new year creating a new typeface in illustrator
TRANSCRIPT
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 1/16
New Year Creating a NewTypeface in Illustrator by abduzeedo | Dec 29, 2008
• abduzeedo's blog
When I created the very first version of
Abduzeedo I did a simple logo because I didn't have much time
back in 2006, I wanted the blog up and running as faster as
possible. However after a few months I decided that it would be
cool to have a nice and unique logo, but without using any
symbol. That's why I chose to create a font instead of using an
existing one and with Adobe Illustrator new anchor point
features this task is much easier.
Now that we celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Abduzeedo, and the new year
that's about to begin we want to share with you how the new Abduzeedo logo
will look like.
In this tutorial I will show you how to create a nice typeface using Illustrator CS4
and its new, and very useful, features for editing anchor points.
Step 1
Open Illustrator and create a new document. Select the Rectangle Tool (M)
and create a square. To do that just hold SHIFT while using the Rectangle
Tool.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 2/16
Step 2
Select the square you have just created and go to Effect>Stylize>Round
Corners. Use 8pt for the Radius, but if you want to make your typeface more
rounded just use a higher value.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 3/16
Step 3
Duplicate the rounded square. You can do that by moving the object holding
ALT. Also hold SHIFT to keep the same vertical alignment. Make sure you
have the Smart Guides enable too, this way you can see the X and Y values
and the alignment guides as well.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 4/16
Step 4
Now select the the 2 objects and go to Object>Expand Appearance. That will
transform the object allowing you to edit the points with the Direct Selection
Tool (A).
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 5/16
Step 5
Now the best part will begin, editing the points and create the characters. Let's
start with the numbers to create the 2009. As you have already created thenumber 8, to create the 9 is easy. With the Direct Selection Tool (A) delete
one of the round corners (1), in this case the one going up. After that still with
the Direct Selection Tool, select the point (2) and move it down to close the
object.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 6/16
Step 6
One of the very useful new features in Illustrator CS4 is the Anchor Point Tool
Bar. You can Join points, convert the anchor points to corner or smooth, andone of the great additions, align the points. Then witht the Direct Selection
Tool (A) just create the other numbers by deleting or duplicating corners.
Step 7
With the number 0, create a line that crosses the number. Use the Line
Segment Tool (\) to do that.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 7/16
Step 8
To create the number 2, just duplicate the 9 and then go to the Transform box.
At the very top left corner click on the icon to open more options. Then choose
Flip Horizontal. Again with the Direct Selection Tool (A) just delete the
marked segment and you will have the number 2.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 8/16
Step 9
As the numbers are all lines, you can make them thicker by just increasing thevalue of the Stroke.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 9/16
Step 10
To create the other characters, in this case I will do the Abduzeedo word, you
will only need to duplicate a number and with the Direct Selection Tool, delete
some segments. Here to create the B and D I used the number nine, flipped it
vertically and horizontaly, and then delete some rounded corners.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 10/16
Step 11
The A was a bit tricky but it's the same process, deleting corners. Use the
Smart Guides to keep the alignement and also the Anchor Point Tool Bar to join
points.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 11/16
Step 12
For the other characters repeat the previous steps, you can try different shapes
for some characters, like the E, you could just flip the A vertically and
horizontally to create the E, but I thought it would be better make it a bit
different, then I used the Z for reference.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 12/16
Step 13
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 13/16
If you want to transfor your characters from just lines to shapes, select all
characters and go to Object>Expand. Make sure that Fill and Stroke are
selected and press OK. That way what was line become shape.
Step 14
With the shapes you can apply gradients to them, and the new gradient tool in
the CS4 version of Illustrator has improved a lot. Now you can change opacities
of colors, like we could do in Flash.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 14/16
Step 15
The whole process is really fun, you can try lots of different variations for each
character and see which one is the best for you. The only problem is that you
might get some doubts when choosing the final version, like happened to me.
That's why I'd like to ask you which one of these 3 version you think it's the best
for the new Abduzeedo logo.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 15/16
Conclusion
The new version of Illustrator, the CS4 has improved a lot when editing anchor
points, now you can align them, make the smooth or corner much easier. The
whole idea behind this tutorial was playing with basic shapes to create a nice
typeface, and as I've received lots of emails asking me what's the name of the
font I used for the Abduzeedo logo, it was a custom font I did using the same
process.
Also, I wish you all a great New Year, and that in 2009 we can improve our
design skills even more by sharing our knowledge.
8/7/2019 New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-year-creating-a-new-typeface-in-illustrator 16/16
Video Tutorial
New Year New Typeface New Logo from fabio sasso on Vimeo.