1 [CREATE NEW RGB DOCUMENT]
Choose File>New, select Basic RGB from the New Document Profile pop-up menu, and click OK. Open the Symbols panel (Window>Symbols), then click the flyout menu and choose Open Symbol Library>Grime Vector Pack.

2 [DRAG SYMBOL ONTO ARTBOARD]
Next, click-and-drag Grime Vector Pack 09 from the Grime Vector Pack panel onto the artboard. Go up to the Control panel and click the Break Link button. This will turn the art into a regular shape rather than a symbol instance. Open the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches) and choose a bright green color for the shape.

3 [DRAG SECOND SYMBOL ONTO ARTBOARD]
Go back to the Grime Vector Pack panel and click-and-drag Grime Vector Pack 10 onto the artboard. Once again, click the Break Link button to turn it into a regular shape. Then choose a red color for this shape in the Swatches panel.

4 [TURN SHAPES BACK INTO SYMBOLS]
At this point we have two splat shapes: a red one and a green one. With the Selection tool (V), take these shapes and turn them back into symbols by dragging them into the Symbols panel. In the Symbol Options dialog that appears, choose Graphic and give each symbol a name. This will also turn these existing shapes on the artboard into symbol instances.

5 [CHANGE PERSPECTIVE OF SYMBOL]
Select one of the shapes and choose Effect>3D>Rotate. This will allow you to rotate the object in 3D while still being 2D. In the 3D Rotate Options dialog that appears, you can grab the cube and rotate the object freely, or you can input the numbers manually for exact positioning (click the Preview checkbox to see your changes). To rotate the object on a specific axis, place your cursor where any two sides of the cube meet in the dialog. The colored lines correspond to a specific axis, as indicated on the right. As a final touch, set the Perspective to 100° to give it an exaggerated perspective that adds more interest.

6 [APPLY SAME ROTATION TO SECOND SYMBOL]
Repeat Step 5 for the other symbol to apply the same 3D rotation, then position them so they overlap each other, as shown here. If the perspective seems off, you can always modify the 3D settings of either symbol. To do this, select a symbol, open the Appearance panel (Window>Appearance), and click the 3D Rotate effect.

7 [ADD TEXT; CONVERT TO OUTLINES]
Select the Type tool (T) in the Toolbox. While you may use any word you like, we’ve chosen to be obvious and use the word SPLAT! We’re using a very bold font called Rockwell Extra Bold. Switch to the Selection tool, then go into the Swatches panel and choose a color that will go along with the red and green; we’re using blue. Now convert the text to outlines by choosing Type>Create Outlines.

8 [POSITION TEXT]
With the Selection tool, position this text over the 3D splats and resize to taste. Then, choose Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel. What we need to do here is use the current 3D splats as a guide for the perspective. You can grab the cube and position the text in 3D. Notice we set the Perspective to 125° for a more exaggerated look. Also, set the Extrude Depth to 40 pt. Next, click the More Options button to reveal the lighting controls. Grab the light handle on the sphere and position it so it’s front and left of the sphere in relation to the text itself. Click OK.

9 [ROTATE LETTERS]
We have the text in 3D, but it needs something extra because it looks like it just slammed down on the floor. Because the 3D effect is a live effect, we can modify the original shapes of the text and it will be updated as we change them. Grab the Direct Selection tool (A) in the Toolbox and select any one of the letters. Then grab the Rotate tool (R) and give the letter a slight turn. The 3D effect will redraw based on the new position. Do this to a couple other letters, slightly varying the rotation.

10 [ADD SHADOWS]
Select the Pen tool (P) in the Toolbox and set the Fill color to black up in the Control panel. Draw some shapes at the bottom of the letters that conform to the contour somewhat, as these will be shadows. Once all the shapes are done, choose the Selection tool and Shift-click each shadow area to select them. Open the Transparency panel (Window>Transparency) and lower the Opacity to 50%. Now we need to put these shadow shapes behind the letters. Click on a letter with the Selection tool and choose Object>Arrange>Bring to Front.

11 [MAP ART]
Let’s go back to those colored splats we created earlier. We’re going to make it appear as if some of the color splashed up onto the letters. With the text still selected, open the Appearance panel and click on 3D Extrude & Bevel. In the 3D Extrude & Bevel Options dialog, click on the Map Art button to open the Map Art dialog. The current surface is indicated by a red outline on the art itself. To get to the front face of the letter P, toggle through the numbered surfaces at the top of the Map Art dialog until the red outline selects it.

12 [ADD SPLAT COLORS TO LETTERS]
With the P selected (the outline, not the solid), click the Symbol menu and find the splat symbols. Select the green one and it will apply to the letter. If the graphic comes in really big, click the Scale to Fit button at the bottom, then drag it toward the bottom of the letter. Make sure the Preview button is checked so you can see the result. Use the control handles on the bounding box to resize and rotate the symbol as necessary. Continue to add these splats to other letters and this will result in a cool splash effect on the text.

