Transcript

How to create the Google Chrome Logo in Adobe Illustrator. First, open up a new blank artboard, and select the Ellipse tool from the tool palette or by pressing L. Then hover your mouse in the center until the pink smart guide pops up. Then hold shift and option on a Mac or shift and alt on a PC and drag out a perfect circle from the center.

While the circle is selected, got to Effect, Distort and Transform, Transform. In the dialog box change the horizontal and vertical scale to 125%. Make sure to change the number of copies from zero to one. Press ok. Then go to Object, Expand Appearance. Then right click on the object to ungroup it. Press Shift, Command + A or Shift, Control + A to deselect everything. With the selection tool select the center circle.

Then go to Effect, Distort and Transform, Transform. This time change the horizontal and vertical scales to 275%. Also, change the number of copies from 0 to 1. Once again go to Object, Expand Appearance. Then right click on the object to ungroup. Off click to deselect.

If you don’t see all three circles, then select the larger circle and press Command + Left Square Bracket or Control + Left Square Bracket to send it back. You can also use the menu by going to Object, Send Back.

Then select the pen tool. With the pen tool align with the middle circle top anchor point. Then out at the side click white the smart guides are showing. Then hold the shift key and click on the other side of the large circle. Press Shift + Command A or Shift + Control A to deselect the path. This horizontal line is likely not perfectly centered.

Marquee select everything and then use the align tools. In the align panel on the right you can select the align center icon. By default with multiple objects selected it will align to the selection but in this case we want to align to the artboard. You can select the artboard from this menu. Then click align center again and everything will be aligned to the center of the artboard. This makes it easier to use the smart guides to select the center of all the objects.

Next, deselect everything and only select the horizontal line. Then select the rotate tool from the tool bar. Hover on the center of the circles and hold option or alt and left click once. This brings up the rotate tool dialog box. Type in 120 degrees for the angle and click copy. This will make a new copy of the line. Then you can press Command D or Control D to repeat the action. You can also go to the menu under Effect and select Transform Again. This will make the rotation happen again. Then there will be three lines spaced 120 degrees apart.

Next, select just the top horizontal line. Once again, select the rotate tool. This time hover over the intersection of the top line and the outer circle. Hold the option or alt key and left click. This time, type in 15 degrees and click copy. Next with the newly drawn line selected, select the scissors tool. Hover over these two insect point and click with the scissors. This will cut the line path into three pieces at those points. Then with the selection tool, select the other pieces and delete them.

Next, click to select the remaining piece of the short line. With the short line selected pick the rotate tool. Hover over the center of the circles. Hold the option or alt key and left click. This time type in 120 degrees and click copy. Press Command D or Control D to make the rotation happen again.

Now we need to create new swatches for the Chrome Logo colors. If you don’t see your swatches panel, you can open it by going to Window, Swatches. I’m going to click the folder icon to make a new folder. I will label the folder, “Chrome Colors.” Then I can click the plus icon to make new swatches.

In the new swatch panel I can type in the RGB values. For the blue color it is Red 38, Green 132 and Blue 252. Then click ok. You can drag it into your new folder. Click the plus button again to make the Green Color. It is Red 52, Green 168, and Blue 83. Click Ok.

Click the plus to make another swatch. This time it is Red 234, Green 67 and Blue 53. Click Ok.Now we have blue, green and red. We just ned the yellow, so click on the plus button again. Type in Red 255, Green 186 and Blue 0. Click Ok. Now I have the default Chrome logo colors.

Next, I will select the red color for the fill. Press Command A or Control A to select all the objects. Then select the shape builder tool from the toolbar. The shape builder tool can combine shapes by dragging over them. I will zoom in to show better.

I want to click this triangle and then drag into this triangle. When I let go of the mouse button it becomes a new shape and is filled with red. Next, select these three shapes at the top. Make sure you select the small triangle and the larger arc shape separately so that there are two different red shapes.

Then select the yellow color swatch. Drag across the small triangle shapes. Then drag across the larger arc shape. Then select the green color swatch. Drag across the small triangle shapes. Then drag across the larger arc shape. Now you should have 3 arc shapes of different colors and 3 small triangles in different colors.

Select the blue color swatch and click once in the center circle. Then select the white swatch and click in the center ring shape.

Press Command + zero or Control + zero to zoom the artboard to fit the screen. I need to delete the guidelines in the back. Get the selection tool. Shift click all of the rear lines and press delete.

Then marquee select everything and set the stroke to none in the properties panel. Now there is no stroke around the shapes. Off click to deselect everything.

Then, while holding the shift key, select all three of the smaller triangle shapes. Then press Command + C or Control + C to copy the shapes. Once copied, then press Command + F or Control + F to paste the copies in the front of the other objects.

With the three triangle shapes still selected, change the fill color to black. Now the three shapes in front are black. Then in the properties panel change the opacity to 15%.

Then if I off click, I have a nice approximation of the Google Chrome logo. Marquee select everything and press Command + G or Control + G to group it.

Hopefully by mimicking an existing logo and recreating it in Adobe Illustrator you learned new techniques that you can apply to original logo designs of you own.

Happy logo making. Post any questions in the comments.