Photoshop Tutorial: How To Create Flat Vector Forrst Icon from Scratch

Last week I made a free social icon set in flat design style and today I’ll share about the process behind the scene how to create one of that icon until finished.

In this tutorial we will create the Forrst icon in vector object with Photoshop, with the time estimation is 30 minutes. Let’s get started!

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Preview

Step 1.

Create new file with Open menu ‘File’ -> ‘New’, and set Width:600px, Height: 600px.

Step 2.

Create guide with choose menu ‘View’ -> ‘New Guide’.
first we will create centre of canvas with check ‘Vertical’ and fill position: 50%, again check ‘Horizontal’ and fill Position: 50%

Do it again and fill with this:
‘Vertical’: 44px, 54px, 64px, 536px, 546px, 556px.
‘Horizontal’: 44px, 54px, 64px, 536px, 546px, 556px.

It would look like this one

Don’t forget to lock the guide so we can’t move it letter when we resize the object .

Step 3.

After The Guides is done, now let create icon form
Set the Foreground colour to #11CC73, pick the the ‘Polygon Tool’. And on the Top Toolbar, Fill ‘Sides’ with 6.

Then, create object and put on the center of canvas.

Step 4.

Now refine the angle with Pen Tool. Do it like the image below

Rotate it and refine again the angle

And it will be like this

Step 5.

Resize the object

Create a new Guide

Resize again

Step 6.

Create 3D effect with duplicate the shape layer
First, chose ‘Layer’ -> ‘Duplicate Layer…’ and give it a name

Move the duplicated one to the bottom guide line and change the colour to #0A8047

And it would look like this

Step 7.

Now we move to the center of the icon. Here we would put Forrst symbol on the center.
First, we check the latest symbol that Forrst use.

After that, make the screenshoot and we will recreate the symbol in vector form.

For icon, we don’t need to create long symbol so eliminate the text

Set the Foreground colour to #FFFFFF, pick ‘Polygon Tool’. And on the Top Toolbar, Fill ‘Sides’ to 3

Create triangle object and ‘Fill’ with 50%

Fit it with the image from background

Pick ‘Rectangle Tool’ and choose ‘Subtract from shape area’ on Top Toolbar.

And subtract area with click and drag the mouse from the bottom to the center of triangle like image below

Subtract again

Step 8.

Now, convert the layer into the shape with select edit from top menu, ‘Edit’ -> ‘Define Custom Shape…’

Give it a name

Step 9.

Now back again to the green object that we create before and pick ‘Custom Shape Tool’ from side toolbar and select ‘forest shape’ from top toolbar. Set the Foreground colour to #FFFFFF

Click and drag the mouse on canvas

Resize it

Step 10.

Create 3D effect with duplicate the shape layer.
First, on top menu choose ‘Layer’ -> ‘Duplicate Layer…’ and give it a name

Move the duplicated one to the bottom guide line and change the color to #0A8047

Resize layer ‘Shape 2’ & layer ‘back logo’

Put on the center

Hide the layer ‘Shape 2’ with click on the eye

Step 11.

Now we will create long shadow. first create rectangular object on canvas with Set the Foreground colour to #000000, pick ‘Rectangle Tool’.

Set the fill opacity to 20%

Rotate and resize

With ‘Pen Tool’ add and delete some points

Erase the object outside the hexagonal form with ‘Selection Tool’. With position still on layer ‘Shape 3’ press ‘command’button (or ‘control’button in windows) and click with mouse on layer ‘Shape 1’. Then click ‘Add layer mask’

Step 12.

Show again layer ‘Shape 2’ with click on the eye

With pen tool edit layer ‘back logo’, add and delete some point

Drag some points

Delete some point

Move layer ‘Shape 3’ below layer ‘back logo’

And here the final result:

I hope you found this tutorial is useful and if you’d like to grab more flat icons, I’m creating a bundle of 1000+ social icon in flat design style. Follow us on Twitter or Like our Facebook page to hear more about the icons and get a discount when it released.

– Written by R.Yahya –