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I am constantly looking for new things to try out in Adobe Illustrator to improve my skills, and I came across this:

artwork

I've no idea how can this be created and would appreciate some help.

I tried creating a white box, apply a thick stroke and then skewing it, but I ended up with a mess that looking nothing like that :/

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  • My apologies, I forgot to add that. Added.
    – J86
    Apr 17, 2018 at 8:52

2 Answers 2

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Here's another method.

  1. Draw a rounded rectangle
  2. Transform > Shear > 30° vertical
  3. Copy and paste the shape
  4. Select both and apply 50 step Blend (or enough steps to make it solid)
  5. Expand twice, Pathfinder Unite, to make a single shape
  6. Copy and paste the shape, and draw smaller shapes (see red outlines) to cut out parts of one of the shapes
  7. Use Pathfinder Minus Front to remove the parts
  8. Draw additional shapes with the Pen tool

enter image description here

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  • nice, this one looks easier! I'll try it when I get home and report back, thank you very much!
    – J86
    Apr 17, 2018 at 10:21
  • there is a easier way. you dont need step 3->4 you can ujust use a calligraphuc brsh on 2 directly. Ping for @Ciwan too
    – joojaa
    Apr 17, 2018 at 11:49
  • @BillyKerr how do you create the bit in step 8?
    – J86
    Apr 17, 2018 at 15:36
  • @Ciwan, these were just drawn with the Pen Tool, I made one, then copied and pasted it. The single rounded corner on the left shape was created with the rounded corner widget available in Illustrator CC
    – Billy Kerr
    Apr 17, 2018 at 18:38
  • @joojaa how does one apply the calligraphic brush? I'm lost at step 3 because I don't know what a step blend is or how to apply it
    – J86
    Apr 18, 2018 at 11:45
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Only some guidance, obviously you want to find the details yourself:

enter image description here

Draw a square, add effect "Rounded corners"

Add effect 3D > Extrude & Bevel, preview=ON, no shading, no bevel, the view = Isometric Left. Play with the extrusion depth

Expand the appearance. You get a 2D shape which have the needed curves and anchor points to add more parts. I removed the fill and drawed a green rectangle. It snapped perfectly with snap to points and smart guides ON. Disable other snaps, or you get nothing usable.

You can tweak the effects via the appearance panel as long as they aren't expanded.

You must also subtract parts. That can be done using

  • boolean operations in the Pathfinder panel or
  • adding clipping masks or opacity masks
  • direct path anchor point editing tools and the scissors

You must release the compound path and ungroup the groups before you can edit the expanded shape.

Altough you can often get wanted shapes very fast, 3D effects can be considered as Pandora's Box approach, a shortcut to unnecessary complexity which easily turns to unmanageable => Before trying this explore direct 2D drawing as suggested by others.

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  • Nice, thank you. I'll try this when I get home and report back.
    – J86
    Apr 17, 2018 at 9:30

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