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The Whole Complicated thing

Writing & Printing

Design & Portfolio

Online School

The Font Foundry

Building a grid

We start by creating a little tile.

This very easy to make. It is such a simple procedure that you will use it, or something like it, a great deal. Remember, if you wish to, you can set up FreeHand so it also uses the Option/Alt-drag to copy shapes like Illustrator does. FReeHand's Clone command is a little more controllable.

Let's run through it step by step:

  1. Draw a square with a quarter point stroke and a graduated fill from light to dark, top left to bottom right

  2. grid

    Using the Scale tool, move the transformation center to the center of the square (if necessary); Option/Alt-click on the selected shape; check Uniform; 85% to 95% (your choice). Change the stroke to white. Switch the direction of the gradient so it goes from upper left dark to lower right light. This gives the illusion of delicately scooped tile with the light source to the upper left.

  3. Multiple select the two squares and Group. Note: In Indesign it is possible to make the tile with one square, a wider stroke and reverse the direction on the stroke. But only InDesign can apply a gradient to a stroke.

  4. Option/Alt-click on the new tile and drag sideways, holding down the Shift key to make the move perfectly horizontal until there is a nice looking gap between the two tiles. Note: In Indesign you can select the tile, copy it (Command/Control C) and then use the step and repeat command to paste in as many copies as you like spaced out horizontally.

  5. Duplicate five times (Mac: Command D; PC: Control D)

  6. Select All, Option/Alt-drag the seven tiles down with the Shift key held down and drag straight down until the gaps around the tiles are even.

  7. Duplicate five times (Mac: Command D; PC: Control D) and you are done! The sample below used a slightly smaller tile gridded to 7x7.

tile

Export or Save As a PDF and attach to an email
sent to your instructor for grading.

Obviously a technique like this works for checkerboards, Italian table cloths, floors, walls, and an infinite number of similar uses. In Illustrator, you can Select All and use the 3D Rotation tool or the Envelope tool to move the tiles into position. You can play with the colors. Whatever you decide to do with the procedure, it has now become a part of your PostScript illustration arsenal of techniques.

GRADING:

You start with 20 points

5 points off for any missing piece or step