“There’s no place like home…”Dorothy whispered those words, and with three clicks of her sparkly rubyslippers, she was back in Kansas again. It’s an iconic movie moment, one wecouldn’t neglect in our series of Wizardof Oz-themed tutorials.
So in this tutorial, we’ll walk through creating a typographicillustration using the “NoPlace Like Home” quote. Since The Wizard of Oz film is set in the early 1900s (and L. FrankBaum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, thenovel it’s based on, was published in 1900), we’ll be using a vintage style inspiredby typography from thatera.
1. Get Inspired
Check out these typographicpieces from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Vintage Me Oh My, ablog that curates examples of vintage graphic design, is agreat resource ifyou’re looking for authentic inspiration.
I know some of these look prettyornate and complicated, but rest assured—we won’t be using pen-and-ink orpaints to craft our design by hand like they did back then. However, we willborrow some simplified shapes and styles, and apply some neat tricks andtextures to give our final result an antique, hand-drawn look.
2. Set Up
Step 1
Before we get started, you mightwant to download the resources we’ll be using to complete the tutorial. They’reall free, and you can download them at the links below:
- Fonts: Harrington, akaPosse, Fletcher Gothic, Smythe
- Textures: Vector Texture Pack, PaperTexture
Also, don’t forget to downloadthe graphics that go with this tutorial (see the Download Attachment buttonto the right). Inside the file, you’ll find several decorative elements that I’vecreated to expedite the process, since we’ll be focusing mainly on thetypography for this particular project.
Envato Market also has a big collection of different textures and texture packs, which you might want to consider for a variation on this design.
Step 2
Open up an 8 x 10 in. document in Adobe Illustrator.It’s always a good idea to create your project in a size that’s easy to printand frame, in case you end up wanting to hang it up yourself, give it as a gift,or even sell it as an art print.
Next, we’ll set up the background in preparationfor arranging our typography. We’ll place all our elements in black to startout, and add color later.
Step 3
Place the ruby slipper graphic(from the attached file) and size it (proportionally, holding down Shift) tofill most of the bottom corner of the page. Use the Ellipse Tool to draw acircle to fill most of the width of the page (mine is 530 px in diameter).Position it to overlap with the slipper just below the ribbon.
Step 4
Adjust the stroke on the circle to 10 pt. Seewhere the circle overlaps with the shoe, cutting through the white space aroundthe ribbon? Select the Path Eraser Tool (you’ll find it under the Pencil Tool;click-hold, and a secondary menu will pop up) and, making sure the circleis still selected, erase the part of the circle that overlaps.
3. Arrange the Typography
Before we begin this section,make sure you’ve downloaded and installed all the fonts we’ll be using (linked above under“Set Up”).
Since “home” is the focus of thisquote, we’re going to make it the focal point of our illustration. It will bethe biggest word in our layout, and we’ll place it first, then arrange the restof the words around it.
Step 1
First, type a capital 'H' by itself, since it will bein a different typeface than the rest of the word. We’re using Harrington as our font,at a size of about 305 pt. Place it in the bottom left of the circle.Then type out 'OME'in all capitalletters—this time, using akaPosseat a smaller size, 128 pt.
Step 2
Next, we’re going to add a warp effect to 'OME' so its shape matches the slant of the slipper. Go to Effect >Warp > Rise and set Bend to 36%.
Step 3
Open the Character menu and change the Trackingsetting to 75 to make the spacing between the letters a little wider. After youdo this, 'HOME' probably won’t look centered within the circle anymore, butthat’s all right, because we still have a couple of adjustments to make.
Step 4
The 'H' seems a little lightweight next to the boldletters of 'OME', so fatten it up a bit by adding a 7 pt stroke, the same way weadjusted the stroke on the circle earlier.
Now, to me, the 'H'looks too wide, so I clickedon it and pulled in one of the middle handles on the side to make it a littleskinnier. That way, I was able to move the 'H' down to fill the bottom corner ofthe circle a little better. As a last small adjustment, I clicked on 'OME' and,using one of the corner handles, rotated it slightly counter-clockwise so the 'O'dips down and fills that angle created by the 'H' and slipper. After you’re done,you should end up with something like this:
Step 5
Type out 'like' in lower caseletters, choosing the font Smytheat 110 pt.
