From the course: Logo Design: Techniques

Squares and rectangles

From the course: Logo Design: Techniques

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Squares and rectangles

- [Instructor] Squares and rectangle logos are arguably the most flexible in terms of their usage. They fit easily into columns of a newspaper, magazine, or website. Squares, their sides all the same imply equality and solidity, but rectangles might work better with longer logo names. If you're using the square as an enclosing shape, consider how the type fits within that shape. or maybe rotated? And in this case, I have extended the type to the edges so that it gives the impression of the type not being confined within the shape. Let's see how we can add a second stroke. I'll select my stroke here, come to the appearance panel, and I currently have a center-weighted stroke, which is the default, but I'm now going to change this to an outside stroke. So all of the stroke weight now goes outside of the shape of that rectangle. Then I'll come and add a second stroke and here, I'm going to move it inside. And then change its color. So one stroke outside the black stroke and the red stroke inside. Sometimes, the rectangle is the logo itself. And in this example right here, we just need to be careful that we align that rectangle with the type. So to do so, we need a guide at the ascender and a guide on the baseline and then when we draw our rectangle, we need to make sure that it is confined within those guides. It's gone to a stroke on the inside In this example down here, Mouse over the center point, I'm holding down the option or alt key Let's select this center line. I'll tap my E key which brings up my free transform panel. I'm going to reduce the height of that. and I want to rotate them through 90 degrees, Then come and choose the shape builder tool. we can just delete those interior areas, and then to finish up, come to the path finder and unite the shapes. We saw a couple of examples where each letter of the logo reverses out of a rectangle or square. I'll draw my rectangle over the letter, right click, arrange, send to back. Now I'll duplicate that, but before I do, let me just make sure that it's, I'll now hold down option or alt, and create my second rectangle, and we see that the issue here is that the letters are of different widths. So I need to change the size of that rectangle so that it encloses that letter. I already have one O, so I'll just duplicate that one for the second O, and then duplicate it again for the G, but slightly narrow it for the G. Now the problem is that in doing this, we have accentuated how different the spacing widths are between the letters. And we need to equalize them. Come and select the text, which has been converted to outlines. but just so that we don't run into any issues I'm now going to come to the object menu and choose un-group. You may need to do that more than once. Just keep going back there until un-group is no longer an option. is no longer an option. Now swipe over the letter Now swipe over the letter and its rectangle and its rectangle and press Command + G to make that into a group and press Command + G to make that into a group and repeat that for each of those. and repeat that for each of those. So we now have four groups. So we now have four groups. We can select those four groups, We can select those four groups, and I'm going to come and get my alignment panel. and I'm going to come and get my alignment panel. We want the distribute spacing option. We want the distribute spacing option. If you don't see this, If you don't see this, you may need to show you options. you may need to show you options. I'm just going to click on horizontal distribute space, I'm just going to click on horizontal distribute space, making sure that I am on align to selection. making sure that I am on align to selection. And we now have equally spaced letter blocks. And we now have equally spaced letter blocks. Lastly, I want to show you how we can convert a rectangle Lastly, I want to show you how we can convert a rectangle into a ribbon, into a ribbon, much like the Marmite logo. much like the Marmite logo. I'm going to select this red rectangle I'm going to select this red rectangle and mark its center point with a guide. and mark its center point with a guide. And then going to duplicate it. And then going to duplicate it. Option or alt, drag away from it, and then scale that duplicate down, and then scale that duplicate down, adjust its size, adjust its size, send it to the back. send it to the back. Choose your pen tool, Choose your pen tool, come to this center point, come to this center point, click to add a path, click to add a path, tap A to access your direct selection tool, and pull in from that anchor point. Back to the pen tool, Command + Click outside of your selection to deselect everything. Smart guides are turn on here, which is very necessary. We need this visual feedback, so just make sure that you have your smart guides turned on. I'm now going to draw a black triangle for the shadow. I'm now going to draw a black triangle for the shadow. Click once, Click once, move up here. I see that visual feedback telling me I've reached the anchor point, click there, click back at that point, and then down to where I began. We'll fill that with black. Zoom out. Command or Control + 0. Select these two shapes. Come to the reflect tool, so on the same tool space as the rotate tool. Option or Alt + Click on the guide. Option or Alt + Click on the guide. And if you see something like this, you've gone wrong. And that's because I didn't have that whole shape selected, so deselect, going to make sure that we select the whole shape, not just individual anchor points of the shape, and then the smaller red shape, as well, and we'll try that again. That's more like it. We want to reflect across the vertical axis, We want to reflect across the vertical axis, making a copy, making a copy, and then this one needs to be sent to the back, as well. and then this one needs to be sent to the back, as well. So now I'm going to select the three red shapes and come and add a black stroke, and come and add a black stroke, and increase the weight of that stroke. Now swipe over everything, including the type Now swipe over everything, including the type and group it. and group it. Command or Control + G, then come to the effect menu then come to the effect menu and to warp, arch, I'm going to add an arch warp with a bend of 25%. So there we have a variety of different techniques that you can apply when working with squares and rectangles. that you can apply when working with squares and rectangles.

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