Final Image

Take a look at what we will be creating.

Preparation

There isn’t much preparation needed for this tutorial. All you need is Illustrator CS4 or CS5 and a beginning to intermediate knowledge of how to use the program.

Step 1

With the Line Segment Tool (/), create a path that is about 80 px tall. Make sure the new path has a 1 pt stroke and change the stroke color to an orange.

Step 2

With the line selected, choose Effect > Distort and Transform > Transform. In the Transform Effect dialog, change the number of copies to 6, select the bottom center reference point in the Reference Point Locator, and set the Angle to 60. Generating six copied will place one copy in front of the original. We want to do this so we will have a complete blend in the next couple of steps.

Step 3

With the transformed line selected, choose Object > Expand Appearance and Ungroup (Command +Shift + G). Change to stroke colors to primary (red, yellow, blue) and secondary colors (orange, purple, green).

Step 4

Select all the strokes and choose Object > Blend > Make (Command + Alt/Option + B).

Step 5

Create an ellipse within the blend with the Ellipse tool (L) centered over the blend. Select the ellipse and blend and choose Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Command + 7).

Step 6

Create another ellipse about half the height and slightly smaller width as the previous ellipse. Place it close to the top side of the masked blend. Change the fill of the new ellipse to a linear gradient and in the Gradient panel, change the Location to -90, change both colors stops to white, change the opacity of the second color stop to 0, and change the middle point Location to 30.

Step 7

Copy (Command + C) the highlight ellipse and Paste in Front (Command + F). Move and rotate the copy to the bottom side of the mask blend. Change the first color stop in the gradient to a light gray and set the Blending Mode to Multiply from the Transparency panel.

Step 8

Create another ellipse about the size of the main masked blend and fill it with a radial gradient. Make sure the first color stop in the radial gradient is black and the second is white. Squish the ellipse and place it behind all other artwork. Set the Blending Mode of the ellipse to Multiply and change the opacity to 50 percent.

Step 9

Now that we have the color wheel done, we can concentrate on the eyedropper. Create a rectangle with the Rectangle tool (M) about three fourths the height of the color wheel. Create another smaller rectangle about a fifth the height of the main rectangle and half its width and place at the bottom of the main rectangle.

Step 10

Select both rectangles and press the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel. Next, choose Effect > Stylize > Round Corners. In the Round Corner Dialog, change the Radius to 3 px. Next, choose Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 11

Copy (Command + C) the eyedropper shape and Paste in Front (Paste in Front). Create another rectangle that covers the bottom part of the eyedropper. Select the main copy and the smaller rectangle and press the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel.

Step 12

Create a rectangle towards the top of the main eyedropper shape. Make the new rectangle about double the width and one sixth the height of the main eyedropper shape. Next, choose Effect > Stylize > Round Corners and in the Round Corner Dialog, change the Radius to 5 px.

Step 13

Create another rectangle slightly wider and about a fourth the size of the main eyedropper shape. Place the shape towards the top of the previous rectangle and round the corners 15 px.

Step 14

Select the top eyedropper shapes and go Object > Expand Appearance. Next, go Object > Path > Offset Path and in the Offset Path dialog change the Offset to -2 px. This value might be different depending on the original size of your shapes.

Step 15

Now that we have all the shapes done for the eyedropper, we can place them over the color wheel we already created. Creating the shapes and not filling in before we place the dropper makes it easier to see the white and transparency parts of the gradients when we fill them. So, place your eyedropper shapes over the color wheel at a 45 degree angle.

Step 16

First, select the smaller rectangle and its offset from the top of the dropper and go Object > Arrange > Bring To Front (Command + Shift + ]). Select the original top shapes (not the offsets) and fill with a linear gradient. Change the first color stop in the gradient to a dark gray and the second color stop to black. Change the Angle to -90 in the Gradient panel.

Step 17

Select the offsets of the upper rectangle shape and fill with a linear gradient. Change both color stop in the gradient to white. In the Gradient panel, change the opacity of the first color stop to 80 and the second to 0. Change the Angle to -90 and change the middle point Location of the gradient to 15.

