The Copycat Design Series is all about learning graphic design by recreating the greats. Each tutorial walks you through the process of rebuilding iconic logos, timeless typographic layouts, clever compositions, and even creative coding projects—step by step.
⚡ The purpose isn’t to copy for commercial use, but to sharpen your eye, improve your software skills, and understand the decisions behind professional-level design. By breaking down famous and contemporary works, you’ll gain practical techniques you can apply to your own original projects.
Perfect for graphic designers, students, and creative professionals who want to grow by studying the masters, practicing hands-on, and expanding their design toolkit.
👉 Explore the posts below and pair them with the Copycat Design Series on YouTube to get the full experience.
Recreate the bold Smartwool “CHASE WOAH” postcard in Adobe Illustrator. This step-by-step tutorial covers Pathfinder cuts, text-to-shape techniques, embedding images, clipping masks, and exporting a print-ready PDF. A perfect copycat exercise to sharpen your print design skills while learning Illustrator essentials.
In this Illustrator-based tutorial, we’re taking a closer look at an iconic piece of design history: the logo designed by Alan Fletcher for the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in 1989. Not only is this logo visually striking, but it’s also a masterclass in typography, iteration, and creative problem-solving. Today, I’ll show you how to analyze it and even create a “copycat” version to learn...
Recreate the iconic 1962 Moderna Museet poster in Adobe Illustrator. Learn clipping masks, grids, and kerning in this hands-on typography tutorial inspired by modernist design.
Copycat Design Series Have you ever wondered how designers bend and warp text perfectly into custom shapes—like the Pringles logo’s bowtie? In Illustrator, it feels like magic when you see it happen with just one click. But here’s the catch: not every logo plays so nicely. Take the Harley-Davidson badge, for example. The word MOTOR across the top isn’t something Illustrator can nail with a single...
In this installment of the CopyCat Design Series, we’re diving into the iconic LA Dodgers interlocking monogram logo. By studying and rebuilding this design in Adobe Illustrator, we’ll practice typography basics, anchor point editing, and interlocking letterforms—skills you can apply to your own monograms and logotypes. A Brief History of the LA Dodgers Logo The Dodgers’ “LA” monogram is one of...
In this post from our Copycat Design Series, we’ll walk through how to recreate one of the most iconic logos of all time: the Olympic rings. Along the way, we’ll dig into the history, explore the official brand guidelines, and learn some Illustrator techniques that you can apply to any design project. Table of ContentsWatch then read (Video Tutorial)Understanding the DesignHow to Analyze and...