You’ve seen them everywhere: those recognizable shapes that tell you which restroom to use. Even here in devil-may-care dekeOpolis we like to know which door is which. The average mortal might try to draw them in Illustrator by tracing one of the ubiquitous images on the web or building them up with shapes. But leave it to our own man Deke to figure out how to create this universal Gent (and on Wednesday, his Lady) using nothing but carefully engineered strokes applied to a single line segment.

Yep, no drawing required here, the only real skill you’ll need is the ability to enter numbers into the Transform Effect dialog box. Well, actually, about 13 Transform Effect dialog boxes. But the result will turn a simple unassuming line segment into a universally recognizable man. Read on to see how it’s done:

1) Start with a simple line.

If you’re following along, start with a simple 266-point long line segment (#1 in the figure below) drawn with the good old Line Segment tool. In the Appearance panel, set the stroke to 28 points (#2 below). Click the word Stroke in the panel, and then choose Round Cap so that your line starts to look like a universally recognized leg (#3 below). This segment will miraculously become the reference for every part of our Universal Dude.

2) Turn your segment into a suitable leg.

To position the right leg, choose Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. In the Transform Effects dialog box, set the Vertical Scale value to 70 percent, then set the Horizontal Move to 19 points. In the reference point matrix, choose the bottom center point and Click OK. (Deke calls that 9-point gizmo the reference point matrix. I call it “The 9-point Proxy I Pointed to in the Graphic Below with My Charming Yellow Arrow.” I’ll give points to anyone who comes up with a Universally Recognized Name for the thing in the comments.)

Note the red line that indicates the original path outline still right where we left it, but the Transform effect moves the “leg” down and shortens it up a bit. Each of the stroke effects in this tutorial will basically be another interpretation on that same original path—kinda like creating a bunch of tweaked, twisted, and repositioned shadows. If I were feeling intellectual, I’d make some comment here about Plato’s Cave. (And then you’d probably find something else to read.)

3) Duplicate the leg on the left side.

To create the left leg, make sure the original stroke effect is selected in the Appearance panel, then click the page icon at the bottom of the panel to make a copy of it. Click the triangle icon to the left of the new stroke entry to twirl it open, then click the word Transform. In the Transform Effect dialog box, you’ll see the original effects you applied on the right. To turn this from a right leg into a left leg, simply change the Horizontal Move setting from 19 to -19. (General Tip: Turn on the Preview check box to see your changes take effect on the fly.)

4) Give him a torso.

You guessed it, the body will be yet another iteration of the stroke. Duplicate the first stroke in the Appearance panel by again clicking the page icon at the bottom of the panel. Give it body-appropriate girth by setting the stroke weight to 66 points.

Click the word Stroke to bring up additional attributes you can apply to this variation of the stroke. Choose the Butt Cap setting (on the far left) to square off our dude’s derrière. (Sure, it squares the top of his torso, too, but that doesn’t have the same mnemonic pithiness. No, I only act like I’m 12. A 12-year-old who knows how to use the word pithy.)

Click Transform under this stroke to again bring up the Transform Effects dialog box. Change the Vertical Scale to 40 percent, the Horizontal Move to 0 points (we want it back in the middle), and the Vertical Move to 54 points. Set the reference point matrix to the top center point and click OK.

5) Round out his, uh, crotch. (That’s the crude but universally understood way of referring to that space between his legs.)

To give the negative space between his legs their appropriate rounded shape, we’ll use a white stroke. Choose one of the 28-point leg strokes and duplicate it. Click the black swatch to bring up the Swatches selector and set it to white. Reduce the stroke to 10 points.

Again open the Transform Effects dialog box by clicking Transform under your new stroke. (Are you sensing a pattern here?) Change the Vertical Scale to 20 percent, the Horizontal Move to 0 points, and the Vertical Move to 54 points. Set the reference point back to the center and click OK.

6) Create the right arm.

Duplicate one of the 28 point leg strokes by Alt-dragging (Windows) or Option-dragging (Mac) it to the top of the Appearance stack. Change the Stroke weight to 24 points.

You guessed it: open the Transform Effects dialog box by clicking Transform under your new stroke. Change the Vertical Scale to 26 percent, the Horizontal Move to 55 points, and the Vertical Move to -18 points. Set the reference point back to the center and click OK.

7) Make the left arm.

