Vector Exercise DTC 355

"B.O.T." / Justin Hawkes / Adobe Illustrator 

I have never worked with Adobe Illustrator and this was my first time. It is still really confusing to me but it was fun to play around with. I started by creating 3 different canvas' that were 4x4 inches. I then used the type tool to create the letters, using a font called "Neou". After creating the letters I selected each one individually, went to "Type" and selected "Clipping Mask". I then used the "Direct Selection Tool" to select each anchor or path and drag it every which way until it looked distorted. I then selected  the "Stroke" on the left of the window, "Gradient" under that, applied the gradient along the stroke and made it 4 pixels wide. After each letter was set I used the rectangle tool to draw a rectangle the same size as my document, which also created the gradient frame you see around it. Selected everything and created a clipping mask then saved the piece as a Web-Based JPG. 

The initalism B.O.T. stands for "Beware of Thieves" which is the name of a "company" a couple of my friends started where we would make shirts with graphics on them composed by yours truly. Beware of Thieves came to us while we were looking through a book that focused on signs and symbols the homeless would use to convay information to eachother. If there was a pick pocket in the area then they would write 2/10, which meant "Beware of thieves" near the site and that would warn the others. I also used 2/10 in my pieces but in a "I spy" sort of way so that it would be an particular to us and our die-hard followers.

I started a new piece and transformed it a lot more, added a graient to the background, inside shapes and stroke. This piece is called "Gradienthief".