Step 1.0 – Creating The Document
Create a new Illustrator document that is 1000px by 1000px.
The logo will be built using an equilateral triangle. Click and hold the Ellipse Tool from the left toolbar and select the Polygon Tool. When you left-click once in your document you’ll see a dialog window pop up with options to generate a new polygon shape. Change the total sides to 3, change the radius to 50px, and then click OK.
You can optionally align the triangle to the middle of the artboard. Go to Window > Align, change the Align To option to Align To Artboard, and then select the Align to Middle icon underneath the Align Objects row.
Step 2.0 – Creating A Triangle
The triangle’s width and height must match our example. We can view the shape’s dimensions by clicking on the triangle and viewing the width and height properties from the top toolbar.
Ensure the triangle’s width is 86.603 pt and the height is 75 pt. Change the Corners property from 0 pt to 9pt. You should see the triangle’s corners now become rounded!
Step 3.0 – Offset Paths
Open the Appearance panel by going to Window (In the top menu) > Appearance.
On the Appearance panel select Add New Fill from the bottom menu. Click and drag the fill to be in the last position of this hierarchy. You can give the fill any color. While this new fill is still selected, go to Add New Effect from the bottom menu, hover over Path, and select Offset Path.
You should offset the path by 9pt, select join by Miter, Miter Limit at 4, and then select OK.
Step 4.0 – Repeating Offset Paths
We have to create two more Offset paths using the same technique. Create a new fill, move it to the last position, and add an Offset Path effect. Each path should be offset by 9pt. For example, the first fill layer’s path was offset by 9pt, the second was offset by 18pt, the third one was offset by 27pt.
Step 5.0 – Divide & Delete
We can convert our editable graphic style into paths once we have offset the triangle’s paths three times. With the entire shape selected, go to Object > and select Expand Appearance.
Select all the shapes on your document and click the Divide function from the Pathfinder window. Once all of the shapes have been divided, use the Direct Selection Tool to delete everything except for the outer and inner outline.
Step 6.0 – Slicing The Triangle
Create a circle with a width and height of 18px and place it in the inner nook of the smallest triangle. You can select the Ellipse Tool from the left toolbar, click once on your artboard and input those exact measurements to generate a circle on your artboard.
Click and drag the circle into the left-corner of the smallest triangle. You should see magenta guidelines flicker on your screen when the circle precisely fits. Those guides are enabled by default, but you can control the Smart Guideline options from Illustrator’s preferences under Edit > Preferences > Smart Guides.
Scale the circle to a width and height of 24pt. The bottom position of the circle should not change. You can hold Shift on your keyboard to ensure the circle is proportially scaled upwards.
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Step 7.0 – Moving The Circle
Now move the circle upwards a distance of 9pts. You can use your arrow keys to move it up. Alternatively, you open the transform panel on the top toolbar to control its exact location.
Step 8.0 – Offset Paths
We need to create 3 offset paths around this circle in order to create several shapes that can be used to cut the triangle. Use the Offset Paths technique to generate new fills that are each offset by 9pt. You should use the Appearance panel to create the offsets.
Step 9.0 – Divide and Delete Again
Now we’ll turn our editable graphic style into paths. Go to Object > and select Expand Appearance. Then go to Window > Pathfinder, select all of the shapes, and select Divide from the options.
Use the Direct Selection Tool to select certain shape layers and delete them from the artboard. Follow the GIF recorded below to visualize which shapes should be deleted.
Step 10.0 – Unify
Select all of the shapes in your document and go to Window > Pathfinder and select Merge. Select the entire shape again and select Unify in the Pathfinder menu. This will combine all of your shape’s fragments into one object.
Step 11.0 – Prepare To Clone
We’re now going to create copies of the triangle’s rounded corner.
First, draw a rectangle shape that overlaps the bottom left of the triangle. You can go to the left toolbar, and find the rectangle tool under the shapes icon. This rectangle’s top-right point should stay in the middle of the triangle.
Select all of the shapes on your document, the triangle and the newly created rectangle and select Divide from the Pathfinder menu.
Delete all of the shapes from your document that do not belong to the original triangle shape. However, you’ll notice that the triangle’s corner is a separate shape. We’ve effectively using a rectangle and the divide function to separate the bottom-left section of the triangle into its own group.
Select all of your shapes and go to Window > Ungroup. Then select the shapes that belong to the isolated corner with the Direct Selection Tool and go to Window > Group. Select the new group and go to Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste in Front. You should now have a copy of the isolated triangle’s corner.
Step 12.0 – Cloning
Select the duplicate corner and move it towards the right corner. Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate and input 120 degrees. Illustrator will rotate the group to match the slant on the triangle’s bottom-right corner.
Click and drag the rotated shape to the bottom-right of the triangle. You’ll see magenta guidelines flicker on your screen when the placement is exactly in the triangle’s corner.
Repeat the process for the triangle’s top corner as well. You can select your most recently created triangle corner, go to Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste in front, rotate it 120 degrees again.
Step 13.0 – Divide
Select all of your shapes and use the Divide function from the Pathfinder menu to separate all of the overlapping shapes. Use the Direct Selection Tool to delete any unnecessary shape fragments.
Step 14.0 – Merge
Afterward, select all of the shapes and use the Unify function from the Pathfinder menu to create a single object. Don’t worry about all of the unnecessary anchor points in your shape that were created from previously Dividing and Merging the triangle’s shapes several times. You can use the Delete Anchor Point Tool to individually remove anchor points.
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