Recently, I was faced with a graphic dilemma. I needed to Place an Illustrator logo (File > Place) into a Frame that had a color Fill. I wanted the logo to have a soft Drop Shadow, which would darken the Fill of the Frame that contained it. At the same time, I wanted the Frame itself to have a separate Drop Shadow, which would darken the background beneath the Frame. Is this possible without having to draw two Frames?
Yes! Select your placed logo with the Direct Selection tool (A) and apply the shadow (Object > Drop Shadow). This will apply a shadow to just the logo itself, not the Frame, and the shadow will be cast on the Fill of the Frame. Now select the Frame with the Selection tool (V) and apply a second Drop Shadow to the entire Frame. The Filled Frame will cast a second shadow on the background. Remember though, if the Frame was not Filled, the placed logo would have two shadows. Hmm! That’s another tip!
Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.
Author: jeff witchel
Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since.
Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination.
Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 19 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the “go to” guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics.
As an Adobe Certified Expert, he’s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2. Jeff is one of just a handful of Adobe Certified Instructors in the New York metropolitan area. He also is a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6 as well as a master of Adobe Photoshop and related applications. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, illustrators, and photographers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
