Adobe Illustrator makes creating a logo easier than ever. Although the interface may look daunting, Illustrator offers some really simple solution to seemingly complex problems. All it takes is a basic knowledge of some simple tools and concepts. After this Facebook logo illustrator tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of some of these which you can then use in your other projects.
Adobe Illustrator makes creating a logo easier than ever. Although the interface may look daunting, Illustrator offers some really simple solution to seemingly complex problems. All it takes is a basic knowledge of some simple tools and concepts. After this tutorial you should have a basic understanding of some of the ideas which go into creating the Facebook logo you can see below. You can hopefully then use these ideas in your own projects.
Facebook Logo Illustrator Tutorial – Opening Illustrator & creating a new canvas
First things first, open Adobe Illustrator. If you don’t have Illustrator, Adobe offer a great 30 day free trial of any of their software’s which you can download from their website at www.adobe.com/sea/downloads
Once Illustrator is open go to “File” – “New” to create a new document.
Name your file facebook-logo. ensure your art board is A4 and landscape with your measurements in millimeters. Make the color mode CMYK which is the four colour system that printers use. If this logo was primarily going to be used on the web and not in print RGB would be fine. (This is just for the purpose of this tutorial and these factors would differ depending on your needs). The ppi(pixels per inch) determines the quality of the image you would like to achieve. This is not relevant to this tutorial as we are using a vector image as opposed to a raster image. I will explain this further when we discuss saving.
Once you’re set up Click “OK”
Facebook Logo Illustrator Tutorial – Drawing the shape
As with most design we first start with the basic shape. Using the tool panel on the left hand side click the small arrow next to the shape tool, which looks like a basic rectangle. This will bring up a menu of the different shapes you can create. Select the “rounded rectangle” shape. Make the fill of the shape is the deep blue from the swatches panel.
Change the “stroke” by selecting it from your tool properties panel(see image). and change it to “none” (looks like a white square with a red line through it).
When drawing shapes in illustrator you have the choice of either clicking and dragging to draw the shape or to be more accurate you can click on the screen and enter the exact size of the shape you would like to create. For this shape we are going to make the size 70mm x 70mm with a corner radius of 5mm so it’s much easier to type in the width and height as opposed to clicking and dragging.
This would be a good time to mention that an easy way to make sure your objects are correctly placed in illustrator is by using the grid tool. To view a grid over your art board go to “view” – “show grid” or you can use the shortcut “CMD” – ” ‘ “, or cntrl for windows. You can also activate the “snap to grid” option by going “view” – “snap to grid”, this will automatically align your image with the gridlines as you move it.
Facebook Logo Illustrator Tutorial – Adding the blend
There is a simple way of making a blend in illustrator and that is to use the gradient tool which you can select from the gradient tab of your pallet or by going to “window” – “gradient”. Although this method is quick and gives a basic result we can get much better looking blends using other methods.
For the purposes of our Facebook logo we are going to use a method which gives a more subtle blend on the logo which makes for a much more tasteful design.
First select your rectangle tool which you used in the “drawing shapes” step. Click on the screen and create a rectangle that is 3mm x 3mm. This time make the color a slightly lighter shade of blue which you can find in your swatches panel. Again as we did in the last step change the stroke to “none”.
Select both rectangles and while both are selected click on your big rectangle to select it as your “key object”. Once it is selected click on the “horizontally align center” icon on the toolbar at the top of your screen and then the “vertically distribute top” icon. These are the 1st and 7th options in the align section of your toolbar.
Once you have done this select the two objects and go to “object” – “blend” – “blend options”. Make sure your spacing is set to smooth color and your orientation is set to “align to page” (the first option). Click OK.
Go back to “object” – “blend” and select “make”.
You should now have a subtle blend that looks great!
Facebook Logo Illustrator Tutorial – Using the text tool
Now we need an “f” for Facebook, duh. So select your text tool (looks like a T) from your tool panel. Click on the screen to type and type a lower case “f” on your art board.
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Now select your black arrow selection tool from the tool panel, ensure your text is selected and change your font to “Myriad pro”. from your font selection near the top of your screen. Make the font point size 224 pt. The actual Facebook font is Klavika, a commercial font, but to save us from having to download fonts we will use Myriad pro instead.
Drag your “f” onto the logo and place it just off center to the right. Once you place your text you can use the arrows on your keyboard to do fine adjustments and get your text in just the right place. Make sure the edge of the text goes just over the border of your rectangle so no line can be seen.
Once you’re happy make sure your text is selected and change the fill color to white.
Make sure your font is selected and go to “object” – “expand”.
Your Facebook logo should be starting to look like, well, a Facebook logo.
Facebook Logo Illustrator Tutorial – Finishing up
Once you are happy with the look of your logo select everything on your page and press CMD – G or cntrl – G on Windows. Alternatively you can go to “object” – “group”.
Saving
When saving your work you have the option of saving as GIF, JPEG, WBMP, and PNG—These types describe the image based on a grid of pixels. This makes the files much more bulky with a limited resolution and uses large amounts of bandwidth on the web.
A better way to save an image is to save it as a “vector”(SVG) image. These files are more compact and allows for very high quality graphics on the web as well as in print and on a range of devices. ‘Vector’ images can be magnified without sacrificing quality. SVG ensures images will be seen as they appear in illustrator.
To save your Facebook logo as a ‘vector’ image go to “file” – “save as”. Choose the location you would like to save your file and select SVG from the “format” drop down menu.
The SVG options should now come up and you simply click “OK”.
And there you have a simple Facebook logo made with Illustrator. Play around with some of the tools you have just learnt and see what you can come up with.
Want to learn more?
Why not read “what does your logo say about you?” or check out our logo and graphic design course to learn more. We also offer one-on-one classes in Illustrator and Photoshop. Keep checking webcoursesbangkok.com for upcoming classes and workshops.
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