One of the most interesting projects that a graphic designer can take on is designing a clever logo. A clever logo helps customers to easily remember the company message. Most of the time a logo that illustrates a single idea is not enough. The challenge is to combine two or more ideas in one icon. In this tutorial I’ll show how to create a clever logo from sketching to the final product. Last year I had a project for a coffee shop library. I start combining a coffee cup image with book / library related symbols. After few sketches I choose a cubical cup with a bookmark ribbon. The Coffee Shop name is Bookmark Coffee.
1. Final images
2. Resources
 |
 |
 |
3. Sketch
4. Document Settings
Create a new document Width 120mm / Height 120mm. Open the Ruler (Cmd+R on Mac or Ctrl+R on PC). Set the Ruler in points. Right click on ruler and choose Points.
5. Create Cup’s Body
Create a rectangle width 120pt and center it to art-board. Set the rectangle Fill 20% Gray and no Stroke. This is our cup’s shape.
6. Creating Cup’s Handle
Create the cup’s handle. Draw a rectangle 50/80pt. Draw a second rectangle inside it and cut with the second rectangle into the first one. Use pathfinder (Window > Pathfinder > Minus Front) and cut rectangles.
7. Extrude Cup’s Body
Extrude the first rectangle to create the cup’s body. Go to Effect menu > 3D > Extrude & Bevel. In the dialog window choose Position: Isometric Right and Extrude Depth: 120pt. Check preview on an click OK.
8. Extrude Cup’s Handle
Follow the same steps and extrude the cup’s handle. In the dialog window set Extrude Depth: 40pt. Place the handle as in the image bellow.
9. Create Cup’s Rim and Coffee Surface
Create another rectangle Width 100mm / Height 100mm. 
Extrude the rectangle. In the dialog window set Position: Isometric Top, Extrude Depth: 40pt and turn cap off for hollow appearance. 
Place the extruded rectangle in the center in of the cup as in the image bellow. With your object selected go to Objects Menu and Expand Appearance. Right click on the object and select Ungroup (do this step twice to ungroup all the faces). Take the Pen Tool (P) and draw the coffee surface inside the cup. Go to View Menu and Check the Smart Guides and Snap to Point for this step. Be sure you align each point perfectly. Go to Window Menu an open Pathfinder Window. Select the left faces and click Minus Front button. Do the same for the right faces. 
10. Create Bookmark Ribbon
Start creating the ribbon’s flat shapes using the rectangle tool as you see in the image bellow. For the blue ribbon the size is 35x75pt and for the red ribbon is 35x10pt. Extrude your elements and set the extrusion as following. For the blue ribbon part set Position: Isometric Right, Extrude Depth: 10pt. For the red part set Position: Isometric Right and Extrude Depth: 30pt. Place the objects as you see in the following image. 
Next step is to create the ribbon thickness inside the cup. For this step you need to expand all extruded elements. Select the objects one by one and go to Objects Menu and choose Expand Appearance. Take the Pen Tool and create the ribbon thickness as you see in the next image. 
11. Choosing Font and Colors
The rectangles looking cup will work very well with and sans-serif font and I found Cubano Font which is also a little bit rounded. For the color I choose brown tones. 
12. Logo integration
For better integration I added some lines and an outline for the icon. To create the outline around the icon does the following. Copy the icon. Open the Pathfinder (Windows menu > Pathfinder). Select copied icon and click Unite button in Pathfinder Window. Go to Effects menu > Path > Offset Path and set the Offset to 5pt. Finally go to Object Menu and choose Expand Appearance. Align the outline shape under the icon. 
The final element I’ve added is a retro looking burst star from ThunderPixels Shop. Use eraser to erase the rays under the text. 
13. Final Tweaking
Open Adobe Photoshop. Create a new document. Copy your logo from Illustrator and paste it in Photoshop. Use Retro Supply’s textures to add a vintage look to your logo. Here is a great tutorial for how to achieve a retro look for your logo.
14. That’s it!
Thank you for watching this tutorial and learned how to use 3D features in Adobe Illustrator. And hope enjoys the logo. My name is Hortensiu Milstein and I’m the owner of Design Something Shop. Feel free to browse my products and choose something suitable for your project.
