Illustrator Tutorial: Bling Bling Text Effect

By Tony Soh Posted on January 16th, 2009

Bling bling pinky text

I’ll be teaching you how to create this eye catching bling bling effect in illustrator. You will learn how to create the texture and apply it to any text. So let’s get started…

1. Drawing the Bling Bling Pattern

First, you will need to turn on the grid by pressing Ctrl/Command+’. Also make sure to turn on View>Snap to Grid. This will enable you to snap your graphics to the grid. Let’s start by drawing a triangle using the Pen Tool. Next, apply a gradient from light pink to dark pink. Draw another triangle beside it in facing down. Apply a white gradient to it.

Select both triangles and hold Alt/Option and drag a copy beside it. Press Ctrl/Command+D to automate duplicate more copies until you have a row. Select the whole row and drag a copy down and move it slight to the right as shown.

Select both rows and drag more copies down until you formed a pattern. Using the rectangle tool, draw a square that will determine the area of repetition for the pattern. Make sure the top and bottom will tile properly. Sane goes for both the left and right sides. Randomly select some of the triangles and change the tint to give more variety to the pattern.

Once the pattern is done, select the square and set the Stroke to none. Press Ctrl/Command+shift+[ to send it to the bottom layer. This will determine the repeat area when you create your pattern swatch. Select all the shapes and resize it smaller by pressing Shift. Open up your swatches and drag your pattern to the swatches. Your pattern is now created.

2. Applying the Texture to Text

Type out your text and adjust the kerning to increase the spacing between the letters. Next, fill the text with the glitter pattern.

Open up your Appearance window and click the options at the right corner of the palette. Select Add New Fill to it. Go Effect>Path>Offset Path and offset it by 5px.

Drag the new fill to the bottom so that it sits below the pattern fill. Change the Filll to a gradient as shown. This will create the highlight for the text edge.

3. Adding Special Effects

Select the text and go Stylize>Outer Glow. Use the settings above. to create a glow around the Pinky text.

Next, draw a big rectangle over the Pinky text and create a gradient as shown above. Go to Transparency Palette and change the mode to overlay. Reduce the Opacity to 45.

This is the final effect with the overlay..

We will continue to add glitter to the text. Using your Star Tool, click and drag to draw a star on the canvas. Without releasing the mouse, click the Down Key to reduce the star to 4 corners. Hold Ctrl/Command as you drag to adjust the star radius to get a thin glitter star. Apply a radial gradient to it as shown above. Finally, set the glitter to screen mode from the Transparency Palette.

Drag the glitter on the Pinky text to create the sparkling effect. Duplicate more glitter to create our final effect. Hope the girls like this. Let me know what you think...

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About The Author: admin

Hi. I'm the founder of Vector Diary. Illustrator is my passion and I have written numerous tutorials on illustrator helping people learn illustrator. My most popular tutorial on learning illustrator in 30 days has been a hit. It makes learning illustrator so easy and has benefited more than 20,000 people worldwide. Also, I've revealed some of my secret techniques in the premium tutorials. So don't forget to check it out!

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About Vectordiary

Vector Diary is a popular blog offering great illustrator tutorials and tips. It was created by Tony Soh, a graphic designer, who has great passion in illustration. Tony has written one of the most popular tutorial for learning illustrator and has helped more than 20,000 people. On top of that, his tutorials and tips has helped designers improve their illustration skills and have received great feedback. So join Vector Diary and start learning today!

joyoge designers' bookmark January 19th, 2009

nice tutorial, I love pink. thanks..

Vector Lady January 24th, 2009

It’s very easy and useful, thank you!

fly February 4th, 2009

Hi! i don’t understand where say ” Select all the shapes and resize it smaller by pressing Shift. ” in the last part.And then I coulnd`t finish it. Try and try, but the triangles was very big. Can you help me with some indication?

Vectordiary February 4th, 2009

Hi Fly, select all the shapes, there should be a bounding box. Click the corners and drag to resize it. Hold Shift as you resize to make it proportionate.

alyssa February 9th, 2009

this one sucks:(

gabriel February 17th, 2009

a little help now, so everything goes just fine up to the part that requieres me to do the off set I apply it but nothing happens and I am a bit stressed up, any ideas what I might be doing wrong.

Tony February 17th, 2009

Hi gabriel, make sure fill is selected in the appearance palette. And go Effect>Path>Offset Path and offset it by 5px.

Tripti March 5th, 2009

pinky thanks 4 sharring this idea..

Large Format Printing April 3rd, 2009

Cool. Funny how the stroke makes all the different with adding gradients and sparkle… Awesome job!

Hotel Calvi May 10th, 2009

It’s very useful, thank you!

Demonologic May 30th, 2009

Great job with the effect here!

Illustrator Training Los Angeles June 19th, 2009

Tony – I love your site – will get all my illustrator students to visit.

Tony Soh June 20th, 2009

Thanks for your support!

graphic design sussex July 20th, 2009

Not nearly used enough! Great effect using a pattern within typo! Great post…thanks

Juan October 9th, 2009

This is good, but i’ve got a problem in the part when we have to create the pattern, this crtl + shit + (what symbol key is this?), Thanks if u can help me.

jay November 5th, 2009

hi,thanks for the tutorial, all looking good so far but i have a pink translucent box covering the txt. you don’t mention where that goes to. please help

Tony Soh November 5th, 2009

Hi Jay, it goes above the text. Make sure the pink box is set to overlay as mentioned.

Vectordiary

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