From the course: Logo Design: Techniques

Polygons

From the course: Logo Design: Techniques

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Polygons

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- [Instructor] A multisided shape can be drawn with the Polygon tool, but may begin as a rectangle, to which additional shapes are added. Polygons can also be created by combining shapes. The polygon may be the logo symbol itself or maybe an enclosing shape that in some way evokes the nature of the business. Here are some polygon examples. Starting with the Polygon tool, I'm going to center it on the type, hold down the Option or Alt key as I draw the polygon. of the Option or Alt key for a second, add to the number of sides or reduce the number of sides with the Up Arrow and Down Arrow, that I've got Option and Alt held down and so that the polygon is on a flat plane. And in this case, because stop signs are octagonal, Here, what I want to do is start with the rectangle and then divide it into four rectangles One way to do this is to come to the Path menu and to Split Into Grid. I'll have two rows with a gutter or space between the shapes of 10 pixels and two columns also. With a gutter of 10 pixels, let's just preview that. That looks right. So now, I'm going to come to my Free Transform tool and to my Perspective Distort and to the left side, where I'll just drag that up. In this case, I'm going to style by selecting the enclosing rectangle and then, once again, coming to my Free Transform panel to Perspective Distort, press P to switch to my Pen tool, come and add one anchor point at the top, and another at the bottom, at in the center, and then pull the top one up and the bottom one down. So I'll select the type, come to the Effect menu and to Warp. I'm going to give this an arc of 12%. Here, I'm starting out with two overlapping rectangles. The first thing I want to do is select them using my Pathfinder options, unite them into a single shape. Then, switch to my Direct Selection tool so that I can round the corners. come to the Perspective Distort, drag in on the bottom, press Shift + C to access my Anchor Point tool, and drag this top segment up. And then, of course, it would be nice if we just change the color of that to red, and we'll change the type color to white. Similarly here, I'm going to start with a rectangle and then go to my Free Transform, Perspective Distort. I'll drag in on the bottom, press my P key to switch to my Pen tool, add an anchor point at the center, press Shift + C to access my Anchor Point tool, pull up the bottom part segment. Now, draw down a guide just to indicate how far up that has come, and then do the same on the right-hand side. I'll just return to my Free Transform, and I think I just need to bring it in slightly on the top. And then, once again, we'll switch the colors, send that to the back, Command + Shift + Left Square Bracket, and change the color of the type. Once again, starting with two overlapping shapes, Once again, starting with two overlapping shapes, select the top shape, use the Perspective Distort select the top shape, use the Perspective Distort to adjust the top shape. to adjust the top shape. And then to adjust the bottom shape, And then to adjust the bottom shape, bring it in so far that it actually bring it in so far that it actually intersects with the top shape. intersects with the top shape. We can then select both We can then select both and unite them into one. and unite them into one. Shift + X will swap my fill and stroke properties, and then, I can change the color. and then, I can change the color. So there are some basic ideas for how to work with polygons in your logos.

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