Green leaves pattern poster

Create a Quote Poster Design using Reflected Green Leaves Pattern

Pattern, Poster / By

In this quick tutorial, we will create a poster with shaded green leaves pattern background.

  1. Create a new document in Adobe Illustrator, with width and height 600px.
  2. Choosing colors:
    1. Under Swatches panel, click on the light green.
    2. Under Color Guide panel, select 4 shades of green, holding Cmd in Mac/ Cntrl in Windows.
    3. Click on the bottom right button “Save color group to Swatch panel”. Now these colors are added to the Swatches panel.
  3. Creating Background rectangle:
    1. Using the Rectangle tool (shortcut M), create a rectangle of width and height 600px.
    2. Align it to the center of the Artboard, using the Align panel.
    3. Make sure its fill is dark green and border is set to none.
    4. Lock it from under Object > Lock > Selection ( shortcut Cmd 2 in Mac / Cntrl 2 in Windows ).
  4. Creating the leaf shape:
    1. Using the Rectangle tool (shortcut M), create a rectangle of width and height 100px.
    2. Fill it with the lightest shade of green (from our selected swatches).
    3. Using the Direct Selection Tool (shortcut A), click on the circular point of 1 corner of the square and drag it towards the diagonally opposite corner. Drag till a red highlight is visible (this means that the maximum point has reached).
    4. Now repeat the above step for the diagonally opposite corner. Leaf shape is ready.
  5. Creating the horizontal repeat:
    1. Align the leaf shape to the top left corner of the Artboard using the Align panel.
    2. Using Selection tool (shortcut V), select the leaf.
    3. Click and drag on the right side holding Option in Mac / Alt in Windows and Shift key. ( Option to duplicate and Shift to align horizontally )
    4. Use the Smart Guides(pink lines in the video) to ensure that the 2nd leaf is aligned just after the 1st one. ( Make sure there is a tick on Smart Guides from under View > Smart Guides )
    5. Click Cmd D in Mac / Cntrl D in Windows – 4 times to duplicate the above action 4 times.
  6. Creating the vertical repeat:
    1. Using Selection tool (shortcut V), drag and select all the leaves.
    2. Click and drag them below, holding Option in Mac / Alt in Windows and Shift key.
    3. Now, keeping the selection, right click on the mouse, choose Transform > Reflect ( or Object > Transform > Reflect )
    4. Under the Reflect options, choose Vertical.
    5. Using Selection tool (shortcut V), select both the leaf rows.
    6. Click and drag them below, holding Option in Mac / Alt in Windows and Shift key ( ensure their position using Smart Guides ).
    7. Click Cmd D in Mac / Cntrl D in Windows once to duplicate the above action.
  7. Creating the pattern swatch:
    1. Now select the leaves of your choice and give them different shades form the remaining 2 shades of green that we had selected.
    2. Unlock the background rectangle from under Object > Unlock all.
    3. Using Selection tool (shortcut V), drag and select the whole of Artboard.
    4. Drag and drop it into the Swatches panel ( A small pattern swatch of our reflected green leaves is visible in the Swatches panel ).
  8. Test the pattern:
    1. Create a rectangle of random size and apply the pattern swatch and check.

Video tutorial of the making of the pattern:

Create the quote box on top (optional – not included in the video ):

  1. Create a rectangle of a smaller size (eg – width and height 350 px ).
  2. Align it to the center of the Artboard using the Align panel.
  3. Fill it with a very light shade of green.
  4. Using the Direct Selection Tool(shortcut A), select the circular points of 2 diagonally opposite corners of the square.
  5. Click and drag them inside slightly , to create the mild curve.
  6. Reduce the opacity of the square to about 85% (from under the Transparency panel).
  7. Using the Type tool, add the quote of your choice.