web designer says:July 5, 2011 at 3:28 pm


11 of 14 4/6/2012 5:14 PM

Thanks for sharing..Amazing..!!

Kevin W. says:July 5, 2011 at 11:54 pm

Stylish, simple and sweet design. Thanks for sharing.

Jennifer Wallace says:July 6, 2011 at 6:09 pm

Thanks for another great tutorial. Helps out with my lack of illustrator understanding!

SoftwareFan says:July 7, 2011 at 3:35 pm

Good graphic tips for Illustrator! Another tip: Markzware FlightCheck can preflight, collect andpackage Adobe Illustrator files.

john joseph erany says:July 7, 2011 at 6:57 pm

nice one pal.great one….;)

Iman k. Hasan says:July 8, 2011 at 1:55 am

Amazing tut very simple,yet very artistic :)thumbs up!

intern says:July 8, 2011 at 1:01 pm

tnx for the good lesson

Tucson Web Design says:July 10, 2011 at 9:38 pm

An elegant and easy to follow tutorial, thanks for posting!

Gareth says:July 13, 2011 at 6:56 pm

You make this look easy! That’s just the type of thing you may want to do when designing a newbusiness card. Do you have any tips on the best format to present to your local printer?


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dave says:July 15, 2011 at 4:27 am

thx for great post, Simple and effective

ninerian says:July 15, 2011 at 2:02 pm

Really neat tutorial. Two little suggestions:The rectangles for the drop-shadow aren’t necessary. You could group the 4 regarding stripes and lay annew fill on it. Then apply a gradient and set it to multiply 30%. So you could easily change the size ofthe shadow.You could also scale the underlying stripes up to the border of the overlaying rectangle.

Matt says:July 18, 2011 at 10:41 am

Is there not an easier way to align the shapes on top of each other? I found doing it manually a bitfiddly and imprecise.

Good tutorial though, very easy and a great looking result :-)

eforienord says:July 18, 2011 at 2:33 pm

Simple is always better in my vision. It looks like a rainbow and i like it.

Vicki - VictoriaAnn Design says:July 18, 2011 at 4:11 pm

This is nice, and a clear tutorial. I just hope this actual mark isn’t going to be popping up as a logo allover the web!

Bournemouth Web Design says:July 20, 2011 at 3:52 am

Nice Tut Chris,

Good balance of colour – and gradients is always something I never find intuitive when usingIllustrator.

Many Thanks,Darren.

ekramy says:July 24, 2011 at 10:25 am

wow simple and beauty…great work Christhanks for share your steps


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Tom says:July 25, 2011 at 4:08 pm

Did you see this? Who is the author? I shold guess…http://www.cornerofart.com/2011/07/21/how-to-create-a-colorful-logo-style-ribbon-graphic/(http://www.cornerofart.com/2011/07/21/how-to-create-a-colorful-logo-style-ribbon-graphic/)

GJ Chris! ;)

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Comments are now closed.


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how to create a colorful logo style ribbon graphic

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