Now that we have the Mygrafico logo lion graphic separated into its individual body parts, in preparation for animation, we can start working on the business name text element in the logo.

Also in preparation for animation, we need to separate each letter in the business name onto its own layer in Illustrator®. The font used in the company name was hand drawn by a previous designer. So, we need to duplicate or trace the letters.

My first option was to use the Image Trace option in Illustrator but I wasn't happy with the results. The large m and g was a good trace but the smaller mygrafico letters were not. The next option is to manually trace each letter.

Luckily, the mygrafico name has several letters that are basically the same shape, such as the y, g, a, c and o. Also the r, f and i have similar shapes. We can begin my tracing the larger m and g letters. To manually trace a small object such as a letter, it helps to zoom in to about 400% and set the Fill color to null. In order to better see the path as your draw, set the Stroke to a contrasting color such as red.

Once we have the two larger letters traced, we can use the traced g letter to build the y, a, c and o. But before that, we need to trace the f, which we will use to build the r.

Let's start to build the y from the g. First we use the Free Transform tool to scale down the larger g to overlay the smaller g in the name. Next we move the g over to the y letter. As you can see, we can "cut" the three curved sections of the g at the anchor points, then extend the path lines to the shape of the y and finally close the open paths.

As in a previous tutorial, we will use the Direct Selection tool and a few buttons on the Control panel.

1. To remove the lower curve of the g, click one of the anchor points at the top end of the curved path with the Direct Selection tool. Click the Cut Path At Selected Anchor Point button on the Control panel to "cut" the path at this point. Repeat this for the second anchor point of this curve.
   
   
2. Select the curved path with the Direct Selection tool and click the Delete button to remove.
   
   
3. Select the anchor point at the bottom of the y with the Direct Selection tool and drag the path downward to the bottom of the y. Repeat this for the second anchor point.
   
   
4. To close the path at the bottom of the y, hold down the Shift key and use the Direct Selection tool to select both end points. From the Control panel click the Connect Selected End Points button. You will see the path close.
   
   
5. Repeat the previous steps for the two curved paths at the top of the y.
   
   

Use this same technique to build the other letters from the original g as your starting point. Starting with the small f that we traced earlier, build the rest of the letters.

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