Creating Intertwined Type in Illustrator

CATEGORIES: Subscriber, Tutorials, illustrator tech | Rich Harris | August 31, 2006

Weaving letters in and out if a fun effect that can be achieved with Illustrator’s Clipping Mask tool.

Weaving letters in and out of each other is a very cool Illustrator effect. Although this can be done with any version of Illustrator, we’ll salute Adobe’s Creative Suite 2 by intertwining C, S and II. Follow along with this example: the Illustrator file has been saved as an Illustrator 8 file: Download the companion file here.
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1First, duplicate the “2″ layer by dragging it onto the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Name the new layer “Top 2″ by double-clicking it and renaming it. Next, select the Pen Tool (make sure the Foreground and Background are set to None) and draw a clipping path that outlines the parts of the II that need to move above the C.
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2Select the clipping path and target the II in the Top 2 layer by clicking its circle on the Layers palette. Go to Object>Clipping Mask>Make. Click-and-drag the Top 2 layer and slide it over the C layer.
–img-2

3Next, we’ll do the same with the S layer. Duplicate the layer, name it Top S, and create a clipping mask over the parts that need to go above the C. Select the clipping mask and target the Top S layer, and go to Object>Clipping Mask>Make.
–img-3

4Slide the Top S layer over the C layer, and you’re finished.
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