Starting with the typestyle
When designing a logo or brand, I'll start with either the imagery or
an icon, and then create a typestyle that matches that graphic.
Alternatively, if I want the lettering to be the star of the show, I'll
focus on that first. In this design's case, I want the lettering to be
the star.
Knowing your client's target audience and then creating something
that is attractive to them is key. And it's actually more important than
creating something pleasing to the business owner. In this case, I
needed something feminine, something 'lacy', something that says
'women's clothing store'. After doing some research and creating a few
quick sketches on paper, I had the idea to make the lettering look like
ribbon, and to somehow incorporate a 'charm' image or graphic.
Understanding ribbon script
Before diving into this project, let's look at a quick trick for
creating ribbon text. Ultimately, I won't use this method to create this
client's brand; however, it will help us get in the right mindset for
creating a ribbon script.
What you want to do is create a single line cursive word. You could
try drawing one by hand and scanning it in. I prefer using the
Freehand tool
and drawing it directly in CorelDRAW (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
The next step is to duplicate that script, and then stagger the
duplicated script down and to the right. You may also want to change
the outline color of both scripts to different colors to help
distinguish the two from each other as you work (see Figure 2). A fast
way to change the color of outlines is to select the line or path that
you want to change and then right-click a color in the color palette to
change its outline color.
Figure 2
Now what you want to do is find two points from which to create a
diagonal line that will be reused to help create a ribbon effect. In
this case, I used the start of our script (see Figure 3).
Figure 3
As you can see below (see Figure 4), I duplicated
(Ctrl + D)
the gray diagonal line and reused the duplicated lines over and over
where the ribbon would normally fold over. It helps to keep the angle of
that diagonal line consistent and to also utilize
Snap to Objects (Ctrl + Z). With Snap to Objects enabled, you can snap the gray lines to the edge of the two scripts.
Figure 4
In this next step, you don't have to worry about combining the lines
because CorelDRAW has a great tool that we will use to create the shapes
that will make up this ribbon (see Figure 5). It's called the
Smart Fill tool
.
Figure 5
At this point, I will use color yet again to help me visualize this
ribbon effect. I used two shades of blue as if the ribbon were different
shades on either side. I also used yellow on the intersecting portions
for the time being. Again, I used the
Smart Fill tool to help achieve the effect (see Figure 6).
Figure 6
Now, you could weld the yellow parts to the dark blue shapes or to
the light blue shapes. Either way will work. As you can see in this
case, I chose to weld them to the light blue shapes (see Figure 7). To
weld two or more shapes together, just select all the shapes that you
want to weld, and then you will notice the
Weld button
will appear on the property bar.
Figure 7
Repeat this process for each letter to create the desired ribbon script lettering for your design (see Figure 8).
Figure 8
Combining the old with the new
I wanted to create a custom hand-lettered look and feel to the ribbon
lettering for this particular brand, so what better way to achieve that
look than to ask my father — a longtime sign painter — to work his
magic. Hand-painted lettering has a certain flow to it that can't always
be replicated with off-the-shelf fonts. Plus, I wanted to create
something truly unique, something that looks made by hand because it was
handmade (see Figure 9).
Figure 9
The problem with using the steps I pointed out earlier to create this
particular ribbon script is that by doing so I would lose the thick and
thin of the original lettering, and therefore I would lose the
character of that hand-painted script. I can, however, use what I have
learned about constructing the 'corel' to help guide me when creating
this script.
Creating the script
To start, I'll take the transparency film that my father painted on
and place it in our scanner. And then in CorelDRAW, I'll click
File > Acquire Image > Acquire.
I then select to scan the image as a grayscale image. Once the scan is
complete, the image will appear on the drawing page (see Figure 10).
Figure 10
Next, I can do one of two things; I can add a transparency to that scanned image, or click
View > Wireframe.
The goal is to make the image dull or faded so that it is easier to
draw over top of it (see Figure 11). Another tip would be to lock the
image so that you don't accidently select it when you are working on the
shapes above it. Simply right-click the image, and then click
Lock Object.
Figure 11
I like to create guidelines to help create a consistent baseline for
my script. Guidelines are easy to create in CorelDRAW. Simply click on
the ruler at the top or to the left, and drag out onto work space. Then
let go of the left mouse button to drop the dashed line where you want
it. You can always move the guideline at any time by simply selecting it
like any other shape. In fact, you can also rotate the guideline in the
same way you would rotate a shape. Click on the guideline a second time
to rotate it. In this case, I need my guidelines to be at an angle, so I
will rotate the first guideline. Then with the first guideline still
selected, I will duplicate it by pressing
Ctrl + D (see Figure 12). If you click
View > Snap to > Snap to Guidelines, your shapes and objects will now snap to your newly created guidelines.
Figure 12
At this point, I want to treat this lettering like any other
illustration that I might create. So, just as though I were creating an
illustration of a car or a person, I make good use of the
Freehand tool and also the
Shape tool
. I like to start by 'roughing out' my shapes. With the
Freehand
tool selected, when you click and hold down, the line will follow the
movement of your mouse; however, if you click once and don't hold the
mouse button down, you can create straight lines. The straight line is
completed when you click somewhere else on the screen a second time. So
by creating a series of connecting straight lines that roughly follow
the boundaries of this lettering, I will make several shapes that will
eventually comprise this ribbon script (see Figure 13).
