Ahoy lads and ladettes. While working on a recent logo design project, I had to create an element that resembled a nuclear fallout symbol. I found a quick and easy way to do just that using a custom illustrator brush, and now I will share my secrets with you.

Step 0.5:

Open Illustrator

Step 1:

Using the Rectangle Tool (keyboard shortcut “m”) Create 1 black square and 1 white square next to each other (if you don’t know this yet, if you hold down shift while dragging out a rectangle, circle, etc. it will make a x by x square, circle, or whatnot).

Step 2:

Select the 2 squares and drag them into your brushes tab.

Step 3:

When the New Brush menu pops up, make sure New Pattern Brush is selected and press OK.

Step 4:

In the Pattern Brush Options, give your brush a name, leave the other settings alone, and hit OK.

Step 5:

Use the Ellipse Tool (keyboard shortcut L) to make a circle. Apply your new brush as the stroke.

Step 6:

If you’re lucky, you’ll end up with the correct symbol. Odds are you won’t though, so adjust the stroke weight until you’re shape is just right.

Step 7:

Don’t worry, we’re almost done. Select your circle and go to Object>Expand Appearance. That will make your stroke into individual shapes that you can scale, color, and otherwise edit as you wish.

Step 8:

Now Delete the three white border pieces. This will leave you with two extra circles. Set one circles fill to black and shrink it down to the center. Give the other circle a black stroke and enlarge it.

By changing the stroke width before you expand the appearance, you can make some other neat shapes. Mess around with it and have some fun.

GodBless:VQ