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How to Create a Twitter Icon
We’re going to create a shiny Twitter icon like the one you see here on the upper right hand corner of this blog. We will be using Adobe Illustrator CS4 to demonstrate this tutorial.
Open up a new web document in Adobe Illustrator and press D to reset your fill and stroke colours back to their defaults. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool and draw a square. Before releasing your mouse you can press up or down on your keyboard to adjust the radius on all the corners. Hold Shift as you draw your shape to constrain the proportions. This should give you a perfect square with rounded corners.
Press V to activate the Selection Tool and click on your square. Now press G to activate the Gradient Tool. Double-click the middle of your square and the gradient annotator should appear. If you’re having problems getting it to come up you can just open up you Gradient Panel, select Linear Gradient under the drop down menu then press G.
The gradient annotator is like the gradient slider found on the gradient panel. The circle on the left is your point of origin. You can drag it with your mouse to move the annotator around. The arrow on the right can be dragged left or right to shorten or lengthen the slider. If you place your mouse just on the tip of this arrow you will see a rotate icon which will allow you to rotate the annotator.
Double-click on the first colour stop to the left of the annotator. Under Web RGB type in this hex code #63D2F4. On the second colour stop furthest right give it this hex code #10B8EC.
You can remove the stroke of your square at this point. Press X once or twice and then /.
Select your square copy it (CTRL+C) and paste it on front (CTRL+F). Now you should have 2 squares one on top of the other. We need to decrease the size of the square sitting on top by Holding SHIFT+ALT then grab the bottom right corner and slowly bring it towards the middle of the square.
The other elegant way to do this is to select your initial square, on the toolbar select Object > Path > Offset Path. On the Offset Path pane click on preview so you can preview the desired effect. Type in a value between -5px to -2px depending on the size of your square as your Offset value then click OK.
Once you have your 2 squares, press R to activate the rotate tool and rotate your inner square 180 degrees to the left while holding down SHIFT.
Now select both squares and rotate them both 90 degrees to the right while holding down SHIFT.
Download the twitter font and install it in your OS.
You may need to restart Adobe Illustrator so it can load up your new font so save your work before you restart.
Lock the layer where your 2 squares are then create a new layer on top.
Press T to activate the type tool. Under the character panel look for the font Pico Black. Type in the letter “t” in the new layer. Now right-click on the “t” and select Create Outlines.
Resize the “t” until desired size while holding down SHIFT. Give it a white fill and a stroke point of 4pt (it may vary depending on the size of your “t”). Now give the stroke colour a hex code of #2CB7E2.
Press A to activate the Direct Selection Tool. Click on your “t”. Notice the tiny points all over it. They are called anchor points. Select the 10 anchor points furthest to the right with the direct selection tool. You can select them all by bounding them in a box using your mouse instead of clicking the points one by one.
Now with your keyboard press on the right arrow key to drag the anchor points to the right. Keep doing so until you get your desired look. Re-position the “t” so it’s sitting in the middle of the inner square.
Create a new layer on top of the other 2. This is where we are going to put our shine effect. Now lock the “t” layer and unlock the layer with the 2 squares.
Select the inner square copy it (CTRL+C) and paste it on front (CTRL+F) on the new layer you just created. Now you should have a 3rd square and is sitting in the new top layer.
Press L to activate the Ellipse Tool. Draw an ellipse shape just above the 3rd square.
Press V to activate the Selection Tool. Select both the ellipse and the 3rd square. Press and hold SHIFT+CTRL+F9 together to bring up the Pathfinder Panel or on the toolbar select Window > Pathfinder. Under Shape Modes select Intersect.
Your new compound shape should still be selected if not select it and press G. You should see the gradient annotator. Rotate the annotator 90 degrees to the left while holding down SHIFT. Re-position the annotator by dragging the point of origin and resize it using the arrow.
You can achieve the same effect by using the Gradient Panel, selecting linear gradient and giving it a 90 degree angle.
Double-click on the bottom colour stop and give it a white colour.
Now adjust the opacity down to 50% or until desired effect. We’re done!
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Written by Angelo Beltran
Angelo Beltran is a freelance designer who recognizes that design and marketing are one and the same. He's passionate about branding and corporate identity. Follow his tweets over at Twitter.
2 Comments
Robert said...
Nice, and helpful tip’s I am going to try to do it.
Angelo said...
Thanks Robert! I’m glad you like it.
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