Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Once we decide on an iteration that we like best we will merge all of our textures and logo design elements together into a final.
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
Merging our Logo - Instructions.docx61 KB Merging our Logo - Exercise.ai
15.3 MB Merging our Logo - Exercise Solution.ai
14.8 MB
Quick reference
Merging our Logo
Once we decide on an iteration that we like best we will merge all of our textures and logo design elements together into a final.
When to use
Once you have a version of the logo that you are happy with using the custom texture we can make it a more integrated part of our logo design.
Instructions
- Open the the Merging our a Logo - Exercise.ai file
- Select the third artboard and the top layer that is selected should be the texture with the Clipping Mask applied
- Let's release the mask by going to the Object Menu and choosing Clipping Mask > Release
- You can now tweak the size, placement, or color of the texture once again
- When you are happy with the texture, select the background and lock it by pressing Command/Ctrl+2
- Now select the empty background shape that we used as our Clipping Mask by clicking anywhere along the outer edge of the artboard to select it
- While the empty layer is still selected hold the Shift Key and click on the texture
- This time instead of using the shortcut, go to the Object Menu and choose Clipping Mask > Make
- Go to the Object Menu and Unlock All
- Use your Selection Tool (V) to click and drag around the third copy of the logo and then drag a copy to the right, off of your artboards while holding the Alt/Option+Shift keys
- Release the Clipping Mask on this new copy using the same menu command as before
- This time, select the texture, switch to your Eyedropper Tool (I) and sample your background color to see how you can create further iterations
- At this point we will choose our favorite version of the texture logo and then delete the others
- Cut and paste your favorite version onto the second artboard after removing all of the others and then remove the extra artboard
- Select the background in the texture version of the logo and press Command/Ctrl+X to cut it
- Select and unlock the BG Layer and then press Command/Ctrl+F to paste the background from the texture version onto this layer
- You can now lock the BG Layer again
- Rename your Iterations layer to 'Texture Logo' and your Expanded Logo to 'Clean Logo'
- Select the texture version of the logo and release the Clipping Mask for the texture using the shortcut Command/Ctrl+Alt/Option+7
- Use your regular Selection Tool (V) to select your entire logo (without the texture), which at this point should be all grouped together
- Press Command/Ctrl+C to make a copy of the logo, and then Command/Ctrl+F to paste a copy on top of the original
- Bring up the Pathfinder Tool and choose the Merge option, and if that doesn't work choose the first option to Unite
- You should now have a solid shape that is in the shape of your logo
- While the merged logo is selected, hold the Shift Key and select the custom texture
- Press Command/Ctrl+7 to apply a Clipping Mask so that the texture is no longer visible outside of the shape of the logo
- You can now delete the empty background shape that we were using as a Clipping Mask previously
- Click and drag around the whole logo and then press Command/Ctrl+G so that we can group our clipped texture with the logo
- If you want to modify the texture again, you will need to Ungroup the logo and Clipping Mask before you can release the Clipping Mask from the custom texture
- Use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to change the color of the texture to the background color and then when you are finished you will need to re-apply the Clipping Mask and re-group the texture and logo
Hints & tips
- Don't feel like you are stuck if you apply a Clipping Mask to an object because you can always release it from the Object Menu under Clipping Mask > Release
- The shortcut to apply a Clipping Mask is Command/Ctrl+7, but to release a Clipping Mask you would use the same shortcut but while also holding the Alt/Option Key
- Remember that the shape on top is the shape that is going to be used as a Clipping Mask
- 00:05 Now that we've got our clean logo and a couple of iterations to look at,
- 00:09 let's think about which one of these we wanna use as our final.
- 00:13 Now, I wanted to show you guys something else that you can do here which is.
- 00:16 If you wanted to release the mask that we've applied here, in order to move
- 00:20 the texture around, all you have to do is select it, come up to the object menu, and
- 00:25 down at the bottom here where it says clipping mask and you can choose release.
- 00:29 Now as soon as you do that, you'll be able to modify the placement of your texture
- 00:34 and rotate it, scale it up or down, pretty much anything that you wanna do.
- 00:40 Okay, so I just wanted to show that to you guys that you don't worry that
- 00:43 once you commit to this, you won't be able to change it or anything else.
- 00:48 Before we continue and make the final call here,
- 00:51 let's just think about you if there's any other options that we may wanna try.
- 00:56 So again I'll select my background layer here.
- 01:00 And I'm gonna have to lock it because I wanna put the mask back on.
- 01:02 So I'll press Command + 2 to lock the background layer.
- 01:06 And now you'll see that I have another shape selected which has no fill and
- 01:09 no stroke.
- 01:10 And that is the copy of the background that we were using as our clipping mask.
- 01:14 So again, I'll select the texture, and this time come up to the object menu,
- 01:19 choose Clipping Mask and then Make, all right?
- 01:24 And now, I can unlock everything and there we go.
- 01:28 So I just want to show you guys how you can release equipping mask and
- 01:31 edit the contents, so you don't have to feel stuck.
- 01:34 And if you wanted to try even one more version, you can select this whole group
- 01:38 here, hold down Alt option and Shift and drag it over.
- 01:42 So, let's again try to release this clipping mask and
- 01:46 let's say this time instead of using our Midtown orange colour
- 01:49 we actually wanted to use the background colour.
