[Vincent Rosati]

I’d create swatches for the colors, then blend ellipses.
Once the flames are rotated, you can use the Direct Select tool to adjust the flames into the various subtle shapes.

3852_flamecs4.ai.zip

The AI file looks like this…

Here’s a tutorial on how you might rotate the flames.
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rosati_vincent/radial_patterns.php

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Since you do have vectors for the characters it should work. You might have to make some adjustments, but it sounds possible.

I’ve had situations where I needed create live Japanese text. The source rasters were too low resolution, so I opened the raster in AI, traced all of the characters with the pen tool, rasterized a high-res version from my vectors, OCR’d in Acrobat and it worked perfectly.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Sounds like you’re going to have to manually retype. Though it might be possible to run the original file through Acrobat and use the OCR feature to recreate the live text.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

I’d suggest you work inside a CMYK file.

Vector artwork is resolution independent, so ppi/dpi doesn’t really apply unless you are using any raster effects, in which case you you would probably want to set the Document Raster Effect settings to 300dpi.

As far as the size of the artboard, probably just the standard paper sizes would be fine – US Letter or A4 if you’re not in the US.
If you’re not printing and you just need an image file, maybe make the artboard a perfect square, maybe 1024px x 1024px.
Don’t make the logo fill the entire space, make it maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of the dimensions of the artboard, and position it just slight above center.
Think of the work as creating a composition, rather than simply creating a logo. Use the empty/white space to frame the art.

Just some ideas.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Here’s something using a Scatter Brush instead…
3836_scatterbrush.ai.zip

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

If your shapes are paths, first you need to Object / Path / Outline Stroke.
If they are just shape objects..

Select them all and drag them into the Brushes palette and create an Art Brush.
You’ll then be prompted to specify settings such as Direction. Based on your illustration, you might need to select the Right direction.
Then just make a circle with the Ellipse tool and apply the brush.

You may have to tinker with it, like put a patch in the middle, etc.

Why not just make colored circles?

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Selecting all of the objects and Window / Pathfinder / Outline might work for you. Other than that, the only thing I can think of is to turn on snapping and use the Scissor tool.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

You’ll just need to duplicate the pipe on top of itself – Copy/Front – Hold Ctrl or Cmd + C, release C then click F. Or, Edit / Copy, Paste in Front.
Basically, you’re creating a patch for the intersection.
Then just use the Scissor tool (C) to cut on both sides of the intersection, then delete the unnecessary parts. Or, you could mask the intersection.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Looks like, probably, when you expanded the gradient their was a mask object that surrounded the expanded elements – this is the typical behavior.
I just selected the the mask with the Group Selection tool and deleted it before dragging the gradient into the Brushes palette.
You should probably be able to try this in your original artwork.

Also note that I used Effect / Stylize / Round Corners on the angular shapes, to make the pipe/brush bend properly.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Maybe create an Art Brush, like this:
3812_pipe2.ai.zip

Vince

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