Digital Creativity Snippet
#5
Geometric Logo
Creating hexagons with Inkscape
Inkscape makes it really easy to create geometric shapes. To make a hexagon, you select the create stars and polygons option with these shapes on the button:
The polygon will need 6 corners to appear like a hexagon. Using a stroke width of 1 pixel allows you to properly connect the corners of the hexagons at a later stage. Then, select the hexagon and give it an easy to work with size such as a 100-pixel height (make sure the aspect ratio is locked while adjusting the size). While the hexagon is still selected, you can duplicate the shape. On Mac, you do this with command-D and on Windows with control-D. It will be stacked right on top of the original hexagon, so you only see that it worked when you drag the duplicated hexagon around. This second hexagon will get a smaller size with a 90-pixel, so minus 10 pixels compared to the bigger shape. Then you duplicate the 90 pixel hexagon. Instead of making it 10 pixels smaller, you make it 9 pixels smaller, and the next shape 8 pixels smaller. This way the inner part of the hexagon spiral will have more depth to it.
Aligning and rotating the hexagons
Once you have duplicated and resized all the hexagons you wish to use for the geometric logo, it’s important to select all hexagons and align them at the center by clicking both center on vertical axis and center on horizontal axis:
- The next step is to select the second largest hexagon and then click it again. The arrows around the selection should indicate that you can now start rotating the selection. Rotate the selection to the right so that the corners of the second-largest hexagon touch the largest hexagon. The following hexagon that is one size smaller should be rotated to the right as well, but a little further so that the corners touch the second-largest hexagon:
After several rotations, take a moment to zoom in and check if you have properly placed the corners on the larger hexagon. The result after completing all the rotations should look similar to this:
Editing stroke and create background
Now that your geometric shape is completed, it’s time to adjust the stroke width to the size you prefer and to adjust the stroke color to the color of your preference. If you plan to keep the background white, consider giving the stroke a bright color and increasing the stroke width to 3 pixels. This will give the spiral effect a more dramatic look:
For the geometric logo a circle with a gradient was used. The stroke color is white and the stroke width is 2 pixels. To make a circle, you select the create circles, ellipses, and arcs tool. Here is a short video tutorial that explains how to create circles in Inkscape in case this is a new subject for you. Make sure the circle is large enough to fit all the corners of the largest hexagon into it. Make sure to lower the layer of the circle to the bottom, so that all the hexagons are visible when you stack the circle and the hexagons on top of each other. The shapes can be aligned at the center again as explained above.
Then, select all shapes and click on the create and edit gradients tool. By double-clicking on the lines of the gradient, you can add stops to the gradient that each have their own shade of a color. Each stop will appear as a white dot, and to adjust the color for a specific stop, you first need to click on the white dot. For this example, the inner stops are kept in the bright purple-blue. Only the outer stops have lighter shades. You could also use transparency in the gradient but remember that when you use the image on a different background color, the image could look distorted. Some final touches can be made to the stroke and the background. Take a look close-up and also zoomed out, so check if the spiral effect is visible in both perspectives. Lastly, you can select all shapes and group them by using object → group.
Hopefully, you enjoyed this Digital Creativity Snippet! Geometric shapes can seem like a very complicated topic to start into. But spending some time experimenting and following the steps of some useful tutorials can lead to the realization that it’s not only something you can achieve yourself. It’s something that allows you to create some of the most magical and impressive images.
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