In this post I will show you how to make spirals in Illustrator. This guide does not only cover how to make spiral paths but also how to apply spiral effects and make different types of spiral text designs. Most designers use the tool to create different flourish styles or logos.
This is an advanced shapes tutorial, so I recommend starting from the last post on creating lines and shapes in Illustrator.
What You Will Learn
- How to create spirals using the Spiral Tool
- How radius, decay, and segments change the spiral shape
- How to control spiral direction and size
- How to create spiral text effects
- How to use Transform settings to build a spiral design
- How to edit and customize your final spiral artwork
- Method 1: Make Spirals Using Spiral Tools
- Method 2: Creating Spiral Text in Illustrator
Method 1: Make Spirals Using Spiral Tools
The Spiral tool is found under the line segment tool. It has no shortcut, so just click and hold the line tool. Then select the Spiral tool.
To create it, you can either click and drag or click once on the artboard with the tool selected. A pop-up menu appears. You will fill the effect specifications in the dialogue box for your effect.
You will set the radius, decay, segments and style. Each of them will affect your design differently. Let me explain.
The radius will affect how high or wide your effect spans. If you increase the radius in points, your radius becomes wider and vice versa.
Decay refers to the product of the figure you enter in percentage to the radius of the next segment. For example, if you set it at 50% and the radius at 100 pt, the next spiral line radius will be 50% of 100 pt, giving the radius of the next line in the spiral. Similarly, 10% results in a curve, while 100 results in a perfect circle.
The segment refers to the inward or outward spiral. Increasing the spiral segments results in an inward motion, while reducing it results in an outward look. Direction can either be clockwise or anticlockwise as per your preference.
Method 2: Creating Spiral Text in Illustrator
Spiral text designs can be applied for different elements. The design style combines typography styles with spiral effects. Below are steps on how to do it.
Go to File > New. Create an artboard and set it at 1080 x 1080 px. Leave all others as default. Choose the type tool (T) and create text.
Adjust the font on the top menu to Gotham Black. Copy and paste the text 4 times, then rotate it to form a square shape.
Choose the selection tool (V). Select all text elements, then group them by going to Object > Group or pressing Ctrl + G or Command + G (on Mac).
Set the fill colour to white and the stroke to black or any other colours with high contrast.
Distort and Transform
Select the group, then go to Effect > Distort and Transform. Choose Transform. A menu pops up. Adjust settings on the menu to 90% for both vertical and horizontal but leave the move as 0 for both vertical and horizontal.
Toggle preview on the bottom right to view your changes in real time. Set the angle to 3 degrees and the number of copies to 15 for a start. If you increase the angle, you will notice a larger spiral effect.
Ungroup and reorganise the text for a better effect. If you had set the side text to a perfect square shape, the design would be more proportional. Accept the changes by choosing OK at the bottom of the pop-up.
Click Ctrl + C and then Ctrl + V to copy and paste the design. Go to Window > Colour to get the colour options. I will change the cyan to 100% in this example. The design colour is changed.
This design text is editable, and you can change it to any text you want with the same effect. To easily change all text in one go, select the text, then go to Edit > Find and Replace. A menu comes up. Type the current text you want to replace on top, then the new one in the next space. Click Find All, then Replace. All the instances will be changed.