a geometric logo, derived from a simple logo grid.
with the Twitter logo perhaps the most high-profile example.
I show how to create a penguin in my course Designing
with Grids in Illustrator, but here's a much simpler example
that uses the same techniques.
So as is so often the case, we begin with a circle.
any stroke that might be applied to that circle.
With the circle selected, I'll double-click
on the Scale tool, and make
a uniformly-scaled copy at 50%.
Now I will switch to my Line tool.
Command + click away from the artwork to deselect it,
move over the center point, and, and I have my Smart Guides
turned on, which is necessary for this technique.
the line to a 45% angle, and the Alt key so that I can
With that line selected, I'll come to my Rotate took,
double-click on that, and I want to make a copy of the line
at a 90 degree angle.
So we now see that this line bisects the smaller circle
and at each of those four points,
we will be positioning copies of the larger circle.
Just to make sure that everything lines up the way
I intend it to, I'm going to select all of this,
and using my Alignment options, making sure Align
and their vertical centers.
Now, I will come and choose the larger circle,
holding down the Optional or Alt key and the Shift key,
so I constrain my movement to a 45 degree angle,
I'm going to make a copy of that larger circle.
Now just pay attention to what's going on down here.
We want to make sure that those two lines actually connect,
so when we have the first one in the right position,
the rest is easy.
We can now just hold down the Option or Alt key
and the Shift key, and drag to make a copy,
and I'll do the same, dragging down a copy below
and then a fourth and final copy
so that we now have our framework.
At this point, I can press Command or Control + y
to switch back to my preview view mode.
I'll swipe over the artwork, which, as you'll remember,
has no fill and no stroke, currently.
I'll come to the Shape Builder tool.
Now I want to start by subtracting all of those elements
I now come to my swatches panel, and here I have
a gradient, simple black and white gradient.
I'll choose my gradient, and I'm now going to join
the segments together and fill then with this gradient.
I also want to remove the segments in the center
of the circle, so hold down Option or Alt
and just swipe over those.
Now to finish this, I'm going to come and choose
my Direct Selection tool, and then click in each segment,
and come to my Gradient tool.
I'm going to drag the Gradient tool, holding down
the Shift key, so that I apply the gradient at a 45 degree
angle, and then I'll repeat that
for each segment.
Select the segment, and then Shift and drag
to apply the Gradient.
This may seem like a very non-intuitive way of creating
logo symbols, and it does take some getting used to,
but it is an approach that designers really enjoy,
so give it try and see if it's for you.