Final Image

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2 [TYPE THE ALPHABET]
Select the Type tool (T) and choose a typeface in the Control panel that your font monster will be based on. In this tutorial, we’re using the notorious Comic Sans (Bold) just for fun! Drag out a big box to the right of your artboard, and type the alphabet in both lowercase and uppercase. Also type all of the numbers and special characters. Don’t click anywhere just yet.

3 [MAKE USE OF THE GLYPHS PANEL]
Look in the Glyphs panel and you’ll notice a lot of unfamiliar characters, but you’ll want to use these characters in your design, so go ahead and double-click on any characters that you find useful. If you’ve clicked outside of the text box, simply use the Type tool and click back in the box, then double-click on the glyph characters.

4 [CONVERT TEXT TO OUTLINES]
Now you need to create outlines of the characters so that you can use them as objects rather than as a typeface. Choose the Direct Selection tool (A), click once on the type, then Control-click (PC: Right-click) and choose Create Outlines from the list. You’ll notice that all the objects are in one group. We need to separate each character, so Control-click (PC: Right-click) again and choose Ungroup. Each character can now be selected on its own.

5 [CREATE A BACKGROUND]
Click the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to create a new layer. Choose the Rectangle tool (M) and drag out a large rectangle over the whole artboard. This will be the background and mood of your piece, so if you’re creating a happy monster, go for a happy color; if you’re doing an angry or sad monster, try red or blue. The choice is yours. You can change this color later; it’s only here to set the mood of the piece. To change the color of the rectangle, select it, click on the Fill icon in the Toolbox, then choose a color from the Swatches panel.

6 [LOCK THE BACKGROUND LAYER]
With the background created, you’ll want to leave this layer on its own so you can create a more complex background at a later time, if you choose to do so. This is just good practice. Click-and-drag the background layer to the bottom of the layers stack in the Layers panel. It’s also a good idea to rename the layers. Do this by double-clicking on them and naming them in the dialog that appears. Now click once in the empty square to the right of the Eye icon to lock the background layer.

7 [GET INSPIRED]
When designing, gathering inspiration from a number of sources can be beneficial because it helps guide you in the right direction and gives you a base for your designs. Go forth and get inspired by whatever you have nearby. You can even draw your own robot at this stage; it’s up to you. In this tutorial, we’re continuing with the comic theme (hence Comic Sans), so for inspiration we’re using a jester illustration from iStockphoto. For easy reference, put the image on your Illustrator artboard. This is also a good time to save your document.

CREDIT: ©ISTOCKPHOTO/JOE PERAGINO

8 [DRAG CHARACTERS ONTO ARTBOARD]
With the artboard set up, now comes the fun part—designing the font monster! Now drag some letters onto the artboard to start creating your character. To do this, use the Selection tool (V), hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key, and drag a letter from the right side of the artboard. Holding down Option (PC: Alt) as you drag copies the character, which means you’ll be able to use the character more than once. Copy the characters that you think will work to the appropriate positions (i.e., match shapes to the body parts).

9 [RESIZE & REPOSITION YOUR CHARACTERS]
In the previous step, we positioned the characters in what we thought could work in relation to our font monster. Now let’s resize each of the characters to the right proportions. Click once on a character, press-and-hold the Option-Shift (PC: Alt-Shift) keys, and drag the corner of the character to resize it proportionally from its center outward. To reposition a character, simply click-and-drag it to the new position. Repeat this for the rest of the characters in sizes you think will work best. Remember to save your document.

10 [ROTATE YOUR CHARACTERS]
With some of the characters in place, we have a general idea of what position they need to be in, so we can begin to rotate them. Click once on a character with the Selection tool and then press the R key to select the Rotate tool. Click-and-drag to rotate the selected character in a position you think will work. When finished with that character, press V to choose the Selection tool, click off the artboard, and click on the next character you’d like to rotate. You may also want to resize the characters while rotating; just follow the directions in Step 9.

11 [REFLECT YOUR CHARACTERS]
Another thing that comes in handy when creating illustrations is the reflection command. Notice that we’ve used two Ls for the legs; however, the foot on the left is facing the wrong way. We can reflect this L shape and make it face the other direction. With the Selection tool, click on the character, then Control-click (PC: Right-click) and choose Transform>Reflect. Enter the appropriate settings and voilà, your shape will be flipped! You can also use the other commands under the Transform function to manipulate and, strangely enough, transform your shapes.