Now, warp the text like we did for 'OME', going toEffect > Warp > Rise and setting Bend to 30%.
Position it down in the cornercreated by'HOME', leaving about as much vertical space between 'like' and 'OME' as thereis between 'OME'and the slipper.
Step 6
Type out a capital 'P'using the font Fletcher Gothicat 200 pt. Add an 8 ptstroke. Position the'P' so its stem lines up diagonally with the 'H' as shown below.
Type out 'LACE' in capital letters,using akaPosse at 110 pt.
Apply a warp effect to 'LACE' (again using Effect> Warp > Rise), setting the Bend to 57%. Don't click OK yet... this time, we’ll also adjustanother warp setting, the Horizontal Distortion. This makes the letters getslightly larger as you move left to right. Set that to 25%.
Step 7
Type out 'no' in lowercaseletters, using Smythe at 75 pt.
This time, instead of warping theword, we’re going to rotate it and shear it, which will make it look italicized.
First, rotate 'no' counter-clockwise so it’s atapproximately the same slant as LACE.Then, select Object >Transform > Shear and type 20 into the Shear Angle box.
Position 'no' approximately inthe center of the white space remaining at the top of the circle. We’ll be addingembellishments around it later.
Step 8
We’re going to place 'There’s' inthe top corner of the page, using more shearing and warping effects, so itwraps around the curve of the circle.
Type out a capital 'T'usingFletcher Gothic at 205 pt.
Notice how the 'T' has a little curved piece on the end? We want that curve to match the curve of thecircle, so we’re going to shear it, just like we did with 'no'.
First, rotatethe 'T' counter-clockwise, so that curveon the bottom aligns with the slope of the circle. Now select Object >Transform > Shear and type 30 into the Shear Angle box. This will straightenthe 'T' back out, while keeping that curve at the bottom.
Step 9
Move the 'T' to a place where the bottom curve fitsthe edge of the circle nicely. Rotate slightly or adjust the length to improvethe fit if you like.
Type out 'here’s' using Smythe at 110 pt. Rotatecounter-clockwise to fit in the space between the 'T' and the circle.
Step 10
Select Object > Transform > Shear and type 15into the Shear Angle box.
Step 11
Select Effect > Warp > ArcLower and change the Bend to -30%.
And here's what we've got so far:
4. Add Color
Now we’re at the point where weget to add some finishing touches that really pull the design together—first,color. Our color palette is inspired by a vintage poster from 1893 by Frenchpainter Jules Chéret.I think it will work nicely for this project, with a combination of the red (Wehave to have “ruby” for that slipper, right?) and muted colors that will helpcreate an antique look. You could also try any other color scheme that strikesyour fancy, if you’re so inclined.
If you’d like to try this one,below you’ll find the hex codes for each color that you can plug intoIllustrator’s Color Picker window(just select the object you want to apply a colorto; double-click on the Fill square at the bottom of your toolbar; and in thenew window that opens, type the code into the box that has a number sign infront of it). Once added, you can drag a color from the Fill square into yourSwatches menu for easier access.
Step 1
First, select everything you have on the page sofar (Command/Control-A) and select Type > Create Outlines.With everything still selected, go to Object >Expand Appearance.
Because the circle, the 'H', andthe 'P' all have strokes, we have to do a little extra to get them ready for acolor change. Select all three (you can hold down Shift as you click to selectmore than one object at once), and then go to Object > Expand. Making surethe boxes labeled Fill and Stroke are both checked, click OK.
Step 2
Now go to Window > Pathfinder, and in the windowthat pops up, select Unite (the first button in the top row). This will put allthree items in a group, which we don’t want, so go to Object > Ungroup.
Step 3
First, we’ll add a neutral background. Create anew layer and drag it down to be the first/bottom layer. In this layer, using theRectangle Tool, draw a rectangle the same size as the page using the beige color, #EFEAD9. Lockthe layer so it doesn’t move around on you (in the Layers panel, click theempty box next to the eye icon).
Now, select the slipper and click Object > Arrange> Bring to Front. Then change the color to the red, #E8412F.
Select 'HOME', 'PLACE', and 'There’s'.Change the color to the navy blue, #213552.
Select the circle, 'no', and 'like'. Change the colorto the lavender-gray shade, #8A6E78.
