Quick Logos with Live Trace in Adobe Illustrator

Very nice way to create some different/cool art.

Rather than selecting white – direct select an area (select same fill color) and delete to use different photos on different colored backgrounds. Finally then try different blend modes at step 6. Neat and versatile.

thanks dear. what a maxxa design.

I’m just learning Illustrator and this is great! thanks so much

[...] Quick Logos with LiveTrace in Adobe Illustrator: by Corey Barker [...]

The tutorial is very cool. I tried it for about an hour and for whatever reason I had to use the multiply blend mode to get an effect. When I used overlay I just got a different shade of the color.

I followed the directions to the tee, but then again I do not know Illustrator well.

Any suggestions???

When converting to grayscale you might want to make sure your picture has a good contrast so the end result will be better.

I had some difficulty with the transparency step. It didn’t seem to work as described in the tutorial. I just got bright yellow shapes instead of nice variations of color even when I applied the overlay blending mode to the black to white gradient fill. Perhaps there is a setting I don’t know about? Has anyone else had this problem?

I am missing something, when I “ungroup” and then select the white background, and delete, my logo dissappears? I am left with a plain white area and no logo?

thanks

I had the same problem as Amanda in the transparency step from the circle/sun. Any clue why several of us had this problem?

Quick logo? Ha! Is this a joke? This is why the graphic design industry sucks. Sorry, but that is no logo at all.

Please, accept the critic. That’s not a logo. It’s not even close to a logo.

I tried this too just for fun and I couldn’t get the opacity to work with overlay as well. I used a image with good contrast and when I applied the transparency my shape/image was just yellow. I feel pretty confident with illustrator since I use it daily, and this wouldn’t work at all. Can someone please post up that it works with overlay and how, I am curious to know if this works at all.

You Rock!

Thanks for the tip

@ German: Stop calling yourself “German” – you give people like me a bad name with your rude behavior.

Great Tutorial – as always guys.

@ Illustrator: I’m sorry, that’s my name: Germán. And it’s not a rude behavior, please accept criticism. By the way, that’s not a logo, and that it’s not the process to get a logo. Maybe a traced illo, but a logo, never. And if you think this is a “great” tutorial, stop calling yourself “Illustator” you give people like me a bad name with your ignorance.
And yes, maybe I’m rude, but I’m tired of finding lots of crap in this kind of tuts sites.
Have a great day, anonymous illustrator.

Everybody relax! To some, this is a great tutorial that showed them something they didn’t know about Illustrator. To more advanced users, it’s useless drivel. While agree that it is fairly overblown to be called a logo, it is just a means to show the tools available. The point is, everyone needs to start somewhere and these are the kind of tuts that help. And everybody knows that Canada is the true seat of evil.

I found this website very helpful and it’s managed by some great people who loved to educate and spread knowledge. The GERMAN person who has commented on this If you are so capable of doing something and you do have more knowledge why comment on somebody’s work and not to conduct something better and teach people . But i guess it takes time, money and great courage to keep up the good work but i guess criticism is easier to do which you have chosen.

“Please accept criticism”
That’s a funny one. The problem is you didn’t criticize at all. All you did was making fun of a process that could lead into the design of a logo. If you would know how to criticize you would have picked up the flaws of the tut by stating that the process itself is very well explained but that most logos can be reduced to a much more simplistic design.
Stating that “This is why the GD industry sucks…” or “That is not even close to a logo” without giving any reasons for your statement is not criticism but mental garbage.
If you know how to do it better, please feel free to write a tutorial and post it to the community.

I would have to agree that something seems to be missing to produce the color variation we see in this tutorial. I could not achieve the same results using “overlay” in Transparency.

As for German’s comments, there seems to be an individual like this in every forum. Since the tutorial really concentrates on the utilization of “Live Trace” is German’s point even valid? It’s certainly not important enough to “flame” anyone, be it the author of the tutorial or someone who posts.

On further experimentation, I was able to duplicate closely what this tutorial had done with the addition of an opacity mask for the grayscale. There might be an easier way and I would be interested in learning it.

I found this tutorial very frustrating & misleading!!

More power to Chip & German (see comments above) who have also been frustrated & called it as it is!!!

Why waste everyone’s time with tutorials that do not work?

Like most comments found on this page – the overlay blend step DOES NOT WORK. I can only replicate this effect (as shown) by taking it into photoshop. When using the multiply blend mode (using illustrator) you get an effect nothing like what is shown in this tutorial’s step by step images. Personally I think that overlay step effect was executed in photoshop!

It is sad, but I suspect the author of this tutorial must get their rock’s off watching all the personal slanging that has followed this misleading tutorial.

Otherwise, I think the “OVERLAY” problem would have been clarified/ rectified by now!

[...] 1. Quick Logos with Live Trace in Adobe Illustrator [...]

Wow, this is interesting. I’ll try this one right now.

The overlay doesn’t work. How can achieve the same effect???

Instead of Overlay try Multiply under the transparency menu… I had the same trouble with the whole image disappearing with Overlay. But Multiply for the win.

Although being a Graphic Designer myself, this type of logo is a bit lamo. Still helpful tutorial.

I’m ashamed at some of you. Why is it necessary to slam somebody’s work, rather than just say “I found an error” or “I found something that didn’t work the way you said,” and then offer or ask for a possible solution? This is one reason why I do NOT read most comment sections. Too many immature people who should know better, and only want to try to make themselves feel superior by slamming someone else’s work or techniques. I read the tutorial, try it for myself, and if it doesn’t work, I either figure out why or go back to the author if possible to ask why it didn’t work.

Having said that, I am a first-year art/web design student and personally, I appreciate the time and effort he put into this tutorial. I learn a lot from these (or I don’t if they truly are bad), but I don’t waste my time and be incredibly rude by cluttering up the comment section with immature garbage, trying to make him or her feel bad.

I DID learn some new things from this tutorial, things I can apply to other work and helps me learn Illustrator and, just incidentally, get better grades in my art classes. So, Corey… from me to you, thank you!

I’m currently working on this particular tutorial and have come close to the end result. As a first year design student I enjoy tutorials such as this one. Tutorials allows me to expand on the basics I learn in school. Please keep a watch out for a future post, Once I figure everything out about this tutorial I’ll be more than glad to post tips that I used.

Hello! If you have problem with blendings try not to use CMYK, couse blendings dont work property in this mode. Use RGM color mode and overlay will work great.

Thanks jacek, didn’t think about that. It’s been so busy with school I have not had the time to work on this tutorial anymore. I just happen to check it back out and found your posting. Thanks again.

Awesome tutorial. A lot of fun to do. Thanks for sharing!

A very poorly written, confusing and frustrating tutorial.

If you are having problems following this you are not alone.

I’m still a novice with Illustrator, am lucky enough to have CS4….. and I got thru this tutorial twice, in different color combinations with the same original image – I used a colorful fish, deleted its background but kept the ‘floor’ beneath it…… I’m an experienced designer and even I could make this work, and tho I did leave the cmyk, maybe the suggestion for the rgb would work better or differently. The main thing to learn from this tut is the Live Trace thing – THAT’s very cool!!! Thanks

I am having the same problem as Carl, who wrote the following comment: “I am missing something, when I “ungroup” and then select the white background, and delete, my logo dissappears? I am left with a plain white area and no logo?”

I am able to select specific little areas, drag them out of the picture, then the picture area where they were becomes white. But that just looks weird.

My question is, how can I do the second part of Step #2? Please help me!