How to redraw the MasterCard Logo in Adobe Illustrator CC

Hi there, in this video we're going to redraw the Mastercard logo. It's been redesigned, new for 2017. We're going to redraw it here in Adobe Illustrator. Pretty easy one to do. The reason we're doing it is we're going to practice the skills we learned in our Illustrator Essentials course. So let's get to work, building it now.

To get started, there is a file that we can draw from. So 'File', 'Open', it's in 'Exercise Files', called 'Logo Exercise'. Let's open that one up. Just so you know, I've got a background layer that I've got the things we're going to redraw, locked. Make sure you're on this 'Draw Layer'. With it selected, then back to 'Properties'. We're going to start with a simple Ellipse. If you can't find the Ellipse Tool, it's underneath the Rectangle Tool. Hold, hold, hold, grab the 'Ellipse Tool'. I'm going to give it no Fill, so I'm going to click on the 'Fill'. I'm going to go 'Red stroke', means no Fill. Stroke is set to 'black, and it's '1pt', which is perfect. Now I'm going to drag out a circle. Remember, if I hold down 'Shift' I want to drag out a circle, I get a perfect circle. I'm going to get something close. That's pretty good, actually. If you get it wrong, use the Black Arrow to move it around. If you can't drag the center you can drag either the line, or this dot in the middle. Up to you.

If you need to re size it, say it needs a little change - Mine was pretty good, actually. - you can hold 'Shift', and grab any of these corner handles. It's given me my first circle. I'm going to copy and paste it but I'm going to use some of the shortcuts. So I'm going to hold down the 'Option' key on a Mac, or the 'Alt' key on a PC to drag a copy out. That drags a copy. If I'm holding 'Alt' on a PC, or 'Option' on a Mac, and holding 'Shift' down, it goes in a straight line, and makes a copy. Easy. So I'm going to select both of these, and we're going to use our-- remember, there was a tool called the Shape Builder Tool. These are a few ways of making all these logos. This is what I consider one of the faster ones.

So 'Shape Builder Tool', and what I'm going to do is pick a 'Fill color'. I'm not worried about brand colors just yet. I'm going to go to, you, you, and you, so I'm just clicking in here. This middle color here, I'm going to just pick another random color. The reason is, we can't steal colors whilst using the Shape Builder Tool. We have to do it afterwards.

So with that deselected, I've got my 'Black Arrow'. I clicked in the background, select these guys. I don't want any Stroke around the outside now. So the Stroke is now going to be Straight line. Now I'm going to color it. These are all separate pieces now, thanks to the Shape Builder Tool. With this first shape selected, I'm going to use the 'Eye Dropper Tool', and I'm going to steal the 'red'. Then I'm going to grab the 'Black Arrow', click in the center bit. 'Eye Dropper Tool '. The middle bit. We're getting there, right? Pretty much done. 'Eye Dropper Tool', grab this bit. We're not going to redraw the Text, because that will take forever.

I'm going to show you a cool little trick. Is, if you're trying to find a font-- I've put it over here for us. We're going to totally cheat. So, I pulled this. It's the wrong size. So I'm going to just scale it down to get it to be the right size. We're getting there. I'm using my arrow keys to move it around. That will do. Now what's going to happen is, if I move it down here, and you're like, "I wonder what font that is," I'm going to take a screenshot with my Mac. It's 'Command-Shift-4'. You get this little target, and I can draw a box around it. If you're on a PC, I think it's 'Print Screen', then do something else with it. I'm not sure about the PC, exactly, but on a Mac, it ends up on your Desktop.

What you can do is, you can open 'typekit.com', which is Adobe's font licensing place. And what you do is, you can drag a font, drag an image in here, to scan. So I've got a screenshot. There's no way of me knowing what the font is but here's my screenshot, I'm going to drag it in. This little thing does its magic. And it says, "Is that the text you mean?" and I say, "Yes, that's it." Then it says, "Confirm the text." It's tried to read it for you. It says, "Is the word Mastercard?" and I'm like, "You've got it right." You might have to adjust it. Then you click the next one, 'View Results' and down here, you're looking for the font that matches.

Lots of them are very close. Probably the easiest option is the 'a'. Most fonts don't use this kind of, like a hand written 'a'. So you're looking for that 'a' down here. I feel like that's pretty close, right? Arboria,  I should go and check, but, so good. It's not exactly, it's pretty close. You might have to go through, and figure out which one it is. If it says 'Sync', it's part of your Creative Cloud License, and you can download it for free. So click on that, and it downloads. These other ones are not part of it. Adobe just reaches out and says, "Hey, we don't have it for free but you can go buy it, this way."

All right, that is how to redraw the Mastercard logo using a few shapes, the Shape Builder Tool, and the Eye Dropper Tool.