Creating a simple logo using shapes and the Pathfinder panel

Now that we have some experience with Illustrator's tools, let's experiment with creating more complex shapes with the tools we've already used. Using the Shape tools and the Pen tool, we can create intricate and visually interesting graphics similar to the following:

We'll be creating these three graphics next — and eventually combining one of these shapes with a background to make a completed logo. We'll be making use of tools we've already used, and experimenting with a few that we haven't seen yet. We'll also gain some experience working with multiple artboards in a project. Before we start making the logos, let's create a new document to work with and set up the Illustrator interface for efficient designing.

Now we're ready to make some new graphics using the shape tools.

Working with the Shape tool options

The first logo we'll make is a simple star logo. We'll be making this with the Star and Ellipse tools. Our finished logo will look like the following:

We've created shapes multiple times now by pressing and dragging with our mouse — however, that's not the only way to create a shape using the Shape tools. We can also create a shape by clicking once on the artboard with a Shape tool active. This will bring up a dialog box that will allow us to have more control over the size and specifications of our shape. Let's switch to the Star tool and try out this new method of making a shape.

The Star dialog box appears:

From here, we have precise control how our star is made. The dialog box allows us to set the inner and outer radius of the star, as well as the number of points on our star. When creating other shapes, some of the options available in the Shape dialog box will be different, but we still have the ability to create shapes that suit our specific needs.

Let's continue making the star shape — we'll create a star with an inner radius of 0.1 inches, an outer radius of 0.5 inches, and six points.

At this point, we have a star on our artboard that looks similar to the following:

Let's make it more interesting by adding color to it. We could do this by choosing a color from the Swatches panel, like we've done before, but the options here are somewhat limited. Instead, let’s use the Color Picker to choose a color. We can access the Color Picker by double-clicking either the Fill or Stroke swatches, and the Color Picker dialog box will open:

Here, we have the option of choosing a color from the color spectrum, located in the middle of the Color Picker dialog box. Once we've chosen a color from the spectrum, we can select a specific shade of that color from the color field on the left side of the dialog box. We can also enter specific values in the HSB, RGB, CMYK, or hexadecimal value fields on the right side of the dialog box to choose a specific color, if we know the values for the color we are looking for.

Let's change the fill color of our star to a shade of red, and remove the stroke color. Before we change the colors, it might be a good idea to zoom in on the star so we can see it better.

Completing the star logo

Right now, the logo looks like a star that anyone could create. We want ours to stand out a little bit. To do that, we can add small circles to the end of each point. We'll start out by making one circle; then, to ensure each circle is the same size, we'll make copies of the initial circle and place them at the end of each tip of the star. Holding the Alt key while pressing and dragging a shape to copy it will be helpful here.

Let's go ahead and do this. We'll need the Ellipse tool for this task.

The star now looks like the following:

The only problem we might have with this would be if we needed to move it somewhere else on our artboard. If we attempt to move our star, it would fall apart into seven pieces. We want these pieces to stay together in one whole unit, so let's unite these shapes with the Pathfinder panel into one shape. Just like with the pond earlier, we'll need to select the shapes we want to unite first, then open the Pathfinder panel and use the Unite option to combine the seven different shapes into one. Since we added the Pathfinder panel to the dock after uniting the shapes for the pond, we’re able to quickly access it and use it.

The star and all its circular tips are now one object. Before we continue on, we should save the document.

In the next section, we'll learn a little more about how to work with artboards before starting on the second logo.