Create a Set of Oktoberfest Icons in Adobe Illustrator

In this new tutorial you will learn how to create a set of inspired Oktoberfest icons in Adobe Illustrator.

This tutorial is beginner friendly because to create these icons, you will use basic shapes for the most part along with flat colors. At the end, you’ll add highlights and shadows and the set of Oktoberfest icons will be ready. Let’s start!

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Tutorial Details

Program: Adobe Illustrator CS5
Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 hours
Difficulty: Beginner-Intermediate

Step 1

Launch Illustrator and go to File > New in order to open a blank document. Type a name for your file and set up the dimensions then select Pixels as Units and RGB as Color Mode. Also, uncheck Align New Objects to Pixel Grid.

Next, go to Edit > Preferences > General and set the Keyboard Increment to 1 px and while there, also go to Units and make sure that they are set as in the following image.

I usually work with these settings and they will help you throughout the drawing process.

Step 2

Let’s start with the beer mug icon. Take the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw the first rectangle on your artboard about 74 x 96 px. Next, draw five new thinner rectangles on top of the first one and make sure that you have some space between them so you can still see the red rectangle in the back.

Step 3

Now, take the Rounded Rectangle Tool and draw two new shapes, at the top and at the bottom filled with light gray.

Step 4

Let’s decorate the mug with a few screws. Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw a small 7 x 7 px circle filled with gray and after that, draw a smaller hexagon in the center with the Polygon Tool filled with a darker shade of gray. Group (Control-G) these two shapes and name the group “screw”. Multiply the group and arrange a few at the top and at the bottom of the mug.

Step 5

Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to draw two new shapes in the right side of the mug having the dimensions shown. While the rectangles stay selected, press Minus Front in the Pathfinder panel to obtain the shape of the handle.

Step 6

Fill the handle with the color indicated and after that, draw another rounded rectangle filled with red over it.

Step 7

To create the foam, take the Pen Tool (P) and draw a cloud-like shape above the beer mug. Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) the cloud shape and move the copy upwards a little (the pink cloud). Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) the white cloud again in order to make another copy of it but this time don’t move it.

While the copy of the white cloud and the pink cloud stay selected, press Minus Front in the Pathfinder panel.

Step 8

Fill the shape of the foam with white and the shape at the bottom with pale yellow. To add more details, draw a few small moon-like shapes on top of the foam filled with the same pale yellow.

Next, use the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw a few white circles of different sizes above the foam. The last shape is a rounded rectangle as the dripping foam. The beer mug icon is ready for the moment.

Step 9

Let’s continue with the beer crate. Draw three rectangles like in the next image, two of the same size and the third one much thinner. Continue with other two rectangles on the sides and you’ll get the shape of the crate.

Step 10

Make some copies of the “screw” group from the beer mug icon and arrange them on the crate.

Step 11

To create the beer bottle, start with a rounded rectangle having the dimensions shown. Next, draw a 17 x 50 px rectangle above, followed by a smaller rounded rectangle at the top. The fill colors are not important at this point.

Step 12

While the three shapes stay selected, press Unite in the Pathfinder panel to obtain a single shape. Distort this shape by moving some of the anchor points and adjust their handles with the help of the Direct Selection Tool (A). When you are done, fill the shape of the bottle with dark brown.

Step 13

Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw the shape of the lid followed by the label on the neck. Add a small red star on top using the Polygon Tool. The label on the bottle is made of a white ellipse and a slightly smaller red ellipse in the center.

Step 14

Group (Control-G) all the shapes that compose the beer bottle and move them behind the crate. Make other two copies next to it.

Step 15

The next icon is the fork and sausage. Take the Rounded Rectangle Tool and draw the shape of the handle first. Continue with a 11 x 52 px rectangle filled with gray at the top.

Step 16

Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw the head of the fork like in the next image. The last thing to do is to add a small yellow circle at the bottom of the handle in order to be consistent with the colors from one icon to the other.

Group (Control-G) all the shapes that compose the fork and name the group “fork”.

Step 17

Draw the shape of the sausage and fill it with brown. Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) the sausage shape and move it upwards as shown below (the gray sausage). Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) the sausage shape again in order to make another copy of it.

While the copy of the sausage and the gray sausage stay selected, press Intersect in the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with the color indicated.

Step 18

Now, grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw a few random shapes on the sausage as the grill marks. Group (Control-G) and fill all of them with a darker shade of brown. At the ends of the sausage draw two triangle shapes filled with the same dark brown.