Step 18

Select the main body of the dropper and fill with a linear gradient. For this gradient we are going to add three more color stop giving a total of five. Add these color stop by clicking right below the Gradient Slider in the Gradient panel. Once you added the color stop, change the first stop to gray, the next three to white, and the last one a dark gray. Change the Opacity of the first white color stop to 56 and change the Opacity of the third white color stop to 35. Change the Location of the first white color stop to 12, the Location of the second white color stop to 30, and change the Location of the third white color stop to 63. Change the Angle of the gradient to -45. Finally change the stroke to white and press the Align Stroke To Outside button from the Stroke panel.

Step 19

Select the shape at the bottom of the drop and fill it will a linear gradient. Change the first color stop to white and the second to a gray color. From the Transparency panel, change the Blending Mode to Multiply.

Step 20

Select the main small rectangle from the top of the dropper, Copy (Command +C), and Paste in Back (Command + B). With the copy still selected move it slightly down. Select the main dropper shape, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Front (Command + F). Select both copies and press the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel. Change the fill to a light gray color, change the Blending Mode to Multiply from the Transparency panel and slightly scale it to fit over the stroke of the main dropper shape.

Step 21

Select the main dropper shape, the main top shapes, and Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Back. With the copies still selected, press the Unite button from the pathfinder panel. With the Selection tool (V) move and rotate the new shape clockwise to create a shadow of the dropper.

Step 22

Create a ellipse the size of the color wheel, select the ellipse and shadow shape, and Intersect them.

Step 23

Select the new shape and go Object > Arrange > Send Backward (Command +[) until the shape is behind the original eyedropper shapes. Fill the shape with a linear gradient, change the first color stop to a dark gray, and the second color stop to a light gray. Change the Blending Mode to Multiply from the Gradient panel and you are all done!

Conclusion

That wasn’t too bad was it? This tutorial uses some pretty basic concept that can easily be applied to other vector illustrations, icons, and more. What can you come up with?

To win a set of 1,000 business cards from Ink Chaser, all you need to do is leave a comment below and tell us what you would do with the cards.

Up for Grabs

• 1,000 business cards from Ink Chaser (x2)

Rules

• Leave a comment to enter.
• Tell us what you would do with some free cards.
• Only comment once.
• Tweet This message to your followers! (optional).
• Please leave a valid email address so that we can contact you.
• This is a 5-day contest. Entries will be accepted until Friday, September 3, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST.
• Free shipping to U.S. residents only.

Good luck everyone and don’t forget to check out Ink Chaser for your business printing needs!

Deposit Photos is a source for royalty free photographs and vector images. They have a vast library of stock images coupled with a wide variety of purchasing options. This makes them a very reasonable tool for designers, artists, and photographers. For more information regarding Deposit Photos, check out their website.

Up for Grabs

• $50 worth of stock images (x2)

Rules

• Leave a comment to enter.
• Tell us which category is your favorite.
• Only comment once.
• Tweet This message to your followers! (Optional).
• Please leave a valid email address so that we can contact you.
• This is a 5-day contest. Entries will be accepted until Friday, August 27, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST.

Winners Announced

Congratulations to Brian Lucas and Sierra. You have won $50 worth of stock images from Deposit Photos. We have sent them your contact your information and they should be in touch soon.

Wix is a free website builder tool, for quick and easy creation of quality Flash websites. Wix’s advantage is that it’s search engines friendly, allowing you to create a website that looks great without knowledge of coding or programming. The welcoming editor is a simple drag n’ drop tool that makes life easy and fun.

The Premium Combo Package has several added benefits:

• A possibility to use your own domain (instead of a domain that starts with wix.com/your website’s name.
• Wix ads free – removes the Wix ads from your site’s footer and sidebar.
• Remove Wix logo – removes the Wix logo from your site including favicon and loader.
• Google Analytics – Google Analytics is a powerful tool for analyzing traffic to your Wix website.
• You can track site visitors, where they come from, how long they stay, what keywords they use to find your site and more.
• 1GB storage – Increasing your storage space will enable you to upload large files and high-resolution content with ease.
• 1GB Bandwidth – Increasing your bandwidth will allow more data to be transmitted at a faster and smoother speed.
• Premium support.
• 125$ voucher – $75 Google AdWords voucher + $50 Facebook voucher + free domain coupon + tips on how to use your vouchers & info on connecting your Wix site.

