Discover the ins and outs of recreating a construction logo as a vector using various techniques such as creating a new file, renaming, placing embedded files, adding guides, and building shapes. Learn how to adjust fill colors, work with different shapes like rectangles and ellipses, and save your work efficiently.
Key Insights
- In creating a vector, starting with a new file and renaming it appropriately is essential. Additionally, placing embedded files such as logo ideas can be helpful in the creation process.
- Adding guides to the artboard and building shapes, specifically a trapezoid in this case, can be done using the pen tool. Guides can be set at different pixels to create the desired shape.
- Adjusting fill colors, creating new layers with different shapes, and transforming them is integral to creating intricate designs. Saving your work regularly is also advised to avoid losing progress.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
In this video, we'll be recreating our Phase 10 Construction logo as a vector. Let's begin by creating a new file. We'll again go to Art and Illustration and select our,000-pixel grid.
Next, we'll check Artboards and rename this “Phase 10 Vector.” Then click Create. Just like last time, the first thing we'll do is go to File, Place Embedded, add our logo idea JPEG, and click Place.
Let's drag it to the left, outside of our Artboard, and hit ENTER. Next, let's zoom out using CTRL+MINUS (-) on the keyboard and adjust our view. We're ready to begin.
Just like last time, the first thing we'll do is add guides to our Artboard. This time, dragging from the left and holding Shift, we'll leave it at 100 pixels, and on the other side, we'll leave it at 1900 pixels. Dragging from the top, we'll leave it at 100 pixels and again at 1900 pixels.
Finally, I always like to have one in the very center of my Artboard—from the top and in the middle. We're now ready to begin building our shapes. Let's create a new layer to start for our trapezoid.
We'll rename it “Trapezoid Base” and hit ENTER. Next, let's use the Pen Tool to create this trapezoid. In addition, let's draw some guides for the base of our trapezoid. I'll put guides at 500 pixels and 1500 pixels.
Next, let's go back up to our Options Bar and select Shape since we'll be drawing a shape, and we can simply pick the points of our trapezoid—starting at the top left corner and then drawing out the trapezoid using our guidelines. Even though it looks like the full trapezoid is here, we still want to close out the border of our path, as indicated by the small circle on the bottom-right corner of our cursor with the Pen Tool. We'll close it out, and we now have our shape.
If we want to adjust the fill of our shape, we'll go to our Options Bar, select Fill, and open the Color Picker. We'll then choose a color. I'm going to choose something a little more green—however, you can choose whatever you'd prefer—and click OK.
We now have our green trapezoid base. Next, let's start working on the P in the middle. We'll create a new layer, and next, let's create our rectangle.
We can do this with the Rectangle Shape Tool. Just like before, we'll start at the bottom middle and drag it to the top. We'll maintain this color and hit CTRL+T to transform. As I drag down, if I hold ALT, it will only scale from the center vertically. We'll drag to about there and hit ENTER. Finally, we'll begin working on the circles in the middle.
Let's select Artboard 1 and go over to our Ellipse Tool. Start from the top-left corner of our P Base, and while holding Shift, drag until we reach the middle guide. We'll then change the fill color by using the Eyedropper Tool and selecting this as our Foreground Color. We'll copy the hex code using CTRL+C. Then, with the ellipse still selected, we'll change the fill color either in Properties or by going back to the Shape Tool, opening the Fill Color Picker, and hitting CTRL+V on the keyboard, then clicking OK.
We've now cut out part of our P Base. Finally, the last thing we'll add is our middle P circle. We'll simply use the Ellipse Tool again. This time, we'll use the Eyedropper Tool to sample the same color. With the Ellipse Tool, drag from the top-left corner while holding Shift to create the circle. Then use CTRL+T to transform it, holding Shift and ALT to scale proportionally from the center.
We'll leave it at that size and hit CTRL+S on the keyboard to save our work. We'll save it as a “Phase 10 Vector” Photoshop file and click Save and OK. Looking back, I want to adjust Ellipse 1 and Ellipse 2. I'll highlight both layers by holding Shift to select both. Let's zoom in and just expand the circle a little bit.
We'll hit CTRL+T to transform both, and then, dragging down, I'll hold Shift to maintain the aspect ratio. I'm just going to make it a little bit larger. As we can see, it comes over the edge of the rectangle a little bit more. If we zoom in a bit more, I'll move it up using the arrow keys until it's touching the top edge. I'll then hit ENTER, zoom out, and click outside of Artboard 1 to view our work. This now looks pretty accurate compared to the logo sample we were given. Hit CTRL+S on the keyboard to save our work.
In the next video, we'll be adding a border and continuing to stylize our logo. See you there!