Retro Text Effects with Illustrator's Blend Tool (+ FREE Textures!)

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Follow along with today's Adobe Illustrator tutorial to create a simple but effective text effect with somewhat of a retro vibe, featuring stacks of text elements that are progressively spaced further apart. It reminds me of the kind of design you might see on an old VHS tape box or an ad for an 80s technology brand. Illustrator's Blend Tool will be used to create the basic effect, but I will also show you a trick to alter the spacing of the text with a cool easing effect and show how variations of the artwork can be created by combining different combinations of solid and outlined text styles.
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[@nelsony2134]

Thank you for sharing this amazing tutorial with us. Is it possibly to adobe dynamic link this in after effects and animate it?

[@DominicWade]

If you find the part where the Blend and Make is greyed out, go the Type Menu and Convert to Point Type. It should work now.

[@Nimeyna]

Thank you so much for that tip! I couldn't figure out why it was greyed out, but that helped!

[@SafiaZoe]

Thanks a bunch ✨✨✨

[@kimwinterhalter8616]

🙏🙏thanks

[@amberquettan5469]

thank you so much this worked!!

[@carltonktaylor]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[@cafehoneymoon]

this is awesome! before i knew about the blend tool to do this, I was doing this instead (which took me forever): - create text outlines -make sure snap to grid is on & adjust subdivisions accordingly - add anchor points to the area you want the word to end; ex: at 1.5 in y-axis all the way across -repeat for every letter & word -select the old area you want to cut off and delete it - copy & paste the original outlined text and repeat the process of adjusting where you want the new text to end -ex: you could have grid preferences on gridline every 1 inch with 8 subdivisions. you can add anchor points on every subdivision 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-full text or 2-4-6-full text, etc. - I don't know if this makes sense as to what I did but this shortcut is going to help me immensely! Look forward to trying out the screen & multiply blending modes using your photocopy textures!

[@gartimalti8164]

Thanks man, guys if you want to make this as a png without the background all you have to do is when you first create the first black square background set the opacity at 0% with the black color or any other colour so that you can make a transperent background with the text still.

[@ktbraymiami]

this comment just saved me. THANK YOU!!!

[@BigzoTv]

So would I just use a different color lettering to not mix it up with the white background ? Or would I still do it off to the side

[@maurogayan5176]

Need more retro style tutorials. Much love

[@bradmacdonald6591]

When I select the bottom most layer with the direct selection tool and swap the stroke and fill, it applies the fill / colour swap to all repeated layers in the blend. I made sure to only select the single layer, not the blend group.

[@spoongraphics]

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[@viphia]

Thanks for the tutorial, it has helped me A LOT!

[@raedjibrail]

Useful tips, clearly explained and easy to follow. Thank you. You have a new subscriber.

[@dimensidesainstudio6443]

Thank you so much for this tutorial! Hope you always healthy and happy!

[@安柏留美菜鳥]

This was useful !! I was able to combine it with other designs , thank you so much !!

[@lisawernernguyen8335]

How do you make this a transparent background instead of a black background?

[@-agamen-5030]

Thank you So much for ur ti and support

[@nirajfilms1040]

your tutorials are always the best sir!!!

[@armaturesmusic]

You love a 'here's what we did' round up

[@AnthonyMcNeil]

Damn, this is awesome. Great video.

[@colmeiadasfestasvilavelha830]

Explained in great detail! Thank you so much!!

[@johnmichaelabrenica8694]

Thanks a lot - your video is a Great start to soft soft. I'm onto it !

[@kathil.2902]

when I use the anchor point tool it just drags the text boxes further down instead of spacing them out inside the rectangle like it does in the video at 3:32. Does anyone know why that is // how i can change it?

[@ThatKpopGuitarist]

This may sound dumb, but I was having the same issue and I apparently wasn't pressing hard enough on my Mac's trackpad...

[@brennanpeterhunt]

You just don't have the number of repeats set to 20 like he does

[@oakcomponents1839]

@@ThatKpopGuitarist it worked that way haha, thanks!

[@Mugipaw]

Nice and easy to follow tutorial, but my blender tool can't make the path. Any tips?

[@notsoohyper]

I follow these steps point to point and every time when I get to the Object> Blend>Make, my "Make" is grayed out. Any advice?

[@kienmai9592]

Have you grouped the original text with the square-shaped before making the blend as he said yet? I didn't group mine and the Blend ''make'' is grayed and weird looking.

