In this section, we will take one of our completed designs and combine it with another shape to make a finished logo graphic. We'll also add some effects to the finished graphic to make it stand out.
Creating a gradient background for the logo
To make a backdrop for our chosen logo art, we'll use the Rounded Rectangle tool to start with. We'll then fill that rectangle with a gradient. Let's get started by creating a new artboard for the logo to be built on. After that, we'll draw a square with rounded corners and change its colors to the Illustrator defaults of black and white.
To create a new artboard, in the bottom of the Artboards panel,
Click
To rename the artboard, in the list of artboards in the Artboards panel,
Double-Click, type: Final Logo Enter key
To activate the Rounded Rectangle tool, in the Tools panel,
Press & Hold, Click
To draw a square with rounded corners, on the keyboard, press and hold:
Shift key, Press & Drag a 2.5 inch square
Switch to the Selection tool, then use the Selection tool to move the square into the center of the artboard, if necessary.
To change the fill colors for the square to the default colors of black and white, on the keyboard, press:
D
NOTE: If the square’s colors didn’t change to white for the fill and black for the stroke, ensure the square is selected and try changing the colors to the defaults again.
Now that we have a shape, we can add a gradient fill to it. We can create our own gradient effect easily as we saw earlier — this time, though, we'll customize our gradient's appearance a little more than we did previously.
Customizing a gradient's appearance
As you may remember from earlier in the course, by default a gradient is composed of two colors. We're not limited to using only two colors, however. We can add as many colors as we want to our gradient, and adjust their locations on the gradient slider to make our gradient look exactly the way we want it to.
Adding colors to a gradient is simple — all we need to do is click underneath the gradient slider, and a new color stop will appear wherever we click. We can then change the color of the color stop to whatever color we want. We can also move the color stops to new locations on the gradient slider to further customize our gradient.
Let's practice customizing a gradient. We'll first apply a gradient to our rounded square, then we'll add color to it.
To select the rounded square, if necessary, in the Tools panel,
Click, Click the rounded square
To view the Gradient panel, in the panel dock,
Click
To ensure the fill swatch is active, in the Gradient panel,
Click
To change the shape’s fill to a gradient, in the Gradient panel,
Click
To change the color for the far right color stop, underneath the gradient slider,
Double-Click
To change the color mode for the color stop to CMYK, in the upper right corner of the Color sub-panel,
Click, Click CMYK
To choose a color for the right color stop, in the CMYK spectrum at the bottom of the Color sub-panel,
Click a color of your choice
Repeat steps a-c for the left color stop, choosing a different color than the one you chose for the right color stop.
To add a color stop to the middle of the gradient, in the Gradient panel,
Click underneath the middle of the gradient slider
To change the color used for the middle color stop,
Double-Click the middle color stop
To choose a new color for the color stop, in the CMYK spectrum at the bottom of the color panel,
Click a color of your choice
To change the appearance of the gradient, if desired, underneath the gradient slider,
Press & Drag the color stops to new positions
To tilt the gradient at a 30 degree angle, in the Angle field of the Gradient panel,
Click, Click 30
Following is one example of how the background for the logo could look. Your logo background will likely look different, depending on the colors you chose and the positions of your color stops.
Our gradient background is complete. Now we'll copy and paste one of the logos we created earlier onto the rounded square.
To activate the selection tool, in the Tools panel,
Click
To move to the artboard containing the logo you want to copy, in the Artboards panel,
Double-Click to the right of the name of the artboard containing the logo you want to copy
To select the logo, with the Selection tool active,
Click the logo
To copy the logo, with the logo selected, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + C
To move to the Final Logo artboard, in the Artboards panel,
Double-Click
To paste the copied logo, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + V
Resize and reposition the pasted logo as needed so it fits on the gradient background.
Following is an example of the atom logo on top of the rounded square background:
Your logo may look different than the example here, depending on the colors you chose for the background and the logo you're working with.
Now that our chosen logo is in place on top of the background, let's add a drop shadow to the logo to help it stand out.
Adding a drop shadow effect
Illustrator allows us to add a wide range of predefined effects, such as glows, warps, and shadows, to the objects we create. We applied an effect to an object earlier in the course that changed the appearance of a shape — the Pucker and Bloat effect turned a star shape into one that looked more like a shining sun. Let's explore adding a common effect, the drop shadow, to our logo and our background as a finishing touch. Just like earlier, we'll need to select the objects we want to apply an effect to before applying the effect.
Ensure the Selection tool is active.
To select the logo and background, with the Selection tool active,
Press & Drag a selection over the entire logo
To apply a drop shadow, in the Menu bar,
Click Effect, Point Stylize, Click Drop Shadow…
The Drop Shadow dialog box appears:
We have many options here that give us precise control over how our drop shadow looks.
To preview the changes made to the drop shadow as we work, if necessary, at the bottom of the Drop Shadow dialog box,
Click the Preview checkbox
Enter the following values into their respective fields in the dialog box to adjust the appearance of the drop shadow:
Opacity: 100%
X offset: 3pt
Y offset: 3pt
Blur: 5pt
NOTE: Even though we entered values for the X and Y offset and blur that use points for the unit of measurement, Illustrator will convert the values to inches, as that's the default unit of measurement we're using for this document.
To finish applying the drop shadow effect, in the bottom right corner of the Drop Shadow dialog box,
Click
To group the logo and background together, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + G
Ensure the logo is still selected.
To resize the artboard, in the Menu bar,
Click Object, Point Artboards, Click Fit to Selected Art
To save the file, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + S
The artboard's size will change slightly, and now appears a little larger than the logo itself, as shown in the following image:
The extra space is to accommodate the drop shadow effect we added to the logo.
At this point, the logo is complete. Next, let's explore how to save our logo for print and web use.
, type: Final Logo 
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