Making Designs with Gradations.

Here is a simple gradation logo design.

Type gradation and turn it to vector. Use the Type/Create Outlines. Save a font that is not vectored in case you want it later.

Since I was going to do a gradation, I thought a simple vector of mountain shapes might be fun. So now, I have a mountain and vectored letters. Notice that the letters all touch the mountain at some point.

I could paint each of the individual objects with gradation, and they would look cool. But what I want to do is for the gradation to treat this design as though it is one single design. I will need to unite the design pieces into one single unit. There is a good tool for this. It is called unite, and it is the first tool you can choose in Pathfinder. Go to Window/Pathfinder. It brings up a dialog box that contains many manipulation tools. The unite is what we will use. Select 2 objects, then click the Unite tool. Do that for each letter, until the whole group is one vector.

When the whole vector is together, the Gradation tools will see it as one unit. Gradations can be applied to this from the gradation tool.

I made three of these blocks of design. One I made as black, a fill of black with a 3 point stroke gave it a heavy look. The next one I made is crimson with no stroke. The last one was made with yellow and black in a gradation, with a 50% transparency applied. The plan is to lay the crimson over the black, giving the opaque crimson a border striping of black because of the 3 point stroke from the black. The the yellow to gray gradation lays over the crimson. The 50% transparency of the gradation will allow the crimson to come through the yellow. It turns out a gorgeous orange sunset.