For the third logo, we'll start out with a square shape and modify its appearance to make it look like a leaf, like the following graphic:
We'll be using the Rectangle tool, Pen tool, and Direct Selection tool to create this logo. We'll want to make a perfect 1.5 inch square for this logo, and we’ll use the grid to help us with making it the right size. Once we have the square, we'll rotate it 45 degrees so it resembles a diamond shape. We can use a keyboard modifier to help us rotate the square exactly 45 degrees.
Before getting started, let’s make sure the Leaf Logo artboard is the active artboard.
To switch to the Leaf Logo artboard, in the Artboards panel,
Double-Click
To ensure nothing is selected, if necessary, on the Menu bar,
Click Select, Click Deselect
To set the fill and stroke colors back to the Illustrator defaults, on the keyboard, press:
D
To activate the Rectangle tool, in the Tools panel,
Press & Hold, Click
To draw a square, on the keyboard, press and hold:
Shift key, Press & Drag a square that is six grid squares wide
To activate the Selection tool, in the Tools panel,
Click
To prepare to rotate the square, on the Leaf Logo artboard,
Point to a corner of the square until cursor changes to
To rotate the square in 45 degree increments, on the keyboard, press and hold:
Shift key, Press & Drag to rotate the square 45 degrees
Now we’re ready to make this square look more like a leaf.
Using the Direct Selection tool to edit a shape
In Illustrator, every shape is made up of points connected by paths; we can change a shape by modifying the individual points that define it. We can do this with the Direct Selection Tool — this allows us to create much more complex objects from the simple shape tools.
When we select an anchor point with the Direct Selection tool, the Control panel offers us some options that will help us create a leaf shape - specifically, the convert anchor point options, shown in the following graphic:
Here, we have the ability to convert an anchor point to a corner point or a smooth point. We're looking for a rounded shape for the sides of our leaf, so we'll convert the anchor points on the left and right sides of the diamond to smooth points. After we do that, we'll use the Direct Selection tool to move the sides closer to the middle, so the leaf shape isn't so broad.
To activate the Direct Selection tool, in the Tools panel,
Click
To deselect the diamond shape, with the Direct Selection tool active,
Click in the gray space outside of the artboard
To select the left anchor point,
Click the left side point of the diamond
To convert the left anchor point to a smooth point, in the Control panel,
Click
Repeat steps c and d with the right anchor point of the diamond.
At this point, the shape should look like the following:
To move the left anchor point towards the center of the shape, with the Direct Selection tool active,
Click the left anchor point, Press & Drag the anchor point towards the center of the shape
Repeat step a for the right anchor point.
To deselect everything on the artboard,
Click in the gray space outside the artboard
The shape should now look like the following:
Our shape looks more like a leaf now. To finish the leaf shape, we'll explore how to use a new tool: the Add Anchor Point tool.
Modifying shapes using the Add Anchor Point tool
The Pen tool is a powerful tool, and we've only just started to explore how it works. We'll gain more experience working with the Pen tool by adding more anchor points to our shape. Our goal is to create a stylized stem through the middle of the leaf. We'll accomplish this by adding some anchor points and moving them into place to represent the stylized stem.
We can add points to objects with the Add Anchor Point tool, which is grouped with the Pen tool. When using the Add Anchor Point tool, we'll see the pen cursor that we typically see when using the pen tool, but with a plus sign next to it that indicates its function of adding points to a path. By adding points to an existing path, we can modify a shape in new and interesting ways.
Let's activate the Add Anchor Point tool and add some anchor points to our shape to aid in creating the stylized stem for our leaf. Once the new points are added, we'll switch back to the Direct Selection Tool to move the very bottom anchor point on the leaf up towards the leaf's center.
To activate the Add Anchor Point tool, in the Tools panel,
Press & Hold, Click
To add a new anchor point to the bottom left side of the shape, with the Add Anchor Point tool active,
Click on the path 1/4 of the way up from the bottom anchor point
Repeat step b on the bottom right side of the shape.
The bottom of the diamond should look similar to the following image at this point:
To activate the Direct Selection tool, in the Tools panel,
Click
To deselect everything on the artboard,
Click away from the leaf shape
To move the bottom anchor point up towards the center of the leaf shape,
Press & Drag the bottom anchor point up towards the middle of the shape
NOTE: Holding down the Shift key while dragging the point up will constrain the point to moving in a straight line vertically.
The leaf shape should now look similar to the following image:
Let's finish up the leaf shape logo by changing its color to green and removing the stroke. After that, we'll save our work.
Use the Selection tool to select the leaf, and make sure the Fill swatch is active in the Swatches panel.
To change the leaf shape’s fill color to green, in the Swatches panel,
Click a shade of green
To remove the stroke from the leaf shape, in the Swatches panel,
Click, Click
To save the file, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + S
The finished leaf should look like the following image:
Next, we'll work on creating a more polished logo by adding effects and a gradient background to one of the logos we created previously.
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