Hi guys, I've been looking around for a while for an answer on this question, but always came up dry so I'm going to try my luck here...

http://i59.tinypic.com/2zirgb4.jpg

I'm trying to put an image that resembles topographical map features (made out of pencil tool, blend option, specified steps, expanded appearance, and ungrouped for individual paths) on top of heavy black helvetica lettering (tried as regular type, and then tried after I converted the letters to outlines) and then using the minus front function to create "cuts" into the text... but it always ended up looking like http://i59.tinypic.com/5oum4z.jpg can anyone shed some light on this ish? Much appreciated.


Oh, and first time poster. soo.. hello!