How To Create A TDK Cassette Tape

Do you have any of those at home? Even if they are considered retro elements, there are probably still a lot of people that continue to use them. Because retro style is very popular right now and besides that, they are just so nice! In this tutorial I’ll show you to create a standard D-C60 TDk cassette in just some minutes.

Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards.

Step 1

Start by creating a new document 600 x 500 pixels. Then select the Rectangle Tool (M) and click somewhere on the document, enter 340 px value for width and 210 px for height, set a light green color (I used #AEC49F) for the fill and no stroke. Make sure that you’ve selected the rectangle and go to Effect -> Stylize -> Round Corners… 10px is enough.  Go to Object -> Expand Appearance.  Your rectangle should now look like this.

Step 2

Now create another rectangle that is 230 x 50px, fill it with an even brighter green color (#DFEECF). Select the direct selection tool (A) and click on the top left anchor point of the new rectangle to select it and move it to the right by 15px the select the right top anchor point and also move it by 15px to the left. Select both shapes and in the align panel press the “Horizontal Align Center” to align them.

Select the new rectangle and go to Object -> Path -> Offset Path and enter the value of -5px. Make it th same color as the main body shape.

Step 3

Now let’s create the screws! Draw a circle (30 x 30px) and apply a gradient from a very bright gray (C=0 M=0 Y=0 K=20)  to a not so bright gray (C=0 M=0 Y=0 K=40) and set the angle for gradient -45.  Now draw a cross, from two lines using Line Segment Tool (\) that are 20px long and give them a stroke of 4pt also gray (C=0 M=0 Y=0 K=60). Select the cross and the circle and press Ctrl+G to group them. Resize the screw to 13x13px and place 4 copies in corners and one in the middle of our second rectangle.

Now create those 4 holes on the second rectangle. Using the Ellipse Tool (L) create two ellipses that are 13x13px and other two that are 11 x 11px and place them as in the image.

Step 4

Now, using Rounded Rectangle Tool draw a rectangle on the main shape and fill with a pale yellow (#F6F7D3).

Create a new rounded rectangle in the middle of the cassette. With this rectangle still selected, while holding down the Shift key press and select the yellow rectangle that we”ve just created. In the Pathfinder panel press Exclude button and delete the second path, we don’t need it anymore. Your cassette should now look like this:

Draw two circles 40 by 40 px with no fill or stroke and a rectangle between them like in the image.

Now, (using Shift clicking) select these two circles, rectangle and the main body shape and in the Pathfinder panel press Exclude again, move down the resulting shape (Ctrl+[ ) or from the layers panel.

Step 5

Now let’s draw the tape! Start by creating a circle 125 x 125 px, fill it with a dark brown color, then create another one 56 x 56 px on the top of the first one such way that their centers coincide, select both and click on the Exclude button in the Pathfinder panel, you end with a donut-like shape. Then create another circle that is 55 x 55 px , no fill, 11pt red stroke  and place it on the top of the brown “donut shape”.  Create the last circle (35×35 px) with no fill again and a gray 8pt stroke. Place it on the top of the rest.

Draw a small rectangle below the smallest (gray) circle.

With this rectangle selected, take the Rotate Tool (R) adn Alt-click on the center of the smallest (gray) circle that we’ve created. Introduce the 36 degrees value to the angle and press Copy.

Press Ctrl+D 8 times to repeat last action and create another 8 rectangles.

Select all 10 rectangles and those three circle and press Ctrl+G to group them together. The g the group under our cassette to make it look like tape. Copy the group and drag it o the right hole of the cassette, so we had two roulette, but in the second one make the brown “donut” a bit smaller.

Step 6

The last thing that we need is some text and decor lines. On the top left corner of the yellow shape draw a black square and type “A” letter on it. Draw some black lines for text near the square.

On the bottom of the yellow shape Write ” D-C60″ and “TDK”

Draw two decorativeve lines on the cassette, then on the right part of the yellow shape draw two squares with 1pt black stroke and no fill and write near them “in” and “out”.

That’s it! Our cassette is ready to rock!