Tuesday 29 April 2014

Illustrator Tutorial: Manipulating text

I have recently been inspired by one of my projects to design a title for a magazine. Today I want to share with you how I designed the title of the magazine by manipulating a font.

Read the step-to-step tutorial on how to manipulate a typeface in Adobe Illustrator to gain inspiration for your next project!


Here is a design I previously created for the title of the magazine:




In this tutorial we will be creating a slightly different design to make it less complicated to follow along as the design can be difficult to complete.


Today I will be working with the word 'CRAZE' again in the typeface 'Britannic Bold'. You can choose to work with this word and typeface or use others to suit your design ideas.


     1.  Open Adobe Illustrator

     2.  Open a new blank A4 landscape document.

     3.   Using the text tool, write the word CRAZE in capital letters.

     4.   Change the typeface to 'Britannic Bold'.

     5.   We are going to make the appearance that the letters are progressively getting larger starting from the E as the smallest letter and the C to be the largest letter. To do this, still using the text tool, highlight the letter E - change the size to 150. Highlight the letter Z - change the size to 180. Highlight the letter A - change the size to 200. Highlight the letter R - change the size to 230. Highlight the letter C - change the size to 250.

    6.  Once you have altered the size. Change the text into an object (cmd + shift + o    or    control +        shift + o)

   7.    Next we are going to rotate each individual letter.

   8.    Using the 'Selection Tool', click the letter C 3 times. (Clicking on each individual letter will select only the one letter rather than the text as a whole. We need to select each individual letter to rotate separately because this is the effect we are going for rather than rotating the word as a whole).



   9.   Rotate the letter C = -20 (To rotate the letter to an exact number. Select TRANSFORM. By opening the transform box you are able to do different types of transformations on your design. We will be using the Rotate box). (If you do not have this window open - select WINDOW + TRANSFORM)


  10.  Rotate the letter R = -15

  11.  Rotate the letter A = - 20

  12.  Rotate the letter Z = -16

  13.  Rotate the letter E = - 14

  14.  Now we are going to arrange the text to be closer together before we manipulate the letters. Copy the image below to arrange the letters in the same way. You can do this by clicking three times on each individual letter using the 'Selection Tool' to make it appear by itself and making it in a specific way. 

  15. Using the 'Direct Selection tool' we are going to manipulate the anchor points of the text to create the swishing effect. With the white arrow (direct selection tool) select the letter C at the point when the letter ends. As you click on the corner you will be able to see a small blue dot appear. This is called an anchor point. Grab this point with your arrow and stretch it down towards the letter E.
(Your word should look something like this now)
  16.  Now you know how to use your anchor points to manipulate the letters, you can continue to use the anchor points and drag it towards the letter E to create the swish effect. Try to copy the design below. (If you are finding it difficult, take a breath and keep going. Playing with anchor points can get frustrating at times).


  17.  Now that you have something similar to this design. You can add more shapes using the pen tool to add to the word. (Check out my 'Using the Pen Tool in Adobe Illustrator' tutorial if you are unsure how to use it and come back to this)

  18.  Try to copy the design below or add your own shapes using the pen tool to create a bold design.
  19.  Play around with your design till you find something that looks good for you and suits your design.

  20. You can now create more designs by manipulating text by using the same principles. ENJOY!


Be sure to check out my post called Tutorial: How to use the Pen Tool in Adobe Illustrator to learn more about how to get the best use out of the pen tool.



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