80s font tutorial: creating chrome effect in Adobe Illustrator

You can now not only enjoy the catchy style of retro video games, but bring it to your typography too!

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It’s hard to express how much we enjoy the current wave of retro obsession. To help you bring it to your creations, I’m thrilled to share this text effect tutorial for Illustrator from Richard Carpenter.

The vivid 80s and 90s imbue apparel designs, music, games, cinema — wherever you go, you feel the vibe. So, this lettering tutorial gives you a chance to bring together the popular neon design and a variation of chrome effect. Together they constitute a magnetic combo that you can use on posters, tees, logos, stickers — or to recreate the text effect introduced in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

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It will take you less than twenty minutes to complete this lettering tutorial, whilst the acquired skill empowers to try more unique combinations — the variety of 80s fonts and retro color palette solutions gives you room for experiments!

Fonts used: Alako Bold and Montserrat