Creating eye-catching icons feels intimidating at first. But once you understand the layering tricks, you’ll wonder why it seemed so hard.
Today we’re building a twisting, colorful spiral icon in Adobe Illustrator. The kind you see in modern app interfaces and branding work. Plus, we’ll use gradient techniques most tutorials skip over completely.
The secret? Layering transparent gradients with smart blending modes. That’s what separates amateur icons from professional ones.
Start With Your Donut Base Shape
First, create the foundation. Draw two concentric circles to form a donut shape.
Here’s the important part. Make duplicates of both circles right away. You’ll need these copies later for different gradient effects. So select both shapes, then duplicate them twice. Keep those copies off to the side.
The base donut establishes your icon’s proportions. Everything else builds on top of this foundation. That’s why getting the size right matters now, not later.
Create the Swoosh Shapes
Next, build the two swoosh elements that twist across your donut. These create the spiral illusion.
Draw your first swoosh shape. Make it roughly 440×375 pixels for the top element. The exact size matters less than maintaining good proportions with your donut base.
Then duplicate this swoosh shape. You now have two identical swooshes to work with. Again, keeping duplicates saves time when applying multiple gradient effects later.
Position these swooshes to create that twisting, dynamic look across the donut. Adjust rotation and placement until the composition feels balanced.
Apply Initial Gradient Effects
Now the fun begins. Take your first swoosh shape copy and apply a gradient.
Use a simple two-color gradient to start. But here’s the key trick. Set the layer blending mode to Overlay instead of Normal. This creates transparency and lets colors beneath show through naturally.
Overlay blending mode works magic with gradients. It darkens dark areas and lightens light areas simultaneously. That’s what creates depth without looking flat or artificial.
Repeat this process for the second swoosh shape. Each swoosh gets its own gradient layer set to Overlay mode.
Change Your Base Donut Color
Before going further, adjust the base donut color. Pick something vibrant that works with your overall color scheme.
Then grab one of those donut duplicates you made earlier. Add a white-to-black gradient and set this layer to Overlay mode too. This adds dimensional shading across the entire donut base.
The gradient should run perpendicular to your light source direction. That creates the illusion of a curved, three-dimensional surface.
Build the Inner Shadow Effect
This step adds crucial depth. Duplicate your base donut shape again and move it just below your swoosh gradient layers in the layer stack.
Apply a black-white-black radial gradient to this shape. Start with black at the center, transition to white in the middle, and back to black at the edges.
Set this layer to Overlay and reduce the opacity until it looks natural. You’re creating an inner shadow that makes the donut appear hollow and dimensional. Too strong looks fake. Too weak disappears completely.
Adjust the gradient center point to control where the shadow falls. This simulates light hitting the inner curve of your donut shape.
Create the Rainbow Gradient Stroke
Here’s the special trick for that spinning rainbow effect. Duplicate your base ellipse shape and swap the fill and stroke.
Make the stroke 300 points wide. Then apply a colorful gradient directly to the stroke itself.
Use these specific colors for the gradient stops:
- Red: #ce2951
- Orange: #e5ab05
- Green: #32ba45
- Blue: #677fd3
- Red: #ce2951 (same as start)
Notice we end with the same red we started with. This creates a seamless loop when the gradient wraps around the circle. Otherwise you’d see an ugly seam where the colors meet.
Drag this rainbow stroke layer into your layer stack wherever it looks best compositionally. Usually somewhere in the middle works well.
Add Top Shading to the Donut
Duplicate your donut base shape one more time. Apply a dark-to-light gradient set to Overlay mode.
Position this layer near the top of your layer stack. The gradient should darken the bottom portion of the donut while keeping the top lighter. This simulates overhead lighting.
The key is subtlety. You’re enhancing the existing shadows, not creating completely new ones from scratch.
Build Highlight Strokes on the Swooshes
Now we add those crisp edge highlights. Duplicate both top swoosh shapes and remove their fills completely.
Add a 4-point white stroke to each shape. Set the stroke alignment to the outside edge of the shape. This keeps the stroke from overlapping your carefully crafted gradients.
Use the Direct Selection tool to tweak corners where the strokes meet. You want the strokes to fade off naturally at the edges, not end abruptly.
Group these stroke shapes together. Then add a radial gradient mask centered on the icon. This fades the strokes at the edges if they’re too prominent. Adjust the mask opacity until the highlights look integrated, not pasted on.
Divide Your Swooshes for Individual Shading
Here’s where we add serious depth. Duplicate your donut shape and both swoosh shapes. Pull these duplicates to the top of your layer stack.
Select all three shapes and use the Divide pathfinder. This cuts your swooshes into four separate pieces based on how they overlap with the donut.
Delete any tiny stray paths the pathfinder creates. These just clutter your layers panel and slow down rendering.
Now you have four individual swoosh sections. Each gets its own shadow gradient to create depth where the swooshes curve around the donut ring.
Apply shadow gradients set to Overlay mode on each section. The shadows should fall where the swoosh curves away from your light source. This sells the three-dimensional illusion completely.
Add Highlight Gradients to Each Swoosh Section
Finally, duplicate those four swoosh sections one more time. Add highlight gradients to each new copy.
But here’s the crucial difference. Set these highlight layers to Color Dodge blending mode instead of Overlay. Color Dodge creates brilliant, glowing highlights that make colors pop.
The highlights should fall opposite your shadows. If shadows are on the bottom curve, highlights go on the top curve. This creates that polished, professional look.
Adjust opacity carefully with Color Dodge mode. Too much creates garish, blown-out highlights. Too little and they disappear. Find that sweet spot where highlights feel natural but noticeable.
Tweak Until It Feels Right
You now have all the pieces in place. But professional design happens in the refinement stage.
Adjust gradient angles, opacity levels, and blending modes until the composition clicks. Move layers up and down in the stack to see how different arrangements affect the overall look.
Play with the gradient colors themselves. Small hue shifts create surprisingly different moods. What works for one project might feel wrong for another.
The icon should feel balanced, dimensional, and cohesive. Each element supports the others rather than competing for attention.
Most tutorials stop at technical steps. But the real skill is knowing when something looks right versus when it needs more work. That judgment comes from experimentation and trusting your eye.
Save variations as you go. Sometimes your third attempt looks better than your “final” version. Having those backup versions means you can always go back.
This layering technique works for countless icon designs beyond spirals. Once you understand how transparent gradients and blending modes interact, you can create depth in any shape. The spiral just happens to showcase these techniques particularly well.
Now go build something that makes people wonder how you achieved that polished, professional look. Because you know the secret is patient layering, not magic.