To learn more about Wix, the free website builder, visit their website.

Up for Grabs

• 2 Premium Combo Packages for Wix.com ($99 value)

Rules

• Leave a comment to enter.
• Tell us what you would do with your new flash website
• Only comment once.
• Tweet This message to your followers! (Optional).
• Please leave a valid email address so that we can contact you.
• This is a 5-day contest. Entries will be accepted until Friday, August 20, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST.

Update: Winners Selected

The winners of a free 1 year premium account on Wix.com are: Jason Sargent and Amy Swindle. Congratulations! We have forwarded your contact information to Wix and they should be in touch shortly with details regarding how to redeem your winnings.

There are sweeping generalizations and stereotypes for each of us, some true, some not. What follows is some insight (albeit slightly tongue-in-cheek) into what makes us tick in the hopes of creating- or furthering- a symbiotic relationship between writers and designers.

Give feedback to us as you’d like it to be given to you

This kind of goes along with the whole “do unto others” saying that gets thrown around a lot. Feeback is great…everyone needs it. And like designers, most of us are not overly-sensitive. But throwing something back to us with a huffy “yaaa…NO” doesn’t get either of us anywhere. And it makes you look like a jerk. So if you’re the point-of-contact with the client and have the clearest idea about what they want copy-wise, steer us in the right direction…with a smile.

We aren’t basing characters on you for our “All-American Novel” (all of the time)

Ha! This is my favorite one because I’ve been asked this a number of times. So many times, in fact, that when I came across a “Be careful or you’ll end up in my novel!” t-shirt I had to pick it up. The truth is, like you, we draw much of our inspiration from everyday life. So if we happen across you, and you happen to be a colorful character (whether positive or not), your “type” may crop up in a future piece. Have no fear, though. Names and identifying characteristics will be changed to protect the innocent-and the guilty.

We appreciate flexibility

This one can be a bit tricky. We know your work is pretty labor-intensive at times and involves many moving pieces. But you sometimes change things after the fact, right? It’s the same with us. There are times when we write something and once you put it into the design, it just doesn’t feel or sound right to us anymore and we want to tweak it. As long as we’re not over-doing it, please grin and bear it.

We don’t know HTML and chances are we don’t have Photoshop so everything we do that is picture or graphics related is in a (yikes!) Microsoft program

Maybe some writers do and I would love a lesson! I consider myself to be pretty proficient in blogging platforms but I’m mighty thankful that the “kitchen sink” dashboard exists because if it didn’t there wouldn’t be anything but miles and miles of 12pt Times New Roman text. In fact, I was once asked to submit something in HTML and I copy and pasted it into WordPress, formatted it as needed, clicked to the “HTML” tab on the dashboard and then copy and pasted that back into a Word doc. I’m sure I was the laughing stock of their office for a long time.

Give us specific space limitations

It helps to know ahead of time how much room we have to work with. Don’t just say “you have 4 inches for text.” Give us an idea of the number of lines based on the font and the size of everything. That makes a big difference.

Politely listen to any “look” related ideas we may have. We will do the same.

Do we expect you to incorporate everything we suggest? Of course not…you’re the expert. We acknowledge that in most cases we have no idea the amount of time and work that goes into something that looks fairly straight forward to us. But we’re not morons either and we’ve been around the block a few times (be careful with that one!) so we’ve seen our share of designs. We may surprise you and actually have an artistically, feasible idea!

We aren’t as different as you may think. We’re both artists…we just create with words.

We appreciate and recognize your talent. That is all I will say about that one.

Conclusion

Whew! I hope I cleared the air! Did anything I’ve written above surprise you? Maybe or maybe not. What it comes down to is that we’re both working towards the same goal: to make the world look –and sound- better, one project at a time.

You can also find over 11,000 vectors to choose from depending on your needs: from vintage vectors, business vectors, people vectors, abstract vectors, vector backgrounds, buildings vectors, music vectors to seasonal vectors and even free vectors to help you in your design work. Moreover, every month they add new vector images to keep the content fresh in the library.

Take a look at some of what Vectorious has to offer: