Graphic Design: Create a set of Avengers
“Ladies, children, sheep… some people call me master. I consider myself a instructor. Lesson Number 1: Easy roads…. there’s no such thing.” Maybe it doesn’t sound as good as Ben Kingsley in Iron Man 3 but at least you’ll see how to make your own avengers’ icons in a simple way. “Fun isn’t something one considers in graphic design… but we’re really going to enjoy this”
Creating the Iron Man icon
Step 1
Create a New Document (Ctrl + N) and set the units to pixels and the size to 1000×400 px on landscape. Also make sure the Color Mode is on RGB.
Step 2
Take the Rounded Rectangle Tool and create a 150×150 px rounded square with a 48,5 Radius. This rounded rectangle will have a stroke of 6pt and with a 65% black color.
Step 3
Create a duplicate of the Rounded Rectangle and scale it down to 128×128 px. The duplicate will be inside the big rectangle from Step 2. Now Create four circles. A 50×50 px circle on the top part. Two 105×105 px on both the left and right bottom corners. And a 10×10 px circle on the bottom middle. Now take all these circles and the duplicate and go to Pathfinder and select Divide. Remove the shapes you will not use and you will have Iron Man´s peculiar helmet. Finally add some lines as shown on the image below.
Step 4
Now let´s create the eyes. Take the Elipse Tool (L) and create a 168×100 px elipse. Now create a duplicate above.
Step 5
Select the Rectangle Tool (M) and create two tall rectangles on the left and right and on top the elipses. Now change their angle to 45 °. Now select everything and go again to Pathfinder and select Divide.
Step 6
Remove everything but the middle intersection from the two elipses and you will have the shape shown inimage 1. Now take the Pen Tool (P) and create two anchors on the lower path. Take those anchors and bring them to the top path to finish the eyes as shown on image 2. Place the eyes into Iron Man´s face.
Step 7
Now let´s add some color. The inside rectangle will be a pale yellow #F2E4AC. For the outer rectangle use a light red #EB3851. If you want to add some lights, just create duplicates of the rectangles and displace them a little bit to the right just as shown on image 3. Now our Avenger’s billionaire genius playboy philanthropist is complete!.
Creating the Hulk icon
Step 1
Use the same “head” from Iron Man and change the color to a green #8CBE3C.
Step 2
For the hair, create some random sized circles with 65% black color and place them on the top part of the head. Now create a clipping mask using the head’s shape.
Step 3
Hulk is always angry, so for the mouth, let’s create a 44×60 px rounded rectangle with 9 px radius and place it on the bottom of the face. Fill it with white color and place a 44×35 px rectangle with 65% Black color.
Step 4
It’s time to create the eyes, and yes, they are angry too. Create two 16×16 px circles with 65% Black color. Now create a green #8CBE3C rectangle on top of them to cover the top part of the eyes. Now create two 34 pxlines with 4 pt stroke and Round Cap and place them on top of the eyes to make them look angry.
Step 5
Create the angry veins using the Pen Tool (P) and place them on the face as shown on the image. Now Bruce Banner’s angry friend is finished!
Creating the Captain America icon
Step 1
Use the same “head” from Iron Man and change the color to a dark brown #F3D7B2. Now create a duplicate inside and change the color to a skin tone #F3D7B2. Now create a 28×18 px rounded rectangle on the bottom middle of the head.
Step 2
Create a duplicate of the head. Cut the middle part and take both bottom anchors further down to create the shape of the helmet just like image 1. Change the color to a blue #53ADE1. Now create two 34×30 px rounded rectangles and fill them with the skin tone. These will be the eyes.
Step 3
Take the same Hulk eyes and just change the angle of the top lines. Create a 29 px line for the mouth and with the Type Tool (T), create an “A” letter and fill it with white color.
Step 4
Almost done! Let’s create two 14×52 px rounded rectangle with 7 px Radius and place them on the left and right tops of the head. And we are done with the first Avenger’s icon!
Creating the Thor icon
Step 1
Use the same “head” from Iron Man and change the color to a light grey #bcbec0. Now take the same inner rectangle from Iron Man, but take the bottom part to match the bottom path of the head as shown in image 2. The color for this will be the skin tone #F3D7B2.
Step 2
For the face, just take the same Captain America face.
Step 3
For the hair, take the Pen Tool (P) and create a crown-like shape as shown on the image.
Step 4
Now let’s create the wings for the helmet. Let’s create a 14×52 px rounded rectangle with 7 px Radius and a duplicate above and a little to the right. Now create a duplicate to the left and flip it horizontally. And we are done with the hero from above!
Actually, we are done creating the Avengers Icons!
