How to make a collection of shapes pinch on the ends

[Carter289744191yhn]

Not sure if its easier to do ass a collection of shapes or text along a curve, but:

I want the ends of this string of letters to pinch at the ends and be thicker in the middle.

[Monika Gause]

You might want to check out the envelope function.

[Jacob Bugge]

Carter,

How about this?

1) Type the text (just keep as live Type), then apply Bulge (in the Arch Group under Warp under Effect) and make an Art Brush of it;

2) Create the curve with a 1pt stroke and no fill, then apply the Art Brush from 1).

Click/RightClick to get closer

[Ares Hovhannesyan]

As Monika mention try Warp from Envelope or Mesh tool

 

[Bobby Henderson]

Aside from the Envelope functions, I like using a trick involving Art Brushes. If you turn your type object into an Art Brush you can apply it to a curved path and then edit the path to your preferences. The Width tool changes the thickness of a line stroke on different parts of a path. For instance you can make the path thick in the middle and thin on the ends. It will also work with paths that have Art Brush effects applied to them.