Figure 13
Next, I use the
Shape tool to manipulate those straight lines that I just created. When you are using the
Shape
tool, you will notice the commands that relate to that tool on the
property bar above the workspace. In this case, I begin by clicking the
Select all nodes button
on the property bar. I can now click the
Convert to curve button
,
which will turn all my straight lines into curves. They will still look
like straight lines, but now when I click and pull on the center of
that line, I can pull the line into a curve. At this point, I would
recommend using the
Smooth node 
button as well (see Figure 14).
Figure 14
Next, I work my way through each letter, taking what I've learned
from creating the previous 'corel' script and applying it here. To save
time, I would duplicate letters that are used more than once, like 'e'
and 'u'. I also changed a few things that I wasn't happy with in the
hand lettering (see Figure 15 and Figure 16).
 |
 |
| Figures 15-16 |
Adding some color
Now it's time to add some color. I start by adding a background color
to work overtop of. The client requested grays and greens for this
brand, so I'm going to start with a dark gray background. I then turn
the outlines of my script to white for the time being so I can see what
I'm doing (see Figure 17).
Figure 17
Unlike the script I did earlier, I want to add some more dimension to
this script, so I'm going use gradients to help give it the appearance
of shading. I like to use the
Interactive Fill tool
to help me achieve this effect. One thing that might also help is to
create a simple reference image that could help me keep my gradients on
every letter consistent. In this case, I'll just make a ring (see Figure
18). If I was making an illustration of buildings, and I wanted to make
the angle of the light source and shading consistent, I might draw a
cube as a reference.
Figure 18
The reference circle isn't solely used as a visual aid, you can also use the
Color Eyedropper tool 
to copy the attributes from your reference and apply them to your
lettering. In the toolbox, simply click the small arrow in the bottom
corner of the
Color Eyedropper tool icon, and click
Attributes Eyedropper 
.
Then, place your cursor over the part of our reference image and
left-click. You'll notice that your Eyedropper curser now looks like a
paint bucket. You now can apply that set of attributes to any shape you
want (see Figure 19, Figure 20, and Figure 21). Before you know it,
you've got a real nice, eye catching, custom ribbon script.
Adding some imagery
Now that we have our script finalized, it's time to add the
supporting imagery. For this job, the client wanted to use a design from
one of her earrings to act as the 'charm' in this brand. The shape of
this charm was then to be used throughout the store.
First, we start by importing a photo of her earring (see Figure 22).
In my case, I have multiple monitors, so I open up the folder containing
the photo on one screen while CorelDRAW is open on the other screen. I
simply click and drag the photo file from one screen to another and onto
the CorelDRAW window. However, clicking
File > Import is also a great way to import photos.
Figure 22
With the photo imported, we can take the same approach we used before. We can 'lock' the photo, and switch to
Wireframe
view and draw directly over top of the photo; however, this particular
'charm' is pretty basic when you break it all down into different
shapes. So I use the
Rectangle tool
to create basic squares, and the
Ellipse tool
to create circles, in addition to other basic shapes to rebuild this
'charm' design from scratch (see Figure 23, Figure 24, and Figure 25).
When using the
Ellipse and
Rectangle tools, you can hold down the
Ctrl key while you drag out the shape to create perfect circles and squares. To piece these shapes together, make sure the
Snap to Objects is enabled (
Alt + Z).
For example, you can snap the center of the circles to the corner of
the square. Also, you can duplicate shapes or groups of shapes as you go
to keep things symmetrical and make good use of your
Weld,
Trim (click
Arrange > Shaping > Trim), and
Combine (click
Arrange > Combine) tools.
Once the 'charm' has been recreated, you can start adding colors (see Figure 26). I use the
Interactive Fill tool to give this design gradient shading.
Figure 26
Think about how light might interact with something metal like this.
Think about the highlights and shadows but most importantly take
advantage of your reference photo if you have one. One trick you can try
is to use the
Color Eyedropper tool to capture colors
from your reference photo and apply them to your illustration. This can
even be done with gradients. You will notice that when you are using the
Interactive Fill tool, the colors used in a given
gradient will appear on the property bar. When you select one of those
colors, a dropdown filled with more color choices will appear; however,
you will also notice an Eyedropper icon, which works the same way as the
Color Eyedropper tool. You can use that eyedropper to grab colors from
your reference photo. This is a great, time-saving feature of CorelDRAW.
Now I simply finalize the 'charm' image by adding a few extra little details (see Figure 27).
Figure 27
Then I combine both the script and illustration to finalize this logo (see Figure 28).
Figure 28
Once the logo is finished, I can use that design to create other
promotional and marketing materials, such as signs (see Figure 29),
business cards (see Figure 30), and product labels, to name just a few.
Figure 29 - The final sign for storefront
Figure 30 - Business card
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