[DeepDish]

I admire the covers of Men's Journal. I like the type effects and shadows. The title logo looks all vector, does anybody know what Illustrator plug-in they use? Sometimes the "Men's Journal" logo is obviously a vector they took into PS. But other times, it is so crisp, it has to be 100% Illustrator, but with so much detail and layering, they must be using a plug-in.
http://www.mensjournal.com/

Can anybody help me?

[MikeM32]

Well I wouldn't jump the gun on illustrator, although you "might" be right. The covers displayed in your link look pretty-much like standard fonts with some cool drop shadows and so-on.

You could probably achieve similar (if not better) results in an application that's actually meant for type like QuarkXPress or InDesign. It's funny because I just left a job that was like 99% QuarkXPress and typography work utilizing real page layout applications.

The new job I just started is mainly color corrections in Illustrator and Photoshop. So some co-worker was working on a *special project* which was basically a flier of some kind. She set the whole thing in Illustrator and it took her hours

I told her I'd have used a real dedicated page layout app. and I'd probably have whipped it up in like 15 minutes to 1/2 hr tops. Of course these people have only ever really used Illustrator and Photoshop and know little about professional typography. The worst part was she used TIMES to set the flier up

<sigh>

Mike

[DeepDish]

They rotate the cover logo style between four different styles. Sometimes it is a simple type that is tweaked with a drop shadow. Other times it's a very complex type layering that is all vector with complex knockouts combining multiple raster and vector layers for the whole cover. Whoever does their covers is a god in my design book. Inside the book they have wonder two page spread feature story openings. They use an oversided page size so the colums are not too slim when they add nice elements around the borders of the entire page area. If is funny, I don't read the content, just study thier layout each month.

I will go to work today and find an example of the style I like and post an image to see if anyone recognizes a plug-in to do the same time.

Thanks

DeepDish
12 years Quark, 9 years Photoshop, 7 years Illustrator
7 years Art Director (but never as good as I want to be

[DeepDish]

Here is a link to the type style I am looking for an Illustrator plug-in for.
http://www.b2bqo.com/magfullwidth.jpg

When you look at the printed piece, the logo is 100% vector with a raster drop. I find it easy to tell when a vector was dropped into PS, but this logo is so crisp, it has to be vector with some plug-in in Illustrator.

Thanks guys,

DeepDish

[T Allen]

The artist that did the 'lettering' is Dennis Ortiz-Lopez. Check out his web
site at http://www.ortiz-lopez.com/ for other samples of his work. Great stuff.

"How" did a feature on him in 1994. He uses a Mac :- ). I had that issue for
several years but it has vanished. If I recall correctly, he uses
Illustrator for doing this kind of work.

[T Allen]

The artist that did the 'lettering' is Dennis Ortiz-Lopez. Check out his web
site at http://www.ortiz-lopez.com/ for other samples of his work. Great stuff.

"How" did a feature on him in 1994. He uses a Mac :- ). I had that issue for
several years but it has vanished. If I recall correctly, he uses
Illustrator for doing this kind of work.

[buchrob]

You have landed on a real gem.

I was a professional typographer for over 25 years, and this guy's portfolio just knocked me out of my socks. Period.

His use of the mac makes up for the many years that so many of us who love type suffered looking at Freehand 2.0 "Zoom type" and other unprintable early Typestyler effects. I am sure that there is no "make it look fabulous" plug-in for Illustrator or Freehand that you will find of any use.

Working as a detective, I can only conjecture that this type of work involves carefully selecting the right PostScript font and then rendering the letter as outlines, which can then be modief and pasted above other variations underneath, each having distinct stroke and fill characteristics.

[mitchell_pgh]

Much of time time I will place a drop shaddow in the Photoshop file, and place an Illustrator image over it set to knock out. The Illustrator image is sharp, but you still get the drop.

[Mediaman_12]

You have to remember that both Illustrator & Freehand can now do drop shadows within the vector App (Illustrator uses a better method IMHO) If you look at the crop round the blokes head on the example you linked it's dead sharp with non of the 'softness' associated with using a Photoshop layer. In fact at closer inspection the '3D' type effect could be quite simple (if not a bit laborious & time consuming) to achieve, with careful use of the pathfinder tools & layers.

MikeM32
A dedicated vector app like Illustrator or Freehand is the perfect app for doing a 'Flyer' in (not multi page mind you) doing such things in Quark lands you with a nightmare of overlapping text & graphic boxes, and if you are sending it to an external print shop turn all the fonts to outlines and leave all your "can you please send us YOUR version of AvantGarde" type font problems at the door.

[Face Ache]

I'm a self taught office pleb so I don't know anything about what you guys do for a living, but I can knock up the same title in 3 minutes in TypeStyler (vector based).

Would Pro's use TypeStyler? Nobody's mentioned it yet.

(Please don't shoot me for being dumb).

[godzookie2k]

Originally posted by Mediaman_12:
<STRONG>A dedicated vector app like Illustrator or Freehand is the perfect app for doing a 'Flyer' in (not multi page mind you) doing such things in Quark lands you with a nightmare of overlapping text & graphic boxes, and if you are sending it to an external print shop turn all the fonts to outlines and leave all your "can you please send us YOUR version of AvantGarde" type font problems at the door.</STRONG>

Agreed, admittedly I try to spend as little time as possible in quark/indesign. Granted, alot of my work is quite deconstructed and contains ten bagillion occurences of things over lapping and combined so using quark for that kind of precision is just a bitch. Hell, I once laid out an entire graphic novel (32 pages) by doing each page individually in illustrator then importing page by page into indesign, then again, I am a glutton for punishment. However, I find that sometimes when I convert type (esp. small type) to outlines it seems to throw it off a little, type is bulkier kerning gets thrown, etc, but maybe its just my imagination.

(TYPESTYLER?!?! never even heard of it, sounds interesting though. However, us design snobs don't mess with that amateurish stuff, we like doing things the hard, shove a tampon in the wrong hole kinda way. j/k )

Nick

[ 02-15-2002: Message edited by: godzookie2k ]

[Face Ache]

I think you should check out TypeStyler. It's has a free 90 day (fully functioning) demo.

I'd never heard of it either and now I neeeeed it.

I promise you will like it. That style of lettering is the least it can do.

I think the latest version is around 3.7.2.

[andi*pandi]

TypeStyler is old-school powerpoint-like text warping. Usually thought of as cheesy by the pros, but now the newest version of Illustrator has text warping.

I guess as long as what you do with it isn't scary, it's fine...

[registered_user]

Here you go: 5 minutes with Illustrator 8. I'd add the drop shadow, but I hate AI9, and this is still a good example. No, I didn't use his font, nor do I have it.
http://homepage.mac.com/registered_user/men.ai.sit

edit: Here it is with a drop shadow. This is an Illustrator 9 file. http://homepage.mac.com/registered_user/menAI9.ai.sit

If you need instructions, let me know.

[ 02-15-2002: Message edited by: registered_user ]

[ 02-16-2002: Message edited by: registered_user ]