How to Create a Cigarette Text Effect in Adobe Illustrator

Final product image — What You’ll Be Creating

In the following steps you will learn how to create a detailed cigarette pattern brush and how to use it to make a neat text effect in Adobe Illustrator.

For starters you will learn how to set up a simple grid and how to create the main shapes using basic tools and several effects. Moving on, you will learn how to save and use a simple scatter brush and how to add shading and highlights using basic blending and vector shape building techniques. Finally, you will create the cigarette pattern brush, learning how to save a simple graphic style and how to create your neat text effect.

1. Create a New Document and Set Up a Grid

Hit Control-N to create a new document. Select Pixels from the Units drop-down menu, enter 955 in the width and 1025 in the height box and then click on the Advanced button. Select RGB, Screen (72ppi) and make sure that the Align New Objects to Pixel Grid box is unchecked before you click OK.

Enable the Grid (View > Show Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). For starters, you will need a grid every 5 px, so simply go to Edit > Preferences > Guides > Grid, enter 5 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box. Try not to get discouraged by all that grid—it will make your work easier, and keep in mind that you can easily enable or disable it using the Control-“ keyboard shortcut.

You should also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes. Do not forget to set the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Units > General. All these options will significantly increase your work speed.

2. Create the Main Shapes

Step 1

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and focus on your Toolbar. Remove the color from the stroke then select the fill and set its color to R=243 G=164 B=91. Move to your artboard and simply create an 85 x 30 px rectangle—the grid and the Snap to Grid feature should ease your work.

Focus on the left side of this new shape and switch to the Direct Selection Tool (A). Select both anchor points, focus on the top bar and simply enter 2 px in that Corners box. In the end things should look like in the second image.

This feature is only available for CC users. The best solution to replace this effect would be the Round Any Corner script that can found in this article: 20 Free and Useful Adobe Illustrator Scripts. Save it to your hard drive, return to Illustrator and make sure that the Direct Selection Tool (A) is active. Select the same two anchor points and go to File > Scripts > Other Script. Open the Round Any Corner Script, enter a 2 px radius and click OK. In some cases you will have to increase/decrease the value mentioned in that Corners box.

Step 2

Make sure that your orange shape is still selected and go to Effect > Warp > Arc Lower. Enter the attributes shown below, click the OK button and then go to Effect > Warp > Arc Upper. Enter the properties shown in the following image, click OK and then go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 3

For the following steps you will need a grid every 1 px, so go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid and enter 1 in the Gridline every box.

Using the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 36 x 30 px shape and set its fill color to R=247 G=244 B=248. Place this new rectangle exactly as shown in the following image and then send it to back using the Shift-Control-[ keyboard shortcut.

Step 4

Using the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 1 x 30 px shape and set the fill color at R=57 G=181 B=74. Place it exactly as shown in the following image and then go to Effect > Warp > Arc. Enter the attributes shown in the following image and then go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 5

Make sure that your green shape is still selected and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Enter the attributes shown in the following image and then go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Make sure that the resulting group of shapes is selected, Ungroup it using the Shift-Control-G keyboard shortcut and then hit Control-8 to turn these green shapes into a simple compound path.

Step 6

Select your grey rectangle and make a copy in front (Control-C > Control-F). Select this copy along with your green compound path, open the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder) and click the Intersect button.

Turn the resulting group of shapes into a new compound path (Control-8), make sure that it stays selected, focus on the Appearance panel (Window > Appearance) and simply replace the existing fill color with R=240 G=237 B=241.

Step 7

Using the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 6 x 30 px shape, place it as shown in the following image and set the fill color to R=39 G=170 B=225.

Step 8

Reselect your blue and orange shapes and duplicate them (Control-C > Control-F). Select these copies along with your grey rectangle and click the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. In the end your grey shape should look like in the second image.