Reader Tutorial: Geometric Flower Effect Logo in Illustrator

Tomas Varil — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:49:40 +0000

In this tutorial I will show you how I made this nice logo for one of my clients in Czech Republic. Feel free to use it as inspiration, but please do not copy it in any form. All copyrights belong to the owner whom I made it for. Last but not least, please excuse Czech language appearing in the dialog boxes on pictures; I use a localized version of illustrator.

The final product will look like this:

Step 1

We'll start by making a new document with 180 mm width and height. If you do not like it you can select whatever dimensions you want. Then we will make one horizontal and one vertical guide positioned directly in the center of the document.

Select the Ellipse tool (L), create the ellipse, fill it with no color, select black outline and put it in the center of the document. I made one 160 mm high and 40 mm wide. So it will look something like this:

Step 2

Now, we are going to copy the ellipse 8 times around the circle. Easiest way to do this is to use Rotate Tool (R). So select the ellipse, click on the Rotate Tool (R), hold down ALT and click on the center of the ellipse, dialog box should appear. Enter 20 in angle and click on copy button. You will get this:

Step 3

Now press CTRL+D 7 times and you get to this point:

Step 4

We can now delete the guide lines; we do not need them later. The easiest part of this tutorial is done, now we are starting with ant work :-) We need to divide the final product in to small pieces. We are going to make it using Pathfinder. So select all ellipses and go to Window>Pathfinder and click on Divide:

Step 5

Now press Shift+CTRL+G to ungroup all objects. We are going to delete all needless objects. It is all 5 inner circles composed of 18 objects. So, 3 outer circles of objects remain as on the picture below.

Step 6

We are going to play with gradients now. It will be quite long but the output will be awesome. So let’s start: select the objects with Direct Selection Tool (A) (press Shift and click on each object) and apply a gradient from C30 M100 Y0 K0 to C30 M100 Y0 K80 like the image below:

Step 7

Then select another group of 6 objects and apply gradient from C80 M100 Y0 K0 to C80 M100 Y0 K80, here we go:

Step 8

Select another following group of 6 objects and apply gradient from C0 M100 Y100 K0 to C0 M100 Y100 K80. You’ll get something like this:

Step 9

For now you have enough information to know how to apply gradients for other groups of 6 objects.

4th group gradient from C0 M50 Y100 K0 to C0 M50 Y100 K80
5th group gradient from C0 M0 Y100 K0 to C0 M0 Y100 K80
6th group gradient from C50 M0 Y100 K0 to C50 M0 Y100 K80
7th group gradient from C100 M0 Y100 K0 to C100 M0 Y100 K80
8th group gradient from C100 M0 Y0 K0 to C100 M0 Y0 K80
9th group gradient from C100 M100 Y0 K0 to C100 M100 Y0 K80

If all went well you will get something like this:

Step 10

Now we are almost done, just remove the black outlines from all objects. And you are done with the output. This output does not correspond to physics. But applying the gradients to specific directions on each object, which our flower consists of, can make for some pretty awesome effects. It can be done by selecting each object, clicking on a Gradient Tool (G) and playing with it. Like these two examples:

Conclusion

First example is a bit complicated I will explain it later. Second example goes out from our output made in this tutorial. It was made only by rotating a gradient in proper direction on each object.

If you were able to make the second example, then change the Blending mode to Darken and copy it. On the copy - you have to make axial symmetry of each object or gradient. You can make it by axial mirroring or just by rotating the gradient to opposite side of object. If you are done with it, just put the copy over the original one and you will get the output like in the first example.

About the Author

My name is Tomas Varil. I am from Prague (Czech Republic). I have no design or art school background. I studied electronic computer systems in high school and I now study biology at university. All I have learned in graphic design, I learned by myself, through reading great blogs or web pages like abduzeedo.com. I first started 6 years ago as DTP operator and retoucher. Now I work in advertising agency as a graphic designer and production manager and I am starting my own corporate identity freelance project on www.tomasvaril.com (pages are under construction).

Tomas Varil's blog