GETTING STARTED
November 03, 2019
PART 01 - HOW TO CREATE AN ORNATE LOGO DESIGN
Hey Guys!
A few months ago we launched Heritage Type Co. and first of all I want to thank you all very much for your great support and all the messages, comments and emails we receive daily! A lot of you were asking for a tutorial about vintage logo design so I decided to create this step by step guide to show how you can use the graphics and fonts we create at Heritage Type Co.! That being said I want to point out that this tutorial only shows one of many possibilities how to use our products.
For this tutorial we work with our Vintage Font Bundle and an illustration from our Wild Animals Illustration Set. The software we use is Adobe Illustrator CC. The Logo we create is a custom project for a bar & restaurant called The Black Tiger.
So let’s get started! First of all it is always good to look for inspiration. I mainly use Pinterest to look for nice vintage graphics, labels or letterheads. We have a nice collection of vintage designs here for example: Vintage Advertising
Here are a few examples of inspirational images I've collected for this logo design.
It is really hard to start from scratch so I definitely recommend to do a small sketch before you start any detailed design work. This doesn't have to be a perfect drawing. Simple lines are completely fine. Later you will see that this will make the process much easier. So go this little extra mile and give it a chance ;)
I use an iPad here but pencil and paper are totally fine as well. As you can see the sketch is really rough and far away from a perfect drawing. But it is far enough to get an idea of how text and elements should be arranged.
Let's open Adobe Illustrator. First, create a black background layer. Make it black because later on we want to use this logo on a dark background. However, this is totally up to you. Place the sketch on a second layer, make it transparent (30% for example) and lock these layers by clicking next to the eye icon in our layers window. Add two more layers: one for our graphic elements and one for our logo design.
Now, we copy all the ornaments and elements from the products within the Vintage Font Bundle on our graphics layer and place it next to the sketch. This helps to get a better overview. (You can find the ornaments and elements within the 'Extras' folder of each item.)
Also, let's create three color swatches – gold, white and black. These will be our main colors for the logo. From now on, every time we add an element to the design, pick one of these prepared colors. I recommend to switch on 'Global'. This will make it easier to change colors later. Mostly there are predefined color swatches within your color window. You probably won't need any of these so you can delete them.
Tip: You can find more information about color swatches here: Use and create swatches
Tip: Here is another detailed tutorial about colors and strokes provided by Adobe: Change color and strokes
Hide your sketch and graphics layer for a minute, go to your 'Design' layer and type in the logo text. Then, create three different text fields using the Type Tool (T). Here we choose the Royal Signage font for the main text and Old Erika for the subhead. (If you are not sure how to install the fonts, please read the Font Guide PDF, from the documents folder within your download files).
Tip: I prefer to work with high font sizes, because this makes it easier to work on details when you zoom in later.
Now we add some special glyphs to make the lettering more exciting. If you are using the newest version of Adobe Illustrator, you can simply mark the letter you would like to change and a little menu will appear with all your options. Another possibility and the best way for older versions is to open the Glyphs panel by clicking on Type –> Glyphs on your top navigation. You can add the alternate characters by double-clicking a letter within the Glyphs overview and it will show up in your text field.
In the next step we add a simple drop shadow to our main words. Click on the text field –> Copy (Command+C) and Paste in Place (Command+Shift+V). Give it a different color, move it a little bit to the side, right click and choose Arrange –> Send to Back. Like you can see in the second picture, now we already have a shadow by simply overlapping two elements. However I want to have more like a shadow line here, so we repeat this and finally get three elements on top of each other. For the middle one choose the background color and for the one in the back we choose gold.
So this was Part 01 of my tutorial about ornate logo design! I hope you enjoyed and of course, if you have any questions or feedback, please comment below and I'm happy to help. The next part is going to show you how to work with our ornaments and other graphic elements to decorate our logo design ;)
Check the other parts of this tutorial here:
PART 01 - ORNATE LOGO DESIGN, GETTING STARTED
PART 02 - ORNATE LOGO DESIGN, ADDING ORNAMENTS
PART 03 - ORNATE LOGO DESIGN, FINE TUNING
PART 04 - ORNATE LOGO DESIGN, FINAL FILE PREPARATION
PART 05 - ORNATE LOGO DESIGN, COLORS AND EXPORTING FILES
18 comments
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your great product!
