Sarah's
e-Portfolio
Mercedes Logo - Week 7
Illustrator
STEP 1 - Drawing the character
I started this project by setting up guidelines and grids, snap to grid to help with drawing the elements of this exercise. It was important to have the guides on to draw the triangular shape.
For Step 5, 12 variations of gradients were applied, causing much confusion. The issue was that it was difficult to see any changes with the naked eye. My instinct was to look for a '+' tool (for add new gradient), similar to how you add new layer. The image below shows the process of applying several gradients, which was successful in the end.
Screenshot showing the process of applying gradients
Challenge: In Step 6 of the notes, the instruction was to use the pen tool to create 3 paths. This was a command I struggled with. Every time I drew a triangle, it would override the 1 drawn previously. Perhaps the issue was I wasn't clicking on to the anchor points but instead, the intersection points.
Success: After much time I realised that I should only be using the pen tool to draw the lines connecting anchor points. I had been trying to draw numerous triangles! Finally, after too much time spent trying to complete the 3d effect triangle form, I moved away from the notes and created my own method. I drew triangles using the pen tool and I copied and pasted, the Transform>Reflect to make identical copies. The direct selection tool was used to pull the anchor points into place.
Finished Mercedes Logo
Despite finding this logo quite time consuming, the 3d effect results are worth it. I did learn quite a lot about illustrator and it's gradient capabilities through working through the project stages.