01
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS
Begin by finding a font in Illustrator with
qualities that will lend themselves to becoming the
physical form of a building. I tend to use sans serif
fonts such as Helvetica, useful because of its bulk
and clean lines. For the letters formed from
windows, use a font such as BDBrick or draw
squares to form the shape of the letter. Kern the
letters tightly to form the illusion of a dense and
bustling city.04
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Although the image is abstract, there need to be tokens of realism that people will associate with buildings to
make the image convincing. Using the Line tool, create columns where you think the buildings may need support, but be
sure not to go overboard. There needs to be an element of joy and wonderment – we are designers after all, not engineers.
Heaven forfend.HARNESS VISUAL POWERWORK IN
PROGRESSProgress 1: LayoutProgress 2: AdvertisingProgress 3: Completion03
FAÇADES
Open a new file in Photoshop and drag the
3D lettering into it. Using their outlines as a template,
overlay photo textures of real architectural materials
such as concrete and metal, and cut out the shapes
using the Pen tool. Using the 3D lettering as an
indicator, highlight areas of the photo texture using
the Polygonal Lasso tool and turn down the
Brightness levels (Image>Adjustment>Brightness/
Contrast) to create a sense of three-dimensionality.02
ARCHITECTURAL ANATOMY
Fill some of the letters with a solid colour.
These will become your expanses of solid façade for
advertisement. Keep the other letters as outlines,
which will form areas of active frontage for a bit of
variety. Now highlight all the letters and group them
together (Object>Group). Using the Extrude & Bevel
tool in Illustrator (Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel) set the
parameters for the shading and extrude depth. Set
the perspective angle according to your design.Night-time scenes are more forgiving, providing a veil of
darkness for edges to fade into the background3D AND PHOTOSHOP