Illustrator Glitch Tutorial

In today's tutorial I'll be demonstrating how you can create vector text with a glitch effect using Adobe Illustrator CC.

The following is a brief outline of the steps taken to achieve this effect. For complete step-by-step instructions, watch the video tutorial at the bottom of the post.

Glitch Effect

First we're going to start out with some text using the 8 Bit font, which can be downloaded for free here: https://www.dafont.com/8bit-wonder.font. Make sure to put a fair amount of spacing between the letters, as depicted below…

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Step 1

Next, we're going to create some rectangles that will be used as reference points for breaking up the text.

Step 2

We'll then unify each row of shapes horizontally and randomly shift them left and right.

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Step 3

Next we will create a couple of duplicate copies and make one blue and the other pink, lower them beneath the original black text, and shift them left and right respectively.

Step 4

The final step is to bring the letters back together by decreasing the space between them.

Step 5

If you'd like, you can also add a shear to the design, which I think helps to emphasize the glitching aspect.

And with that, we are finished. Our glitch text effect is complete.

Finished design

As you can see, I made the text white and added a dark background on mine, but you can style yours however you'd like.

Video Tutorial

For complete step-by-step instructions with voice narration, watch the following video tutorial. Everything is spelled out so that even a first-time user of Illustrator could follow along.

If you have any questions leave a comment below, and as always, thanks for watching!

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Nick Saporito is a Philadelphia-based graphic designer who specializes in branding-specific design. A full portfolio and information regarding services offered can be found at LogosByNick.com.