Last week I posted an article showing some great logos using 3D effects and colorful gradients. There are quite a few ways to do create those effects in Illustrator, however for most of them you will have to use the Pathfinder tools. Because of that I will show you an example based on a few logos from that list.
References
When I was looking for references for a logo design project that I'm still working on, I selected some awesome logos. Below you can see some of them. You can visit the sites of these logos at:
The wallpaper of this week I designed inspired by a skateboard deck design from the Element. It's a vector pattern that creates a really nice optical illusion. I, also, prepared 2 versions a dark one for those like me who like dark wallpapers and the original version that is more bright, but with a nice retro feel.
Check out the tutorial: Rad Pattern in Illustrator that Makes you Dizzy .
The book suggestion of this week is Illusive 2: Contemporary Illustration and Its Context. This book is really inspiring, there were some amazing illustrations and you can spend ours checking them out. Another amazing thing about this book is that you can always go back and there will always be something new.