Create a Vintage Style Vector Bottle Cap

For Your Refreshment

I love vintage style, and there's something incredibly nostalgic about a retro bottle cap design. Creating one in Adobe Illustrator is easy and only takes a few steps. The result makes a great logo or badge for a vintage style website. Let's take a look at the process below.

Inspiration

Before beginning a design like this, I like to find a little inspiration. After a quick Google search, I ran across these perfectly vintage caps.

Step 1 - Creating the Bottle Cap Edges

Create a new document in Adobe Illustrator. Using the Ellipse Tool (L) create a circle. Hold the Shift key on your keyboard while dragging the shape to constrain it to a perfect circle. I'm using a CMYK color mode. My circle is K: 27%.

Now click Effects | Distort & Transform | Zig Zag and enter the settings that I'm using below. Then click Object | Expand.

Create another circle using the same method as above. This circle should be K: 7%. Using the Zig Zag Effect again with the settings below. Then click Object | Expand.

Select the original star shape and copy (Cmd+C) and paste it (Cmd+V) to make a copy. Scale the new star shape so that it is larger than the copy. It doesn't have to be exact. Center align them using the Align panel.

Using the "Minus Front" button on the Pathfinder panel trim the star shape out of the copied shape. Now, change the color to K: 7%, scale it down a bit and center align the shapes again.

We need to make two more stars to complete the bottle cap edge. For the next star, create another circle (K: 60%) and apply a Zig Zag effect using the previous settings. Then click Object | Expand. We'll need to copy the original background shape again and center align it with the new star. Now use the "Intersect" button on the Pathfinder panel to trim off the star's outer points.

For the final star, create one more circle (K: 60%) and apply another Zig Zag effect using the settings below. Then click Object | Expand. Scale the shape so that it fits within the background with the points going all the way to the edge. Center align the shapes again.

Step 2 - Adding the Printed Label

For the label, copy and paste the background shape. Scale it down a bit and choose a bright color (I used C:0 M:82 Y:100 K:0). Center align all the shapes again.

Create another circle (C:0 M:68 Y:93 K:0), and scale it slightly smaller than the label edge. Center align all shapes.

For the label shadow, create two circles, and scale the topmost circle down from the top and bottom. Then use the "Minus Front" button on the Pathfinder panel to punch out the center of the circle. For the color I used (C:0 M:68 Y:93 K:25)

Now center align the shadow shape and the rest of the bottle cap.

For the highlight, do the exact same process as the shadow. Scale it slightly smaller, color it white, and set the opacity to 20%. Center align all shapes.

I added a bar across the center to complete the label background. This is just a rectangle, center aligned, placed below the shadow and highlight, and colored the same as the label background.

Step 3 - Adding Vintage Style Text

For the text, I chose a font called Thirsty Script for it's vintage appeal. The secondary fonts are Blanch and Myriad Pro. Refer back to our inspiration caps for ideas on title and secondary type placements. Vintage design depends a lot on font style and arrangements. Pay attention to things like kerning and line heights. Simple things like that can make or break a design.

Here's a look at some other caps I created just by swapping out the label designs.