Creating a Logo in Adobe Illustrator With No Experience in One Day
With a few basic art supplies, a graphics tablet and adobe illustrator installed on my laptop, I set out to create my first ever logo with no prior experience. Through trial and error, many youtube videos and a positive mindset, the final result turned out better than I could have ever imagined– and all in one day.
The Finished Frontline Street Art Logo.
The Motivation
For me, Frontline Street Art has become a bit of a passion project. Not only does it give me the opportunity to explore my thesis topic at new and exciting lengths, but it has also given me a reason to learn exciting creative tools.
This means a lot to me because my desire to learn how to use adobe illustrator is by no means recent. It has been my intention to learn how to use the different programmes provided by adobe creative cloud for almost two years. Yet, the overwhelming number of things to learn within each programme was such a steep learning curve and it was always easier to delay learning how to use them for a time when I was ‘less busy’.
As we all know, that day never comes. So, on Thursday the 17th of March, I decided to give it a go and created the Frontline Street Art Logo with no prior experience in just one day.
The Creation Process
Step 1: Thinking Up a Design
It was important to me to link the logo clearly with the name of my project ‘Frontline Street Art’. This meant incorporating an element that is obviously linked to street art such as a spray can (although street art can also take other forms like sculptures and or walls painted by hand).
Next, I wanted to give a nod to the location and topic of my thesis which is about the use of street art during the protests that occurred in 2021 throughout Colombia. The monument in Porte de Resistencia in Cali was, and remains, an icon of the community and collaboration during the protest and therefore seemed like a beautiful symbol to include in my design. Additionally, the raised fist has been used throughout history as a symbol of resistance, power and solidarity by those fighting social battles so also seemed fitting to the word ‘Frontline’ in my project’s name.
De Remux - Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106590375
Photo by Jakob Rosen on Unsplash
Step 2: Sketching
Combining these ideas, I sketched out the outline of a fist of resistance but with someone holding a spray can. After a couple of sketches and tweaks, this was the result that I uploaded and opened in adobe illustrator:
A rough sketch of my logo design on a scrap piece of paper.
Step 3: Watching Youtube Videos
Next, I watched a couple of videos of professional illustrators creating basic designs. I chose the first based on the round logo looking design and the second based on the soda can design which I thought would not be too dissimilar to the way I would draw a spray can.
Step 4: Creating the Outline
After watching each video the whole way through, I started to create the outline of my design. Using my refurbished Wacom graphics tablet that I bought a year ago in an attempt to encourage me to learn how to use adobe illustrator (we know how that went), I used shapes and line tools to get the desired effect I wanted.
If there were things I wanted to do but didn’t know how I would quickly Youtube it or give it a Google. This obviously is a little less of a linear learning path, but under time pressure and with a specific goal in mind, my preference was to learn on the go rather than do a time consuming course on basic tools. (However, if that’s your jam, I know Daniel Walter Scott is an excellent adobe certified instructor and he has lots of free courses and tutorials on youtube like this one which is over three hours!)
Side note on the Wacom graphics tablet:
If I am being honest, the Wacom tablet already takes some time to get used to and is by no means necessary to create basic designs in adobe illustrator. It does however help if you are creating for long periods of time and it 100% gives you a feeling of increased flexibility. I look forward to using it more and learning how to make use of customisable buttons etc, but if you only plan to use adobe rarely and for basic things, I would save your money and wait and see if you really enjoy illustrator or other adobe products.
An example of shapes being created over the sketch I made.
The finished outline. I spent some time tweaking the position of fingers and added some triangles around the hand for a more arty and dynamic feeling.
Step 5: Adding Colour and Shading
Deciding the colours for my design was accidental. I knew from previous research that logos should contain no more than 3 colours and that they should be complimentary on the colour wheel (basic colour theory). However, after looking at colour swatch websites for half an hour, I decided to just pick random colours and to change them later when I had finished the logo as that was the most important thing to me!
Luckily, I ended up liking the random orange and purple combo, perhaps because it looks a little similar to my secondary school uniform!? Who knows. I was just very glad I didn’t have to change them again as, by the time I was finished, I was exhausted.
All that was left was to add some shading to the image to give it less of a flat feel. As this is something I have never learnt and I have no art school experience, I just had to go with my gut feeling as to where shadow and light may fall if the sun was shining from the top left. Here is a comparison of the difference:
Logo without highlights and shadow.
Logo with highlights and shadow.
Step 6: Exporting
Just as I thought I had finished, I hit my last hurdle of the day– how the hell do you export from adobe illustrator? Every time I tried, the final image included things outside of what I now know is called the ‘artboard’.
In case you, dear reader, have the same issue and this is how you find this post, the solution it turns out is as simple as clicking the ‘Use Artboards’ box when you export!
How to export images on adobe illustrator without including items outside the artboard.
The Final Result: Thoughts and Feelings
I am incredibly happy with how my logo turned out. Yes, looking at it now a few days later there are things I would perhaps change or alter. However, considering this was only one day’s work and I had no prior experience, I am damn proud of myself. Not only did I achieve what I set out to do, but I finally learnt something I had promised myself I would do a long time ago.
If anything, this whole post serves as a reminder to me, and maybe a nudge to you, to stop procrastinating on trying out something new. Yes, it takes time and yes it takes energy. No, it won’t be perfect. But the euphoric feeling that comes with bettering yourself is well worth the effort!
Profile Picture & Website Emoticon
Website Logo
Future Sticker?!