[@dohahabssaia2719]

I have the same problem ive been trying to figure it out for 2 hrs and i still cant find why it’s grayed out

[@dohahabssaia2719]

@@kienmai9592 yes i did and it’s still grayed out

[@emmavanwesten3157]

@@dohahabssaia2719 Try to select the text and go to object > expand

[@JadenDang97]

@@dohahabssaia2719 choose those two text boxes and go to Option -> Expand (keep the object and expand ticked), then to to Option -> Blend and now you can "Make".

[@rishabhkhatri202]

Dyum thanks 🤧

You are one of the graphic designers that artificial intelligence needs, no artificial intelligence will be able to do what you do, I hope to be as good a graphic designer as you, and I work on graphic design every day, waiting for the rest of the training videos and thank you for sharing all these videos and what you know with us.

[@t.o.a.a5871]

You're a god man thanks a lot.. really inspiring

[@KarenEscamilla]

Amazing video! Thank you for the tips!!

[@jacobpjohnson]

Your convert anchor point tool shows a preview as you drag, but mine doesn't. I have to let go to see where it will go. Is there a setting or preference i'm missing?

[@siskouman007]

mine too ... did u find the solution !!!

[@jacobpjohnson]

@@siskouman007 nope, never did

[@BigGuy223]

@@jacobpjohnson I think it has to do with power proccessing.

[@parthsen1681]

@@BigGuy223 got mine working. Just go to Preferences>Performance then check Real-Time Drawing and Editing then hit Ok

[@irene00alessandra]

Thank you so much bro. Sending virtual hugs. Worked like a charm ;-)

[@Swanks28]

When you use direct selection tool to change the stroke of the last line of text it only lets me select one individual letter. How do I select all the text in the bottom to change the stroke color at the same time? When I click on the text box it only allows me to fill the black box color not the letters.

[@mac8862]

this was so good

[@Anonim-yx9xv]

Almost a fking years finally i found this

[@twentyonehrs21]

great content

[@titanjedi]

thanks (when i click the anchor to move the bezier to adjust, i can't see the effect when i drag as i see on yours, so hard to do)

[@juna61]

I have the same problem.

[@GETCLARKED]

SAME!

[@jsg2156]

Same

[@jadejess764]

I got mine working. Just go to Preferences>Performance then check Real-Time Drawing and Editing then hit Ok

[@stephanymr174]

do it in the opposite direction

[@cat-in-mask]

Niceeee!Thanx Chris!

[@creativebobbie]

This is fantastic! Thank you!

[@IgnacioGiri]

The blend tool has a bezier point? Thanks for the tip!

[@Mikaflyd]

Would be a cool effect for a t shirt.

[@aybenizhmdva254]

wooow!!! Thanx you!

[@erk9904]

i somehow can't create a blend with the text :/ i first have to create outlines but then editing the colour later gets hard..

[@Hecziaa]

I found a fix for greyed out object-blend-make and you have to group the rectangle and text as he does then select the text and hit object-expand-click ok It should now let you use blend-make :)

[@caitlint5147]

@@Hecziaa thank you so much

[@manifestyours759]

@@Hecziaa Thank you so much! that really helped me

[@COCOpuffy52]

@@Hecziaa so helpful, thank you!

[@hauwaabdullahi2074]

@@Hecziaa THANK YOU!

[@EdwinVeenboer]

Very nice effects. Thank you

[@medo66511]

Thank you so much I was loathing for this 🙏😊

[@zakariasabbar6117]

thank you very much

[@Our.bamboo]

i'm really struggling with the anchor point section of this video, can anyone offer guidance?

[@incibalaban9707]

thanks a lot :))

[@luke.elshoff]

awesome

[@reza_nofiandri21]

Req for Autobot Tutorial hehe

[@amerizzuddin1322]

when i paste the larger rectangle behind the text and the rectangle bounded to it behind,i can still see that the rectangle around is the text is not visually blended to the bakcround rectangle,the line still appear,what should i do ?

[@jeffgearhart1754]

The tutorial in itself is good. However, you go rather fast and do not highlight the areas and tools you are using. This may be good for those that know where to go and what tool to grab, but for those wanting to learn the way to do this, way too fast and not exactly clear on steps.

[@BASICPLAYER]

do we have to finalize with photoshop? illustrator is not capable? I don't know myself

[@deepkchopra]

This is awesome 👍 thanks

[@veenapandey7365]

Hi, When I am doing the outline stroke to the topmost text, it is making all the bottom ones too with the added outlines. How to fix this? Please reply.

[@jortoska]

2 years late, but I had to select all, go to the object section in the tool bar at the top, click expand, after that I selected the Letter separately with shift, and then I used stroke with no fill. Maybe this is helpful to anyone reading this 2024 and beyond :)

[@DimitrisGelbouras]

is there any way/tutorial to have this animated?

