infographic series - slip shadows

Here is a quick way to take any shape, object or text and create a darker slip shadow like you see in some illustrations and infographics. 

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Start with a simple shape. Filled with a color but no stroke around the object.

With the object sleected with the Selection Tool, hit the return key to bring up the Move dialog box. Set the H & V to ZERO in each field and press COPY. This duplicates the shape on top of itself, very important.

With the duplicated shape, hold OPTION + SHIFT and click and drag the shape. Holding shift allows the shapes to be dragged at a 45° angle. 

Select the first duplicated shape and the last duplicated shape and choose Object > Blend > Blend Options... and choose Specified Steps from the drop-down menu. Set the number of steps. In this case I moved the object about 2.5 inches so I chose 250 steps. 4 inches would be 400 steps.

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Once the Specified Steps are set, choose Object > Blend > Make. This will blend the first and last object together with 240 steps or duplicate shapes.

Here is the result of 250 shapes blended together.

To make this into a single shape, choose Object > Expand.

The Expand panel will open, click OK.

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With the Blend Expanded, choose Unite in the Pathfinder Panel to combine all the 250 shapes together into one shape

Send the object to the back by choosing Object > Send To Back. This put the "shadow" to the back behind the original shape.

Change the color of the shadow to a lighter or darker color to show the slip shadow behind the original image.

Putting it on a similar color background adds to the effect.

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When using a font, make sure to outline the type before performing the same steps outlined in this tutorial.