12 [ADD TO YOUR MONSTER]
Repeat Steps 8 through 11 and let your creativity run wild to create your own font monster. For the advanced users, you may be interested in using the Pathfinder panel. Try selecting a combination of letters and experimenting with the Pathfinder commands. If you need more help with the Pathfinder panel, click Help>Illustrator Help and type in “pathfinder.” Keep experimenting and repeating these steps and you’ll have a font monster in no time.

ALL IMAGES BY JACOB CASS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

I couldn’t come up with a super-cool or classy name for this effect, so I just called it what it is: a really cool, swirly border design effect. These swirlys and flourishes have become quite popular lately and you’ve probably seen different ways of creating them. We’re going to show you a way that’s not only easy but also fun. Do enjoy!

1 [CREATE A ROUNDED RECTANGLE]
Choose File>New, select Basic RGB from the New Document Profile pop-up menu, and click OK. Click-and-hold on the Rectangle tool in the Toolbox, select the Rounded Rectangle tool from the menu, and click once on the artboard. A dialog will open where you can manually enter the dimensions for your rounded rectangle. Enter a Width of 725 pt, a Height of 285 pt, and set the Corner Radius to 15 pt. Click OK.

2 [APPLY FILL & STROKE TO SHAPE]
With the shape created, we need to change the color. Open the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches) and choose the brown swatch labeled R=117 G=76 B=36 for the Fill color of the shape. In the Control panel, set the Stroke color to none.

3 [CREATE SMALLER ROUNDED RECTANGLE]
With the Rounded Rectangle tool, click on the artboard once more. This time set the Width to 650 pt, the Height to 225 pt, and keep the Corner Radius at 15. Click OK. This will create a similar shape that’s a bit smaller than the first.

4 [APPLY FILL TO NEW SHAPE; ALIGN SHAPES]
In the Swatches panel, choose the tan swatch labeled R=199 G=178 B=153 for the Fill color of this shape. Set the Stroke color to none. Switch to the Selection tool (V) and select both shapes. Use the alignment icons in the Control panel to center the shapes: Horizontal Align Center and then Vertical Align Center.

5 [COPY SMALLER RECTANGLE; PASTE IN BACK]
Press Shift-Command-A to deselect the shapes, and then use the Selection tool to select just the front smaller rectangle. Choose Edit>Copy to copy this shape to the Clipboard. Now choose Edit>Paste in Back to place the duplicate one level behind the smaller shape but in front of the larger shape.

6 [SELECT FIRST TWO SHAPES AND LOCK]
While this new shape is still selected, hold down the Shift key and drag a selection from outside the shapes into all of the shapes. This will select the two other shapes and deselect the one inner shape. Then go under the Object menu, under Lock, and choose Selection. This will lock these shapes in place so we don’t change or move them accidentally.

7 [SELECT CENTER SHAPE]
Now drag over the shapes once more. You should only be able to select the inner shape that’s in between the locked shapes. You can test this by dragging the object to the side just a bit to make sure the other shapes are locked. Simply press Command-Z (PC: Ctrl-Z) to undo the move.

8 [SET OPTIONS FOR TWIRL TOOL]
In the Toolbox, click-and-hold on the Warp tool and select the Twirl tool from the menu. Double-click this tool in the Toolbox to open the Twirl Tool Options dialog. Here you can change the brush size and intensity, among other things. Change the Intensity to 40%. For the brush size, enter a starting value of 125 pt for both the Width and Height. Click OK.

9 [TWIRL THE CENTER SHAPE]
This next step can be a bit tricky and it may take a few tries. It did for me. Anyway, start at the upper-left corner and position the cursor so it’s about two-thirds over the shape. Then click-and-drag the Twirl tool up and to the left. The twirl will start the moment you click and will change as you drag. Try this a few times to get a feel for it. As I said, it may take some practice.

10 [CREATE RANDOM TWIRLS AROUND THE SHAPE]
You’ll notice that the twirl direction is counter-clockwise by default. To reverse the direction, simply click to start the twirl and then immediately hold down the Option key (PC: Alt key). Continue to randomly twirl different areas around the shape, varying the directions as you go. You can also vary the size of the brush by pressing-and-holding the Option key (PC: Alt key) and clicking-and-dragging. Add the Shift key to maintain the brush’s proportions.

11 [CHANGE TO OVERLAY; ADD DROP SHADOW]
Select the swirly object, and then open the Transparency panel (Window>Transparency). Change this object’s blend mode from Normal to Overlay. As an optional step, go under the Effect menu, under Illustrator Effects, and choose Stylize>Drop Shadow. Depending on the shape and size of your swirls, the shadow settings will vary.

