How To Manipulate & Customise Typography For A Logo

do you struggle with creating a distinct logo and not have a clue where to start when manipulating typography well in this video i'm going to be diving deep into typography manipulation sharing some tips and the tools that i frequently use and hopefully giving you the confidence when doing this yourself this is probably my most highly requested video so if you're ready let's get into it so if you're new to this channel then hey my name is abby and i'm a brand designer from the uk and i've worked with hundreds of businesses creating their brand identities and logos so i am really into a manipulating typography if you've watched some of my previous videos you will notice that i really go into detail when manipulating text and logos and creating something distinct for a brand i also really really enjoy doing this process and it's probably up there with one of my favorite things when creating the logo so the best place to start is actually figuring out why we need to customize and manipulate typography so simply just using a font will not set you apart from any other brand or business as a designer you should always be striving to customize your type and create something distinct for your client also customizing a font allows you to truly be one of a kind and it takes the pressure off from another business or brand having a similar logo or font to you so i'm going to jump straight into adobe illustrator which is where i design all of my logos and branding for clients i'm then going to choose some different typefaces and letters and show you exactly how i manipulate typography and create something custom using the right tools so first we are diving into a serif typeface and it looks okay as it is at the moment but it makes me excited because there's so many things that i can do to it i kind of like working with something more minimal so i can start adding to it and really manipulating and tweaking the text so the first thing that i do when dealing with typography is look at the tracking so at the moment it is set to zero and i'm going to change it to -25 so that um it kind of looks a little bit more closer as it is quite wide apart the next thing that i do is i actually go and see what glyphs they have so if you haven't worked with glyphs before they are basically a shape design or representation of a specific character so some fonts have them some fonts don't but they basically add something quirky a little bit different to each letter so i always check to see what glyphs are available and if you don't have it on your toolbar you can go to window type and then find the glyphs there so once you've had a look just get a feel for what glyphs are around you can always go back to these later i definitely normally include some of the glyphs within this if i feel like they add value to the typography i also kind of like making my own glyphs to it just to make it a lot more custom so next thing i do is i will drag over the font just so i have it there in case i forget it once i have outlined it so i press command shift and 0 to get it outlined so i can go in and then start tweaking the typography so the next thing that i do is i will take a step back look at the letters and see which ones need to be tweaked not every letter obviously needs to be customized but it is good to sort of know which ones you're going to tweak so looking at this just um as the word good i think that the two o's can be left as they are because they create something really nice and symmetrical and then the g and the d can definitely be tweaked i've mentioned it before but g is really nice to tweak and i can definitely create my own tail to the g so i'm going to amend the g and the d so the first thing that i'm going to do is grab my pencil tool i use the pencil tool loads when dealing with typography and creating my own lines so i'm just grabbing that and i'm going to actually take the tail off so i'm just doing up the lines there and this allows me now to actually create the own tail of the g which is going to be quite fun so once i've got the line exactly how i want it i'm just grabbing the width tool which is to left-hand side and this tool is incredible if you haven't used it already go and try it out it basically allows you to thicken up the line in specific places so you can pick up different angle points different sections of the lines and it just adds some really nice thicknesses to the line the g is now done and it's in a place that looks really really nice so i've used quite a few tools here to get it to how i want it to be i'm now going to move on to the d and see if i can manipulate this the thing i'm thinking of is actually using a glyph from another letter so i'm pretty sure there was an m or an n that had a really nice sort of tail to it that sort of swooshed up so i feel like that could look really nice on this d so i'm gonna go over to the glyphs i'm gonna find um the glyph that i wanna use i'm just gonna use it on another letter so if there isn't say for example a d that has a glyph you can make your own by actually using other glyphs within other letters so i'm just gonna move it to place it on top of the d outline it i'm gonna grab my eraser tool i'm just going to raise off the bits that i don't need and keep the swoosh of the tail just going to drag it on top of the d now and place it to exactly where i need it line it up where the original swoosh was so that it doesn't look out of place and it looks like it is a part of the font so once i've sort of got it lined up you can either go in with a few different tools you can use a shape builder tool you can use a pencil tool you can use a direct select tool whatever works for you when getting rid of bits and pieces just figure out um i kind of like to use the pencil tool and the direct select tool and just sort of do it by hand because the pencil tool i find quite easy to use so i'm just using the eraser tool to raise out the bits that i don't need and then i'm just going to go in with the direct select tool and move this up to a line with the extra swoosh now um and just go in and make sure it looks like it was meant for this font [Music] [Music] so i've added that swoosh on now and it actually looks really good with the g as well everything is sort of customized so once you've done that and you're happy with your shape i like to use the pathfinder tool and basically just put everything together so they're not in different selections i'm just outlining the stroke of the g which allows me to now use the pathfinder tool to connect everything it actually turned out really good and this was such a good example of how to customize the font i'm going to put the two goods next to each other so you can see exactly what has been changed what i've manipulated and how just by using little tools like the width tool the direct selection tool can go such a long way when creating custom fonts okay so next i have chosen a type base and i'm actually going to be showing you how you can completely change the look of a typeface by using one tool so i'm actually going to be using the direct selection tool which is such a good tool if you just want to slightly tweak something um so i'm going to show you how we can transform this type so i have got my type here and i'm basically going to just outline it so we have the anchor points i'm going to grab the direct selection tool now and i'm just going to go in to each of the anchor points and just move them in slightly to keep everything consistent so something to consider when you are manipulating fonts is that you keep each letter consistent with one another so you're actually keeping the same characteristics on each letter so for example if i make the stalk or the letter wider in a part you want to make sure that all of these stems or wherever it is are consistent with this this just allows the mind to sort of be at ease because everything looks like it's meant to be there there's nothing worse when