5. Apply the Finishing Touches: Textures & Other Embellishments
We’re going to be adding a fewdifferent types of texture to give our design a vintage, inky, printed look.
Step 1
Illustrator’s Roughen tool is oneof my favorites. You can use it to give the objects or text in your design someroughness around the edges—from subtle to dramatic. Let’s try it:
Select everything on the page. Go to Effect >Distort & Transform > Roughen. Play around with the settings until youlike the amount of roughness it creates. After clicking OK, if you want to trydifferent settings, you can adjust them by going to Window > Appearance andclicking Roughen, which will re-open the window. You can see the settings Ichose in the screenshot below:
Step 2
You probably noticed that Iincluded several decorative elements in the same file where you got the rubyslipper illustration. Now we get to use those. Place them in the positionsindicated below; they're already the right size for the layout, so you just have to copy and paste them over. Change the color to lavender-gray / #8A6E78.
If you’d like to draw your ownembellishments instead to fill up some of those blank spaces, go for it!
Step 3
If you haven’t already, downloadthis free vector texture pack. Inside, there will be three Adobe Illustrator (AI)files. We’ll be using the ones labeled 'texture 1' and 'texture 2'.
Open a new layer and place one of the textures(File > Place and find the file on your computer). A window will pop updisplaying the texture; click OK.
The texture will be black. Click theEdit Contents button, which will select all the individual pieces of thetexture. Change the color to beige / #EFEAD9.
Step 4
Now rotate the texture 90 degrees. (Object >Transform > Rotate; Type in 90 and hit Enter / Return.) The texture is about the samesize as our document, so just center it over the page.
Repeat the same process for thesecond texture. When you’re done, lock the layer that has the textures. You’llhave some nice grittiness that looks like this:
Step 5
Now, we’re going to add somestructure back in where the textures are the heaviest, placing an inner strokeon 'PLACE' and 'HOME' to tone done the graininess.
Select 'PLACE' and 'HOME' and copy them (Command/Control-C).Paste them in a new layer using Edit > Paste in Front (Command/Control-F). Itwill temporarily look as if you’ve covered up the texture.
With the words still selected, clickthe Swap Fill and Stroke arrow (Shift-X).
Step 6
Open the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke orCommand/Control-F10). Under the Align Stroke option, click the middle button, AlignStroke to Inside. Adjust the stroke weight until you’re happy with how itlooks; I like 7 pt.
Step 7
We’re going to re-create theoffset text effect that we see in our first inspiration picture (Lion Coffee).See how there’s a cool combination of negative space and shadow that's offsetfrom the main letters of 'Lion'? That’s the effect we’re after.
Create a new layer, and drag it down to be your second layer (right above the beige background layer).
Copy 'HOME' and Paste in Back (Command/Control-B) of yournew layer. Change the color to lavender-gray / #8A6E78and use your arrow keys to move itdown and to the right of the main letters, so it looks like a shadow.
Copy this shadow and Paste in Front on the samelayer. Change the color to beige / #EFEAD9. This time, shift it up (to be about evenwith the navy blue 'HOME') and slightly left with your arrow keys.
Step 8
We’re almost done! The finalfinishing touch to give our design an authentically vintage look is to overlayan old paper texture. Illustrator actually has options similar to Photoshop's blending modes, so we don’t even have to switch design programs.
If you haven’t already, download this paper texture.Place it in a new layer (make sure this layer is the topmost one), and size it to cover the whole page.
With this texture selected, openthe Transparency panel (Window > Transparency). Select Soft Light from thedrop-down menu, and keep the opacity at 100%.
Duplicate the paper texture, copying and pasting it right on top of whatyou’ve already done. This time, change the transparency settings to Darken at25% opacity.
And that’s it! (P.S. You’llnotice that I changed 'There’s' from blue to red—last minute, I decided thatbalanced out the ruby slipper better. Feel free to do the same or keep it blue; as artists and designers, that’s ourprerogative!)
Click Your Heels Together
I hope this tutorial helped youlearn some techniques and tricks that that will be helpful for future design and illustrationprojects. Adobe Illustrator is packed with tools you can use to customize yourtypography, like the Warp and Roughen effects we used for this project, and experimentingwith them can produce some great results. Feel free to share how your projectturned out or ask questions in the comments section. Happy designing!
