For a while, it seemed liked every client wanted grungy graphics. This might sound familiar, “I like it, but can we grunge it up more”. Don’t get me wrong, having some grunge can create a great deal of depth to a design or illustration, but there can be to much of a good thing. This is the technique I use because it is quick and consistent, making it easy to create grunge text vectors.
What is design theory and how can you put it to work for you? I’ll cover the design principles that propel good design to great design. Superficial instruction, where you’re simply told what to do to get a specific result has its place, but you won’t find any of that here—only principles squarely aimed at applying design fundamentals to increase the effectiveness of your work. Take a look.
When creating vectors, I often look for Illustrator tips and I sometimes need to delete large areas of artwork. Sometimes I just mask the artwork, but other times I want to get rid of it all together. This is were the Eraser tool comes in handy. Holding down the Option / Alt key with the Eraser tool creates a marquee area and anything within this area will be deleted.
Today we will talk about the technique of creating guilloche pattern vectors using the Envelope Distort, Blend Tool and Pattern Brush. Guilloche pattern vectors are commonly used to protect the securities and banknotes from counterfeiting. Usually, to generate a guilloche pattern vector, designers use special expensive software. You might not have known that Adobe Illustrator helps to create guilloche pattern vectors, using only native features. Let’s see how it’s done!
What is design theory and how can you put it to work for you? I’ll cover the principles of design that propel good design to great design. Superficial instruction, where you’re simply told what to do to get a specific result has its place, but you won’t find any of that here—only principles squarely aimed at applying design fundamentals to increase the effectiveness of your work. Take a look.
The 3D features in Illustrator come in handy when creating logos, illustrations, and other graphic elements. I’ve found experimenting with different settings within the 3D Options dialogs, can yield some unexpected but welcoming results. When experimenting with the 3D options, sometimes it is frustrating trying to get back to the original settings without closing the dialog. But there is an easy answer!
There are a number of great tutorials, freebies, and articles related to vectors coming out on the web daily. Each month, I roundup some of the best posts that I have found useful. I can’t include everything I’ve seen throughout the month, but you can follow my Twitter feed to get all the daily links. Post comments with links that I have missed so everyone can see them!
