Figure A:

Prepare the canvas

To follow along with our technique, it’s important that you have the same canvas size and resolution or the effects won’t produce the same results. So, first we’ll prepare the canvas and add the type.

To set up the canvas and add text:

1. Create a new 6″ wide by 4″ high canvas set at 200 ppi in RGB mode.
2. Press D to set the foreground color to the default of black.
3. Select the Horizontal Type tool from the Tools panel.
4. From the Type tool options bar, choose a thick bold-face font such as Comic Sans Bold.
5. Set the Font size large, such as 80 point.
6. Type your text onto the canvas.
7. Select the Move tool and position your text where you want it.

If your text winds up being too large to fit on the canvas, simply select your type, and decrease the point size on the Type tool options bar.

Include additional objects in your effect

You can also include an additional object, such as a silhouette or piece of clip art, as we did for the image shown in Figure A.

To do this:

1. Insert the desired object onto its own layer after you’ve entered your text. Make sure this layer is above the text layer in the Layers panel.
2. Position the object where you’d like it to appear on the canvas.
3. Select Merge Down from the Layers panel’s pop-up menu to combine your object and text on a single layer.

Stroke your type

The next step in our technique is to create a thick stroke from our text, but on the Background layer.

To add the text stroke:

1. Select the text layer by [command]-clicking ([Ctrl]-clicking in Windows) in the Layers panel.
2. Turn off the text layer’s visibility.
3. Select the Background layer to activate it as shown in Figure B.

Figure B:

1. Choose Edit > Stroke to open the Stroke dialog box.
2. Enter 12px in the Width box, select the Outside option button, as shown in Figure C, and click OK. This creates a black outline around your selection as shown in Figure D.
3. Press [command]D ([Ctrl][D] in Windows) to deselect everything on the canvas so you can apply your filters to the background.

Figure C:

Figure D:

Electrify the background

With our text outline well defined, we’re ready to apply some electrifying filter effects to the Background layer.

To add the first filter:

1. Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to launch the Gaussian Blur dialog box.
2. Enter a value such as 10 in the Radius text box, and click OK.
3. Choose Filter > Render > Difference Clouds and then press [command]I ([Ctrl][I] in Windows) to invert the effect and create the glowing lightning around the text, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E:

Tip: Play around with the Radius value for the Gaussian Blur filter, and/or add the Difference Clouds Rendering filter multiple times for different looks.

Colorize your design

There are many ways to add color to your new text effect design. You can create a duotone, adjust the color balance, or even find and replace a color. We’ll show you a much simpler method using the Hue/Saturation command.

To colorize your image:

1. Choose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation to launch the Hue/Saturation dialog box.

2. Select the Colorize check box.

3. Adjust the levels, as shown in Figure F, until you obtain the colors you want to use.

Figure F:

Tip: You can fine-tune your design by choosing Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast, and then adjusting the Brightness and/or Contrast level.

Add the blending mode

For our finishing touches, we’ll go back to our text layer and apply a blending mode.

To apply the blending mode:

1. Choose the text layer in the Layers panel to bring it back into view on the canvas.
2. Select Overlay from the Blending Mode pop-up menu in the Layers panel.
3. Adjust the Opacity level on the Layers panel to achieve the look you want, as illustrated in Figure G.

Figure G:

Let’s begin

The banner for our project is to hang vertically centered between two windows of a public building. We’ll use our drawing file not only for our mock-up, but later we’ll give it to a sign company to create the banner. To follow along with this tutorial download the .zip file.

1. Launch Illustrator, select File > Open, and navigate to the banner.ai file. Click Open to display the drawing. Let’s now add a new layer in which we’ll add text to the banner.

2. Click on the Create New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette and name the new layer Text. Now we’re ready to add content to the banner.

3. Type The History of Piracy in America so each word is on its own line and centered. We used 48 point Adobe Garamond as our font.

4. Click a new insertion point below the type you just created, and type the text August 1-20, and set the font size value to 24 points.

5. Create a new layer and name it Rectangle.

6. Select the Rectangle tool from the Toolbox; choose a stroke of 1 point, a stroke swatch color of black and a fill color of None. Then, drag and center a rectangle around the text.

7. Let’s now add a graphic to add interest to the banner.

By including graphics in the banner, not only will it help to draw attention, but it also helps to communicate the nature of the display. To add graphic elements to your banner, open the file battle.ai. Then, copy and paste it onto your banner, scale it to fit, and center it on the bottom, as shown in Figure B. As you can see we also drew a line between the text and the image to add interest.

We’re almost finished with the banner. It’s simple and gives enough information to be read quickly by a viewer. To finish the banner, we added color to the word Piracy to draw attention to the banner’s purpose, as shown in Figure C. Now, save the file, and we’re ready to add the banner to a photo of the location where it will hang.

Figure B

Figure C

Although we could add our location photo to the banner document, we later want to give it to the sign company. Let’s open an Illustrator file which contains a location photograph. Then, we’ll copy and distort the banner drawing in the new document.

To open your location photo and add your banner:

1. Open a new Illustrator document and name it banner_location.ai.

2. Choose File > Place, navigate to the location.jpg file, and click Place to add a photo of the setting where the banner will hang, as shown in Figure D. (Images provided by PhotoSpin. Some images modified for educational purposes.)

3. Name the layer Location Photo, create a new layer, and name the new layer Banner.

4. Select the banner.ai document.

5. Press [command]A ([Ctrl]A in Windows) to select all objects, and then press [command]C ([Ctrl]C in Windows) to copy them.

6. Toggle back to the open file banner.ai and make sure the Banner layer is still selected. Then, press [command]V ([Ctrl]V in Windows) to paste the objects into the Banner layer, as shown in Figure E.

7. Adjust the size of the banner so it fits nicely between the two windows in the photo, as shown in Figure F.

8. Click on the Location Photo layer lock icon to lock the Location Photo layer.

Figure D

Figure E

Figure F

The Envelope Distort command enables us to distort selected drawing objects in a variety of ways. We can select a distort style using the Make With Warp option, or we can manually distort a mesh grid using the Make With Mesh option. Let’s use the Make With Mesh option since it allows us to control the appearance of the object distortion.

To create a mesh grid using the Make With Mesh options:

1. Select all of the drawing objects in the Banner layer by clicking on the layer’s Click To Target button.

2. Select Object > Envelope Distort > Make With Mesh to display the Envelope Mesh dialog box.

3. Select 4 and 2 from the Rows and Columns pop-up menus, respectively, and click OK to apply the distort mesh to the banner drawing objects, as shown in Figure G.

Figure G

Using the perspective vanishing points of the bricks in the photo as a visual guide, as shown in Figure H, distort the banner to the same vanishing points.

Figure H

To distort the banner to the perspective vanishing points:

1. Select the Direct Selection tool from the Toolbox, choose the upper-right corner anchor point in the banner, and drag to an approximate location along the top vanishing line.

2. Continue to drag the mesh anchor points until the banner appears as it will when hung, as shown in Figure I.

Figure I

By allowing the banner to curve throughout drawing, you add to the realism of the appearance. To add even more realism, let’s finish by applying a slight drop shadow to the banner.

To anchor your banner with a drop shadow:

1. Choose Filter > Stylize > Drop Shadow to display the Drop Shadow dialog box.

2. Set the Opacity to 50%, set the X Offset to about 0.05 in, set the Y Offset to about 0.05 in, and set the Blur to about 0.01 in. Click OK to add a drop shadow to your drawing, as shown in Figure A.