Thomas Ambrosino
June 13, 2022
I love what you are doing, Thank you so much.
Thomas Ambrosino
June 13, 2022
Great Tutorial :) Love this website!!!!
Robin Dreher
November 25, 2021
I purchased the package today and absolutely can not wait to use it. first job will be designing my own business logo. :) love the tutorials very nicely done thank you Tobias Soul
hayden
August 31, 2021
I also vote for Affinity Design tutorials if possible.. and I also would buy a lot more design materials if I could understand better how to use them on AD.
Dave
August 26, 2021
Another vote for Affinity tutorials.
Tinker Hamilton
July 15, 2021
Really cool stuff! I also request tutorials in Affinity. I know that it is not your job to teach us how to use design software; however, the more success that we have the more products that we can justify purchasing. Thanks again for all of your tutorials and cool products!!
Kent
July 09, 2021
I’d like a tutorial on how to create the ornate borders in Illustrator.
timothy
May 17, 2021
I bought this, really excited to use.
But there is a lot of issues trying to get this to work.
I wish there were more tutorials on how to make this work.
Jacob Lehew
March 16, 2021
I agree with Jason, please consider enabling us Affinity users to be able to create using your stuff. I used to use Illustrator when I worked in the industry but now, I am unable to afford the costs of illustrator (plus I don’t agree with the subscription, cloud etc) Affinity has been a welcome addition to my learning. I am now able to revise my old career using a well affordable solution but unable to follow or use a lot of these amazing bundles due to incompatibility. This bundle was at an amazing, affordable price but I wouldn’t be able to use it properly.
Terri McLoughlin
February 22, 2021
Monika – I haven’t used these specifically but you’ll need to copy your text layers, ‘outline’ them and then use the Shape Builder tool to remove the areas of the lowest text layer that need to be transparent.
Sam
January 15, 2021
Hey, I really enjoy using all the bundle. This stuff is lovely. I am preparing design for t-shirt print. Could you help me? i know you use background color for he middle text but can i make middle text transparent so that i can see only main text and lines around so that i can use the design for any background t-shirt?
Just using Sheri’s comment but yeah, the same.
P.S. It was your ad on Instagram that made me take a look, and in the end buy these fonts. Well done.
Monika Kowalska
October 08, 2020
Great tutorial! Thank you!
Jennifer Harris
August 05, 2020
Hey Jason,
Thank you very much for your comment! We know there is a lot of different software out there and we will definitely do some tutorials for Affinity in the future too. For the moment I recommend to check out the Affinity tutorial section, I’m sure they have some nice tutorials too: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/tutorials/designer/desktop/
Thanks,
Tobi
Tobias Saul
April 13, 2020
Thank you very much Sheri & Chris :)
Tobias Saul
April 13, 2020
I desperately need to see video tutorials of how to use this stuff in Affinity Designer. I have purchased many of the fonts and bundles but find the instructions on how to use them nearly worthless for getting a final end result that looks anything like what is advertised. Please, someone, anyone, make some video tutorials on this stuff used with Affinity Designer!
Jason Hankins
April 13, 2020
As a ‘do-it-myself’ type of guy, I appreciate your tutorials. They, along with the Vintage Font bundle, give me the freedom and knowledge to create the design I’m looking for.
Would totally recommend.
Chris Brown
April 13, 2020
Your tutorials on “ornate logo design” were not only very helpful, but they were just the thing to encourage me to purchase the “Vintage Type Bundle” and a few other “necessary” :) items.
Your typographic artistry is unmatched and it is a joy to be working with your beautiful, product. Your aesthetic quality and attention to detail does not go unnoticed. Much deserved success!
Thank you! Sheri
P.S. It was your ad on Instagram that made me take a look, and in the end buy these fonts. Well done.
Sheri McCulley Seibold
March 12, 2020