Duplicate the previous stroke by Alt-dragging (Option-dragging) it to the top of the stack. Open the Transform Effects dialog box (you know the drill by now) and change the Horizontal Move to -55 points to duplicate the arm on the other side.

8) Temporarily give him robot shoulders.

Duplicate the previous arm stroke by again Alt-dragging (Option-dragging) it to the top of the stack. Open its Transform attributes and set the Rotate Angle to 90 degrees in the Transform Effect dialog box. (Yep, you can even turn the stroke perpendicular to its original path. Transform is universally useful!) Set the Vertical Scale to 28 percent, the Horizontal Move to 0 points, and the Vertical Move to -56 points. You now have a literally universal symbol: the headless robot.

9) Get back to earth with big manly shoulders.

You can return your universal man to his “human” status by setting the Stroke weight to 59.5 points. Not as cool as headless robots, but more universally accepted for restroom doors here on earth.

1) Round out his armpits.

Again, we’ll use a white stroke to round out the areas underneath his arms. Choose the 24-point right arm stroke (it’s probably the lower one in the stack) and Alt-drag or Option-drag it to the top. Change the swatch color to white and set the stroke weight to 10 points.

Open the now familiar Transform Effects dialog box and change the Vertical Scale to 24 percent, the Horizontal Move to 38 points, and the Vertical Move to -16 points. Click OK.

11) Fix the other armpit.

Duplicate the previous stroke, open its Transform properties, and change the Horizontal move value to its opposite: -38 points.

12. Give the dude a head.

I know, you’re wondering how on earth Deke managed to find a way to create a circular head by stroking a straight path. Answer: It’s a Fill. But don’t worry, it’s still just a numerical tweak to another entry in the Appearance panel.

Drag the existing Fill attribute up to the top of the Appearance panel stack and change its color from None (square with a red line through it) to black (square that’s, well, black). Make sure the Fill is active, then choose Effect > Convert to Shape > Ellipse. (This, I grant you is not intuitive. We’re changing a line to an ellipse for the purposes of its Fill property only. Yeah, it can hurt your perfectly round head if you’re not in the mood for the conceptual. But go with me, this is Deke-tested.)

In the Shape Options dialog box, set the Size to Absolute and the Height and Width values both to 52 points. Click OK.

To move the head to the top of the body where it belongs, make sure the Fill property is selected, then choose Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Change the Vertical Move to -122 points and click OK. (Yes, in this case, a negative value will move the fill up.)

And our Universal Man is built (and I don’t just mean his shoulders, baby). Here’s a look at him next to the Appearance panel-based inventory of how all his parts came to be:

Of course, at this point he is totally dependent on the orientation of that initial segment. In fact, if I were to cruelly rotate said path, this horror would ensue:

I don’t even want to know what that’s the universal symbol for. (OK, it’s kinda cool, but not helpful for accurate toilet identification.) The problem is, all our carefully crafted Transform effects were established relative to the vertical orientation of the initial path. The solution (after returning the path to its upright state) is to turn our guy into path outlines. Given there are a bunch of different shapes involved, here’s what Deke calls a “4-step conversion process,” which I have numbered with finesse so as not to contradict him:

-1) Duplicate the Man layer so you can keep your original guy safe.

1) Choose Object > Expand Appearance (the familiar way to turn anything into path outlines).

2) Choose Path > Outline Stroke to convert all the paths to filled path outlines.

3) Open the Pathfinder panel and click the Merge icon (center icon on the second row.)

3 ¹/₂) Choose Object > Ungroup so can remove unwanted outlines (which just so happens to be his crotch and armpits, so there’s your second childish and mildly gross mnemonic of this post).

4ish) Use the black arrow tool and click off the path to deselect, then click on one of the white outlines that represents a void (the polite term).

4) In the Options bar, click the down pointing arrow to the right of the Select Similar Objects icon on the far right. Choose Fill Color from the popup menu to select all the offensive (white) areas, and press Backspace or Delete to remove them. (Little did this feature know it was going to grow up to conveniently collect crotches and armpits.)

4^x) Regroup the remaining parts and enjoy.

If you’d like to see this tutorial in action, stop by tomorrow for the free Deke’s Techniques video which will just-so-happen to feature the video this project hosted by the (universal) man himself. Along the way, you’ll hear Deke’s insights as well as a bit of history on how these figures came to be.

And lest our dude get lonely, I’ll be back Wednesday as promised with stroke-based advice on how to make his Universal gal.