Circular Logo Design with Draplin: Combine Type & Icons in a Classic Shape

Want to level up your logo design? Join acclaimed graphic designer and DDC founder Aaron Draplin for a 60-minute tour de force championing the techniques and challenges of combining type and icons into a circle, a foundational shape of graphic design.

Follow along with Draplin as he creates variations of an often forgotten yet useful object: the travel sticker. From his wizard-like workflow you’ll learn the importance of:

Hierarchy, line-weight, and graphic balance
Key command mastery
Setting up and wrapping up your document

Whether you’re just getting started with Illustrator or are a seasoned graphic veteran, you are sure to learn some new tips and tricks as you create circular designs of your own.

______________

What You’ll Learn

Circular graphic design. Through friendly, detailed instructions, Aaron will teach you to build your own personal or business logo design. You’ll learn how to use symmetry, type, and line consistency to visually organize your information and convey meaning within a harmonious, pleasing shape.
Creating your own. You’ll be encouraged to use Aaron’s tips and tricks to create a circular travel decal or personal sticker to use while shipping boxes or luggage. Aaron will review uploaded student work, and even showcase a few of the best examples on his personal blog, giving you a unique opportunity to gain valuable insight and constructive feedback.
Using keyboard commands. As Aaron walks you through his design process, he will share a variety of keyboard shortcuts and other Adobe Illustrator tricks to improve your creative output. You’ll be creating a logo at lightning speed in no time!
Workflow considerations. You’ll learn the basics of successful circular logo creation, including how to keep your design balanced, clean, and clear. Aaron will also demonstrate how to pack your small space with information by using type size to communicate primary and secondary messaging.
Research and inspiration. Aaron will use stamps, buttons, patches, and stickers from his extensive research library, walking you through why each is graphically interesting. He will illustrate the wide range of ways that designers have used typeface, icons, color, and scale to communicate with circles, and discuss how their work has influenced his own. With the help of his real-life examples, you’ll be well on your way to a beautiful personal project – whether your aim is to create a watermark with simple type or design icons with symbols or imagery.
Sketching and preparation. A modern graphic designer relying on pencil and paper? You bet! You’ll learn why “going analog” is so vital to Aaron’s artistic process, and why taking time away from the computer generates stronger ideas. Plus, Aaron will suggest specific tools to help encourage your creativity and focus as you map out your design.
Designing a type-based stamp. Aaron shows you his step-by-step method for working with Adobe Illustrator to build circular designs. He includes information on how to use keyboard shortcuts, simple arithmetic, and geometric shapes to keep your lines and type consistent.
Designing with type and an icon. You’ll learn how to manipulate simple shapes into a beautiful, effective icon, to incorporate that icon into a circle, and to orient your type to create a dynamic, concise design. You’ll also get to know Aaron’s tips for helping your icons “pop” and the ways that he corrects for size and scale throughout his design process.
Advanced graphic design. Aaron’s extra chapter on how to build an advanced circular design will inspire you to think more broadly about your logo. You’ll leave your lesson “thinking in circles” – and amazed at their possibilities!
Finalizing your work. You’ll follow along as Aaron flattens his design by stripping away any elements that might cause vendor error. You’ll learn how he finalizes his products so you can produce a polished, professional document, too.

Course Curriculum

Course

Instructors

Aaron Draplin

Designer and Founder, Draplin Design Company

Bred from the loins of the proud Midwest, this little fucker was squeezed out in Detroit, in the year 1973 to the proud parents of Jim and Lauren Draplin. Growing up on a steady stream of Legos, Star Wars, family trips, little sisters, summer beach fun, stitches, fall foliage, drawing, skateboarding and snowboarding, at 19 he moved west to Bend, Oregon to hit jumps "Out West." His career started with a snowboard graphic for Solid snowboards and took off like wildfire soon after. Everything from lettering cafe signs to drawing up logos to thinking up local advertising campaigns were manhandled under the ruse of the newly formed-and gigantically reckless-Draplindustries Design Co. After five winters out west, the kid sobered up and headed back to Minneapolis to finish up a high-falutin' design degree at the prestigious and painfully expensive Minneapolis College of Art and Design. During this time he polished up his design skills, learned how to weld and how to develop a photo in nasty chemicals. These were the salad days. He fell back in love with a strong Midwest that he once tried so hard to leave. In April 2000, much to the chagrin of his proud "Midwestern Roots," he accepted an ill-fated art director position with SNOWBOARDER magazine. He moved it all down to Shithole, Southern California-alongside some hot, caustic beach-and wrangled some 23 issues of the mag. He won "Art Director of the Year" for Primedia 2000, beating out such titles as Gun Dog, Cat Fancy and Teen. No other awards were bestowed in this period, and like he gives a rat's ass. Thankfully, in April 2002, the Cinco Design Office of Portland, Oregon called up and offered a Senior Designer gig which he instantly accepted. He moved it all North to the land of rain and gloom and rolled up the sleeves to work on the Gravis, Helly Hansen and Nixon accounts. The Draplin Design Co. finally stepped out on its own four hairy feet in the fall of 2004. Some four year later, he's proud to report that he's managed to "keep everything out of the red." He rolls up his sleeves for Coal Headwear, the Union Binding Company, Snowboard Magazine, Field Notes memo books, Ride Snowboards, Forum Snowboards, Grenade Gloves, Chunklet Magazine, Cobra Dogs, Absinthe Films, NemoDesign, Gnu Snowboards, RVL7 Apparel, Burton Snowboards, K2 Snowboards, Bonfire Snowboarding Apparel, South American Snow Sessions, as well as all sorts of one-off logos, t-shirt graphics and what not. He owes it all to his parents, seriously.