Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1451376
6 2 G R A P H I C S P R O J U L Y 2 0 2 2 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M A W A R D S & C U S T O M I Z A T I O N S ome time back a couple of young men asked me if I could create a design they could use to promote and market their product. These guys were heavily involved in the sand dune racing community. One of the problems they encountered was that the abrasion of the sand on shock absorber shafts caused premature failure of the shock absorbers, which had to be changed frequently at a substantial cost. To minimize the abrasive damage of the sand, they developed an add-on device that would repel the sand and they hoped to sell their product to other racers. I created the final image, seen in Fig. 1. ese guys wanted a somewhat whimsical image. Here are some of the steps I used to get to the final design. LOGO DESIGN I first drew the basic shape of a shock absorber using the rectangle tool and added a fountain fill to get a faded appear- ance, then added other details for real- ism. Attaching hardware, grommets, and such. e eyes and mouth were added to enhance the trauma of the devastation of sand intrusion on the shafts. Fig. 2 is my original drawing of the image created in Corel DR AW. Each of the components was drawn separately with various tools. e coil spring was started with a rectangle and corners rounded. I gave it a contour to the center to create a highlight, then duplicated it, moved it down and blended the two together and grouped the blend. Next, I added an enve- lope to arc it slightly and skewed it. When it was to my satisfaction, I duplicated it, mirrored it, moved it to the back and aligned it with the front coils. As Fig. 3 shows, this gives the appearance of the coil spring encircling the center shaft. With the shock absorber drawing fin- ished, I wanted to add an envelope to the entire image, but simply doing that would distort the elements of the draw- ing in an unwanted manner. To overcome the problem, I selected the entire image and exported it as an EMF (Enhanced Meta File), then imported the EMF file back into CorelDR AW. e EMF sepa- rates all the fountain fills into multiple vector objects and keeps all the objects in proper relation to one another. I was able then to add an envelope to the image as seen in Fig. 4 and all the distortions serve to enhance the whimsical cartoon look. When I was content with my drawing, I added the appropriate text to the image. In some cases, it involved the Fit Text to Path feature to get the final design and flow with the shape of the ellipse created earlier. is kind of design often requires the use of various and many of the tools provided within Corel DR AW. Another example of using the EMF file type to alter an image is Fig. 5. e top lettering was created in CorelDR AW, and an outside black contour added. It was then exported to EMF and the EMF file imported back into CorelDR AW. It comes in as a group of objects. I first added per- spective to the image, then an envelope to arc the lettering. Notice that the gradient fill now follows the arc of the lettering. I then ungrouped the objects and selected only the black contour. I duplicated it, nudged it over and down, and blended the duplicate with the original contour. I then broke the contour group apart and welded it. is creates an impressive out- line and shadow in a single vector object. It is probably good to select all the nodes on the shadow with the shape tool and reduce nodes. For anyone looking to thrive with the A Shocking Design A LOGO FOR A SHOCK ABSORBER PROTECTION PRODUCT B Y D O U G Z E N D E R Fig. 1: A company that creates shock absorber protectors to resist sand damage needed a whimsical logo to help with marketing. (All images courtesy Doug Zender) Fig. 2: Original drawing.