Finally, Group (Control-G) all the shapes that compose the sausage; then rotate and move the group over the fork.

Step 19

The next icon is the traditional man costume. Start with a 110 x 9 px rectangle filled with brown and after that, draw the shape of the pants like below. Continue with two smaller rectangles at the bottom.

Step 20

Grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw two straight paths as the suspenders and give them a 9 pt green Stroke. In the Stroke panel, make sure to select the Round Cap option to obtain the rounded ends.

Next, draw a shape between the two paths filled with the color indicated and also having a 6 pt green Stroke.

Step 21

Use the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw a few yellow circles as the buttons and to decorate the costume. For the moment, this icon is ready.

Step 22

The last icon is the woman costume. Start with the shape of the skirt and fill it with the same shade of red as before to be consistent. Draw a similar but smaller shape on top as the apron.

Step 23

Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw a shape like in the next image as the waist and fill it with brown. Continue with the shape in the middle followed by two 39 x 38 px ellipses at the top.

Step 24

Next, draw two shapes like below as the straps and after that, draw two short sleeves. You can draw one of them and reflect it to obtain the second one.

Step 25

Use the Pen Tool (P) or the Line Segment Tool (\) to draw two short paths on the waist and give them a 3 pt yellow Stroke. Between these two paths, draw four new paths in a criss-cross pattern and give them a 2 pt brown Stroke.

Step 26

Decorate the skirt with two yellow stripes at the bottom and a shorter brown stripe a the bottom of the apron.

Step 27

Select all the shapes that make up the woman costume and then Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) in order to make a copy of everything. Before you release them, choose Expand from the Object menu (to expand the existing strokes) and after that, press Unite in the Pathfinder panel (to merge the copies into a single shape).

Step 28

Grab the Rectangle Tool (M) and draw a white rectangle that covers the left half of the costume. Select the shape of the costume that you obtained in the previous step and set it to stoke-none and fill-none. Bring this shape in front of everything by going to Object > Arrange > Bring to Front (Shift-Control-]).

Now, select the white rectangle along with the shape of the costume in front and go to Object > Clipping Mask > Make (Control-7). Name the resulting group “highlight” and set it to Blending Mode Overlay and 35% Opacity.

Step 29

The same thing goes for the man costume. First, draw a rectangle that covers the left half of the icon and fill it with white.

Next, select all the shapes that make up the man costume and Copy and Paste in Front (Control-F) to create a copy. Before you release, choose Expand from the Object menu (to turn the existing strokes into fills) and after that, press Unite in the Pathfinder panel (to merge the copies into a single shape). Bring the shape of the costume that you just made in front of everything by going to Object > Arrange > Bring to Front (Shift-Control-]) and set it to stroke-none and stroke-none.

Step 30

Use the technique explained above and create the highlight but only for the fork. Leave the sausage as is, in front of everything.

Step 31

Continue with the beer mug icon and create the highlight but only for the mug. Leave the foam as is, in front of everything.

Step 32

Follow the same technique and create the highlight for the beer bottle. This time, because of the darker color of the bottle, set the “highlight” group to Blending Mode Overlay and 75% Opacity. In the image below, you can see the final result with all three bottles highlighted.

Step 33

Now, it’s time to create the highlight of the beer crate and you are done.

Step 34

The final part of this tutorial is to create the shadows. Select the beer crate and the three bottles but make sure that you don’t select any of the “highlight” groups and Copy and Paste in Place (Shift-Control-V). Before you release the copies, press Unite in the Pathfinder panel to merge them into a single shape.

Step 35

Select the beer mug (without the “highlight” group) along with the foam and then Copy and Paste in Place (Shift-Control-V). Before you release the copies, press Unite in the Pathfinder panel to merge them into a single shape.

Repeat the same thing for the fork and sausage icon. Remember to select the fork without it’s “highlight” group.

Step 36

The same thing goes for the two costume icons but before Unite, choose Expand from the Object menu to expand the existing strokes otherwise Unite will generate a strange result.

Step 37

Select the five new shapes that you made in the previous steps and move them to a new layer called “shadows” behind the icons. Give them a black fill; then go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow and apply this effect four times.

These are the settings for the four Drop Shadow effects:

Awesome work!

Here is the final image with the five Oktoberfest inspired icons. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you learned new things today. These techniques can be applied in future projects to create a variety of icons.