[@coffeeguy700]

Eurostile black

[@SwandikaTio_]

What you play nice tutoet league on?

[@BigzoTv]

What if i don’t want the back ? That way i can add it on a shirt ?

[@TelesphoreArt]

3:25 😍

[@alexandrababault9754]

Hello, for some reasons the blend tool is not active...I am on Mac and Adobe 2021 thanks

[@sheriff7786]

Don’t know if you’ve figured this out already but it might be because your text is area text! You can’t blend area text. So instead of selecting the text tool and drawing a text box, just click and type straight on the art board, if that makes sense.

[@bazinproduction8732]

@@sheriff7786 i f***ing love u so much thank you

[@johnmax9306]

@@sheriff7786 would have never figured this one out, you da best!

[@dohahabssaia2719]

@@sheriff7786 mine is all grayed out when i click on blend>make ive been trying to figure it out for the past 2hours and its still not working Hope that makes sense

[@D0SI]

@@sheriff7786 Thank you... Been struggling with this for a while.

[@jackcornwall2566]

My object-blend-make option is greyed out?

[@m1lk843]

The make in the blend part is greyed out how do I fix?

[@JP-co3hu]

is this can do with the 2022 version ?

[@katrinacrump1849]

how would I go about putting a design like this on a shirt?

[@monroehehe]

woah

[@davidquintero1890]

Is there a way to adjust the opacity of the steps? I was thinking it would look insane if the blend faded out

[@theWajahat]

You can reduce the opacity of the duplicated object and then use the blend option and that will make a fade effect. This works for colours as well, you could change the colour of the duplicate and it will blend the colours as well.

[@andres.sebastian.design]

I ❤ EUROSTILE!

[@juanjoseparra1340]

Hey, im on a mac but when i get to the point blend>create is not letting click the option. Can you or someone help me?

[@alexandrababault9754]

hello, I had the same issue so what i did, i sélected text&shape > expend and then you can blend ;)

[@juanjoseparra1340]

@@alexandrababault9754 thanks 😊

[@arhansarkar7516]

Hey. How do i remove the black background

[@jortoska]

Set the opacity to 0% :)

[@arhansarkar7516]

@@jortoska does it work? I want only the text and not the black rectangles that form a part of the design

[@ZikyTM]

whats name style this desgn?

[@maraprati]

Can i do the same on photoshop cc?

[@bytechnobestofgaming4124]

6:30 how did you get out from the isolation mode? bruh im stupid

[@alim.2945]

(2)

[@hertzdesigns9166]

Nice

[@marcjessie578]

I hope we can do this on phone

[@cynrez]

how do you cut text vertically and not horizontally?

[@napalm_spb]

Is it possible to make this in photoshop without just layers clonning? some third party plugins?!!

[@SuYuuz]

Can we do it in mobile?

[@jonteberglund7365]

Im on pc and not mac and i fkn cant find the option for pc that you have marked as: Object, next to file and edit in the top left corner

[@jlupemadeit]

is there a way to get rid of the black so I could export just the text?

[@cevxj]

you would use masks for each of the secondaries, it's a different process entirely I think

[@kimwinterhalter8616]

why cant i use object- blend - make? it does not do anything, i cant even click on it 🥺

[@tycho4173]

can i make this effect into a PNG without a background

[@afroxermusic9898]

What is the name of this kinda fonts?

[@spiderscurry5614]

why is my preview CANNOT BE UNCHECKED HELP

[@lukecobb7488]

For some reason it won’t let me click make when trying to blend, anyone know why or how to fix it?

[@caitlint5147]

Same here

[@meyanoyte7015]

I’m unable to hear what I made???? HELP

[@user-re3en9su7z]

I like your tutorials but you go really fast and it's hard to see what tools you are using.

[@katemelvin3447]

Slow down the video speed.

[@DragonPixels]

@@katemelvin3447 i tried that and it gets supppppper annoying after awhile

[@varunpadmanabhan6101]

Looks like a valorant trailer

[@laylablaskovic964]

FOr the life of me I cannot select "MAKE" it is upclickable,

[@joshuasteed899]

I found a fix for greyed out object-blend-make and you have to group the rectangle and text as he does then select the text and hit object-expand-click ok It should now let you use blend-make

[@angeliquerodriguez4428]

still wouldn't let me

[@cosmocatmusic]

There no fuckin OBJECT button maaaan

[@michaeltanjung4337]

rarp

[@PrimeEli]

Doing this on Adobe illustrator 2022 sucks!!!!!!!

[@Our.bamboo]

@Will C ugh im having the same issue....

[@charlieorsomething]

How the fuck are these retro? 😂

[@fruzzz4]

In adobe illustrator are too f*kking many BUGS