- 01:51 Now similarly to how we can only see this Midtown orange in our darker and
- 01:56 yellow areas, we can now only see our texture on the lighter areas or any area
- 02:01 that is not a dark shadow colour and doesn't match the colour of our texture.
- 02:07 So this is, one more iteration or possibility that we can look at it, it's
- 02:11 either one of these three, I think that this one might be a little bit too much,
- 02:15 now that I've looked at it for a little bit longer.
- 02:18 So I think one of these two may be the way to go.
- 02:21 And it's really just a question of where do you wanna see the texture?
- 02:24 Do you wanna see it in the darker areas, or do you wanna see it on the And
- 02:29 I kinda feel like this is probably our winner here that we wanna use.
- 02:34 So let's go ahead and bring up our layers palette.
- 02:36 And I'll just come up to the window menu and choose layers.
- 02:39 Or you can use the shortcut, the Fn key + F7.
- 02:43 So for simplicity sake, now that we know which version we're gonna go with,
- 02:47 we can actually get rid of this middle one.
- 02:50 And we'll just copy our contents of our third art board and
- 02:53 paste it here onto the second one.
- 02:56 Now we can just go ahead and delete this third art board,
- 02:58 by grabbing out art board tool, clicking on this third art board and deleting it.
- 03:03 Now one other thing we wanna do here before we merge it together is select our
- 03:06 background from our iteration, and I'm going to press command and X to cut it.
- 03:11 Come over here to my BG layer, unlock it, and then press Command + F.
- 03:16 So we'll now have both of our backgrounds on the same layer, essentially.
- 03:21 So I'm going to rename the ITERATIONS layer to TEXTURE LOGO, go ahead and
- 03:25 click on this box here and
- 03:27 release the clipping mask by pressing Command, Control plus Alt Option and 7.
- 03:32 Or you can use the menu shortcut that I showed you before,
- 03:35 clipping mask released under the Objects menu.
- 03:38 What I wanna do from here is actually instead of using the background as a mask
- 03:42 is using the whole logo itself.
- 03:45 So I'm gonna select the logo, press command +C, then command+F to
- 03:48 paste it in the front, and I'll bring up my pathfinder and merge it all together.
- 03:54 Now if that doesn't appear to be doing anything,
- 03:56 we can just choose unite, and that's going to make this all
- 03:59 one shape filled with solid white that you can see here.
- 04:02 Now, while that's selected, hold down the Shift key and
- 04:05 select your texture, and then press command control plus 7.
- 04:09 All right and now,
- 04:10 you've basically applied your texture to only the inside of the logo.
- 04:15 So it's no longer appearing outside of it, which is good because if we put this on
- 04:18 a different coloured background or anything like that, you won't have to
- 04:22 worry about the texture spilling it over, you can handle it separately.
- 04:26 So, that's exactly what we want.
- 04:29 All right? And now I can zoom out a little bit,
- 04:31 select the whole group here, except for the background.
- 04:34 And it looks like I still have this shape here, the copy of the background, so
- 04:39 I'm going to delete that.
- 04:41 And, now I can select it all again and just press Command+G to group it together.
- 04:46 And we've now got our textured version of the logo.
- 04:50 So we have our clean version here, which we can now just rename to CLEAN LOGO.
- 04:55 And we have our texture logo along with our background layers.
- 04:59 So we've now kinda merged all of that together.
- 05:03 And the reason that I'm not actually merging the texture with this is because
- 05:07 it's nice to have the option if we want to To come back in here and
- 05:11 maybe release the clipping mask and move this texture around if we wanted it.
- 05:16 So I can select that, I can ungroup it and then I
- 05:19 can move the texture around some more before applying the clipping mask again.
- 05:25 Okay, so that what you guys still have a little bit of flexibility,
- 05:28 you don't have to totally commit to that.
- 05:30 Or you are ready to apply the layer mask again.
- 05:32 Just make sure that you're selecting the solid shape that has no fill in stroke.
- 05:37 Hold down Shift to select the texture and press Command+Ctrl+7 or
- 05:41 come up to Objects, Clipping Mask and Make, okay?
- 05:47 But before we wrap this up, I just wanna take one more look at this and
- 05:51 maybe see how it looks again having a different colour.
- 05:54 Because I'm thinking I might, I know I'm kind of going back and
- 05:57 forth on this a lot because I wanna see some different looks here.
- 06:01 But I'm actually thinking that maybe now, releasing the clipping mask and
- 06:05 using the background texture might be the way to go because
- 06:08 it actually adds some texture and breaks up all of this orange in here.
- 06:12 So, let's try that out and just zoom out a little bit to take a look.
- 06:16 I think it actually looks pretty cool.
- 06:18 It adds a bit of texture on the bull, which I think is kind of nice because
- 06:22 before, only seeing it in the shadow areas,
- 06:25 seemed a little too subtle like it might get lost, actually.
- 06:28 So, that's one of the nice things why I'm glad I didn't merge this together.
- 06:32 Instead just using the entire logo as a clipping mask.
- 06:35 So, I'm going to commit to this change for now and let me go ahead and
- 06:39 lock that layer.
- 06:41 Be sure to save your work guys as you're working, and
- 06:43 we can now begin thinking about how we want to present our logos
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