Learn the practical process of creating custom color swatches from a client-provided image in logo design. This article provides a detailed walkthrough, teaching you how to import images, create swatch squares, and assign the appropriate colors.
Key Insights
- The article outlines a step-by-step guide on how to create custom color swatches from a client-provided image. This includes importing the image, creating a new layer titled "Color Swatches", and placing the image on the artboard.
- The process further involves using the rectangle tool to create squares that serve as swatches, using the eyedropper tool to select specific colors from the image, and assigning these colors to the squares. In the example provided, a total of eight swatches were created.
- The article concludes by explaining how to save and share the created swatches through a swatch exchange file, ensuring that the color scheme can be easily shared with other individuals involved in the project.
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In this video, we'll be creating custom swatches. Let's begin by zooming out, and let's shift our perspective to the left-hand side.
From here, we're going to be importing an image that our client has provided us with. So to do this, let's first create a new layer where we can drop the image in. We'll title this layer Color Swatches and hit ENTER.
From here, we'll go to File > Place*, and we'll be placing our MDS Color Sample JPEG and click Place*. If we click and drag, we'll create it to be about the width of our artboard, and we can zoom in to view this image. For this project, our client has provided us with color samples that they'd prefer our rocket to have.
In the case of this image, we have the two greens that they use for their logo, as well as a black and white image with a blue tint, and we can pull swatches from this image. In total, we'll be pulling eight swatches. Therefore, let's begin setting up our swatches.
To do this, we'll utilize our Rectangle Tool*, and let's simply create eight squares above. We'll hold Shift and create our first square. In the case of this square, let's simply hit D for our default colors, and we'll make sure that we have no stroke. Next, let's hit V on the keyboard, and then holding ALT, we'll drag a second square to the right-hand side for a second swatch.
We'll then hit CTRL+D on the keyboard until we have eight total squares that we can use as swatches. Now, we need to assign our swatch colors. To do this, we'll start by selecting the square on the left-hand side, and using I on the keyboard for our Eyedropper Tool*, let's select the far-left green from our logo.
Next, let's select the next swatch to the right-hand side using V and selecting it, and again using I on the keyboard, let's select the green on the right-hand side. Now, we'll need to pull out color samples from behind for the remainder of our swatches. For our rocket, we're going to have multiple different shades of similar colors.
Therefore, I find it's helpful to work from the outside in to develop these colors. We'll hit V on the keyboard to select our next swatch square, and hitting I, I want to find the darkest color from inside of our image. In this case, we'll select from one of the dark windows.
Next, I want to find the next darkest color for my second swatch. So again, hitting I on the keyboard, let's pull from one of the shades right above. Now, we're going to work from the right-hand side.
So, we'll hit V to select our right square, and hitting I, we're going to find the lightest color of our image. In this case, it's the off-white right behind our logo. If we double-click this Fill Color*, we can see that's not quite black and white but has a slight blue tint, and we'll click OK*.
For our next square, we're going to hit V to select it, and utilizing I for our Eyedropper Tool*, we want to select our next lightest piece of our image. In this case, I'll probably pull from right about here, and we'll see that it's slightly darker than the center. From here, we have two remaining swatches that will be in this range.
So, we'll hit V, select the next one, and hitting I, we'll want something slightly darker than this, and as we click around, we can find that. I like this color right here—it's just a little bit darker. And then hitting V, we'll find our final swatch.
Utilize I, and as we click around, we can pull from different places to find the appropriate color that we're looking for. In this case, I don't want it to be too dark. However, I think this is a good color.
We hit V on the keyboard. We can see that our bluish-grays progress until they're dark, and then we have our two green colors. Next, we want to create swatches out of these colors we've pulled.
To do this, we'll select all of the squares we've created with fill colors, and then going to the top in our Control Bar*, we'll click the dropdown for our Fill*, and we'll select New Color Group*. From here, we can rename this group Rocket and click OK*, and we'll see that these colors are now added to a swatch group. We'll want to reorganize them by clicking and dragging them so they get darker as they go across, as we'll be utilizing that transition in the future.
In addition, if we want to save and export this swatch file to send it to other individuals, we can do so by going to the top-right-hand side of this panel and selecting Save Swatch Library as ASE*. By doing this, we can now create a swatch exchange file that we can share with other individuals. We'll go to our folder and click Save*.
We'll click OK*. If in the future you receive a swatch exchange file, you can import it the same way—going to the top-right-hand side and selecting Open Swatch Library*, and going down to Other Library*. From here, if we wanted to import the file we just created, we could go to our folder and select Mars Rocket ASE*, click Open*, and we'll see that our Mars Rocket swatches are all below, including the swatches we just created.
As a final step, let's zoom out, and we're simply going to move our swatches over to the right-hand side, right above our rocket so that they're easily utilized. We'll then lock our Color Swatches layer and hit CTRL+S on the keyboard to save our work. In the next video, we'll be coloring our rocket.
See you there!