Creating Type Spirals

I was help­ing some­one under­stand type on a path and how to arch, warp, & bend text when I thought of this real­ly cool idea. The fol­low­ing tuto­r­i­al will show you how to build inter­est­ing spi­ral shapes with a sim­ple string of let­ters using Adobe Illustrator and the Warp Effect Arc.

Example of the Final Product

Tutorial Details

Program: Adobe Illustrator CS3
Difficulty: Beginner
Topics Covered: Warp Effect, Smart Guides, Rotate Tool
Estimated Completion Time: 15–20 minutes
Required Files: None

Step 1
Create a new doc­u­ment and cre­ate a text box with the Type tool(T). Type out just one line of text and choose a font.

Step 2
For this exam­ple, I am using the let­ter ‘f’ set in Rockwell Regular. Starting point size is not impor­tant as the effect is per­cent­age based and will work the same whether you start with 12pt. or 200pt. type.

Step 3
Switch back to the Selection tool(V) then click on Effect > Warp > Arc.

Step 4
Adjust the Bend to 70% and the Horizontal Distortion to 100% then check the Preview box to see the results. Depending on your let­ters you might want to move the Bend to 60% or 80%.

Step 5
Click OK when your Arc looks right. This is the arm of your spi­ral. Then click on Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 6
If Smart Guides are off, click on View > Smart Guides.

Step 7
Switch to the Rotate tool(R ) and hover over your object. Your look­ing for the sin­gle anchor point where every­thing bends in togeth­er. The Smart Guides should snap you to it.

Step 8
Option + click on the anchor point to move the rotate point and bring up the rotate dia­log. Use 20 degrees for the rota­tion and click Copy.

Step 9
Use the key­board short­cut Command + D to trans­form the new object again.

Step 10
Continue to hit Command + D six­teen more times to com­plete the spiral.

Step 11
Use the key­board short­cut Command + A to select all of the indi­vid­ual objects. Then click Window > Pathfinder > Add.

Step 12
The last step is to click Expand in the Pathfinder palette to unify every­thing into one object.

 

As always, play with the set­tings and see what you come up with. Changing the amount of rota­tion is a quick way to come up with dif­fer­ent looks. Then there is your type choice. The more dec­o­ra­tive your type­face to begin with, the more intri­cate the result­ing spi­ral will look. Here are two more exam­ples I came up with just play­ing around.