How to Make a Striped Ribbon in Illustrator

Illustrator Shapes & Effects

Ribbons and stripes are a good combination to create eye-catching elements for your designs to be used as backgrounds, figures, or even as small touches in a composition. Usually, they are used as flat and straight elements, but you can make them more organic by adding dimension if you make them follow a particular path. So today, I will show you how easy it is to make a striped ribbon in Illustrator that you can use over any path shape to add a bit more dimension and visual interest to your compositions.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and make a new file at any size you want. I will make mine at 900 x 600 px.

Step 2

Select the Line Segment Tool (\) and make a short line between 5 and 10 px in height (you may zoom in a bit to better see the line). In this case, I will make at 7 px.

Step 3

Go to Window > Stroke and set the line stroke weight to 3pt.

Step 4

Copy (Ctrl+C) and Paste (Ctrl+F) the line 6 times.

Step 5

Select each of the copied lines and align one below the other as shown. Note: Be sure to snap each line with the preceding one.

Step 6

Select the segments 2, 4 and 6 and give them a different stroke color. In this case, I will set mines to a light gray.

Step 7

Go to Select > All and then to Object > Group.

Step 8

Copy (Ctrl+C) and Paste (Ctrl+F) the group.

Step 9

While holding the Shift key on your keyboard, drag the copied lines group to the rigth as shown.

Step 10

Press Ctrl+A on your keyboard to select all elements and then go to Object > Blend > Blend Options.

Step 11

In the Blend Options window apply the following settings and click OK.

Step 12

With both groups still selected, go to Object > Blend > Make.

Step 13

Select the Pencil Tool (N) and draw any kind of path that you wish.

Step 14

Lastly, press Ctrl+A on your keyboard to select all elements and then go to Object > Blend > Replace Spine.

Some Final Tips:

Now that you know how to make a striped ribbon in Illustrator, you can freely change the recently made path as you normally do in Illustrator, and even change the ribbon colors by editing the original line color like in the following examples.