you've got one letter that is out of place that just doesn't follow the rules of the other letter so when you are designing and make sure you have this in mind if you are making thing customs and you are tweaking things okay i'm taking another sans-serif typeface now but i'm just going to use one letter and see if this can be manipulated by using a range of different tools i'm going to be using the pathfinder tool direct selection the smooth tool and just the overall tools that i would normally use when manipulating a letter so i have got the g here and i'm just going to copy this across and make this into an outline i think this is a really good exercise to do if you're wanting to sort of learn to manipulate a lot more basically just take the letter of the alphabet and see how many times you can actually manipulate it into different versions this will help you pick up skills along the way with manipulating typography as well as using new tools and figuring out what works best for you so with this g now i am probably gonna use the pathfinder tool i'm basically gonna create a rectangle and this allows me to divide the object away from it have a play around with the pathfinder tool if you're not sure there are different options for you to subtract divide and combine so i'm just going to use this tool to get it to exactly how i want it and see exactly how i can manipulate this so i've just got the direct selection tool and i'm moving it down a little as it felt too high on the g so i've created a rectangle and i'm going to actually use the pen tool and add some anchor points on this just allows me to move sections of the rectangle that i have chosen i kind of want the stem of the g to move across slightly just to give it a little bit more direction another useful tip that i have learned so obviously i didn't go to university i didn't actually learn the termination of the typography and i actually found a really good and handy online tool so if you google interactive typography cheat sheet there is a website called code pro 8 it is the top one that comes up for me and it is basically an interactive typography cheat sheet that allows you to click on sections of the typography and you can actually learn the terms of it so for example if i was to click on the bottom of the g this is called the loop where the g loops round the part of the t which is the arms that stick out are called the arms the bottom of a y is called the tail and so on i think it's just good to know these terms so if you are speaking to a client you can use the right termination when describing parts of the typography and it makes you sound a lot more professional so going back to the g now um i've just moved this over and i'm just using the pencil tool to kind of get the bottom of the g looking a little bit better probably go in with the smooth tool now just to smooth it out as it does look a bit funny and i'm just going to continue getting this to how i want it i've noticed on this g that the corners are quite rounded so the bits that i have added i'm actually just using the direct selection tool picking the anchor points on the inside and just making them rounded so that the letter does feel consistent and nothing feels out of place so that is the g done now and subtle tweaks have turned it into a completely different g it looks quite cool actually and i'm quite impressed with that so that is the g complete now and as you've seen i've used a few tools to get it into something that is completely different this is now a customized g that could be used for a logo mark it could be part of a logo whatever it is that g is now custom and distinct to whatever brand it would be and it's actually crazy these subtle tweaks that you can make can just change the type or a letter completely so lastly i'm gonna be demonstrating how you can adjust a script font now so we've done the sans serif the serif and now we are gonna move on to the script one so you will find that the script fonts normally have the nicest glyphs because there's a more you can sort of do to it there's more swells and they just honestly look incredible so when you are dealing with a script one make sure you go and check out what glyphs they have um this one that i have chosen is a b and we are using the font beloved script and as you can see there are lots of different glyphs lots of beautiful bees that we will be sort of adjusting so i'm just going to choose one at random i'm going to outline this and i'm going to get on with trying to create this custom b so the first thing that i'll probably do is grab the eraser tool i'm gonna sort of pick sections that i'm gonna get rid of and we'll just have a play around and see what sort of bees i can come up with so once i've got the section cut off i'm actually gonna go in and use a tool that i haven't spoken about which is the curvature tool which is basically the pen tool but allows you to create some really beautiful curves so you can basically just click around to where you want it and create a beautiful curve which can be moved wherever or whenever you want so once you've got the curve you can go back into the curvature tool and it will pick up points for you to basically move it around and whilst you're moving it around it will keep really nice curves for you so with this one i'm just going to actually duplicate it a lot of times and see exactly what additions i can make from the bee i do normally do this when i do client work i normally duplicate the logo or whatever and see if there are different ways that i can sort of manipulate different letters and then i'll basically go into the one that pulls me in grabs my attention and i will continue working on that one it's always good to just have a play around do as many as you want and see which one works and what doesn't i also find by just doing lots and lots of different versions of the letter that you choose it can actually spark new ideas and new ways of doing things so don't hold back don't be afraid to just do loads of different letters loads of different logos and then choose the one that sits right with you so i'm just playing around with the curvature tool still i'm going to actually go in and sort of amend the thickness i'm going to use the width tool on this one get it to different thicknesses obviously i am amending the thickness of my own line so it does mean to keep everything consistent i'm going to go into the outlined line and i'm going to actually thicken up parts thin some parts out so that it does look consistent through this mark so that is the two b's next to each other and it looks really nice with the different thicknesses on the front once again this is a great way to show you exactly how things can be manipulated and show you the frequent tools that i use okay so that is the video over and i have gone into a lot of detail about the tools that i use the process that i use when manipulating typography hopefully this has given you an insight into that and answered any questions that you have if it hasn't let me know if you have any questions and i will answer them in the comments let me know what your favorite tool is when you customize typography and if you have enjoyed this video make sure to give it a big thumbs up and hit that subscribe button if you want to see some more content just like this you

Channel: Abi Design

Views: 36,545

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Keywords: logo design ideas, graphic design software, graphic design is my passion, graphic design tutorials, abidesign, abi design, illustrator tutorials drawing, abi design branding, typography, manipulating typography, customising a logo, adobe illustrator draw tutorial, graphic design full course, logo design process, graphic design tutorials for beginners, logo design illustrator, adobe illustrator logo design, best logo design fonts, typography logo design illustrator, logo design

Id: wCkM5zJooYY

Length: 16min 9sec (969 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021