12 [ADD TEXTURE TO FRONT SHAPE]
Go under the Object menu and select Unlock All. Select the front shape. Go under the Effect menu, under Photoshop Effects, and choose Texture>Texturizer. Select Sandstone for the Texture drop-down menu, set the Scaling to 200%, Relief to 5, Light position to the Top Left, and click OK. All that’s left is to add text or whatever elements you would like inside your new really cool, swirly border design.

Final Result

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

1 START WITH A PHOTO
As mentioned above, it all starts with a photo. We’ve placed (File>Place) our photo of a dancer into a new Illustrator document. We just want to make this a simple black-and-white graphic, so with the photo selected, click the Live Trace button in the Control panel to invoke the default settings.

2 TWEAK THE THRESHOLD
Depending on your photo, the graphic may need some tweaking. In the Control panel, locate the Threshold field, click the arrow to its right, and adjust the slider to increase or decrease the setting. You’ll see the graphic change as you do this. Find the setting that makes the graphic the most appealing. For our image, we used a setting of 83.

3 EXPAND THE SHAPE TO A STANDARD OBJECT
We want to edit the vector object itself but, because the graphic has been traced, we’ll have to expand the shape from a Live Trace Object to a standard object, so click the Expand button in the Control panel. Sometimes the graphic will be grouped by default: Simply go under the Object menu and choose Ungroup.

4 DELETE ANY STRAY WHITE SHAPES
Now, there may be some stray white shapes that you can’t see. Just click inside any white areas and if one is selected, go under the Select menu and choose Same>Fill Color. This will select all the other white-filled shapes. Then just press Delete (PC: Backspace). All you should have left are the black shapes (as shown here). (Note: If you have any stray black areas outside your object that you don’t want as part of your design, delete those as well.)

5 CHOOSE DOT PATTERN VECTOR PACK
Now we’re done with our main graphic, so let’s add some elements to jazz it up. Open the Symbols panel (Window>Symbols), click on the flyout menu (top right), and choose Open Symbol Library>Dot Pattern Vector Pack. Select the first Dot Pattern named Dot Pattern Vector Pack 01 and drag it into the artboard.

(Note: If you don’t have Illustrator CS4, click here.)

6 BREAK LINK, COLOR, AND SEND TO BACK
Because this is a symbol instance, we need to break the link to the master symbol so we can edit the graphic. Do this by clicking the Break Link button in the Control panel. Now, open the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches) and click on a light-gray box to apply that color to the graphic. Using the Selection tool (V), place this graphic over the traced graphic and scale it as needed. Then go under the Object menu and choose Arrange>Send to Back. (Note: If you can’t see the dots behind your object frame, make sure your Fill is set to None in the Control panel.)

7 APPLY A GRIME VECTOR PACK
Go into the Symbols panel flyout menu again and this time, choose Open Symbol Library>Grime Vector Pack. In this panel, click on the Grime Vector Pack 09 symbol and drag it to the artboard. As we did in Step 6, click the Break Link button to make this an editable vector shape.

8 FILL THE GRIME SHAPE
In the Swatches panel, we chose the blue swatch (C:70, M:15, Y:0, K:0) to fill the grime shape and add to the “edginess” of the design. Of course, you should try playing with other colors to change up the feel of your graphic.

9 PLACE, DUPLICATE, ROTATE, AND SCALE SHAPES
Place this shape over the working design. Then, while holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key, click-and-drag the shape to create duplicates, and position these duplicate shapes so that they somewhat cover the traced figure. Vary these shapes by rotating and scaling them so the overall shape is more appealing (as shown).

10 BRING TRACED SHAPE TO FRONT
These grime shapes need to be behind the traced shape but in front of the dot graphic. Select the traced shape, go under the Object menu, and choose Arrange>Bring to Front. If needed, reposition the blue shapes to reveal certain parts of the figure.

11 SELECT GRUNGE BRUSH VECTOR PACK
Now open the Brushes panel (Window>Brushes). In the Brushes panel’s flyout menu, go to Open Brush Library, then Vector Packs, and select Grunge Brushes Vector Pack. Click on the Grunge Brush Vector Pack 07, then choose the Paintbrush tool (B) from the Toolbox.

12 ADD SOME GREEN STROKES
In the Control panel, click on the Stroke icon (second from left), then click on the green swatch (C:50, M:0, Y:100, K:0) to set your stroke to that color. Now, using the brush we selected in Step 11, paint random strokes around the subject, as you see here. If the stroke seems too small, just double-click the brush in the Brushes panel to open the Art Brush Options dialog, and enter a new percentage for Width. Vary the illusion of depth by sending some of the strokes behind the other shapes.

13 ADD SOME TEXT AND YOU’RE DONE
That pretty much does it. All that’s left is to add some text (we found a cool grunge font over at www.daFont.com) in a color from the overall design, and there you have it.