Illustrator New Tips & Tricks

Hello Creatives!

Many creatives, illustrators, designers and animators use Adobe Illustrator. There are multiple ways to create an illustration with these time-saving tips and tricks.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Clicking on menu bars and choosing your commands take up precious minutes when in the midst of long projects. Learning keyboard shortcuts saves valuable time which leads to a more efficient design process. Here are a few essential keyboard shortcuts:

Classic Tools

In Illustrator there are taskbars full of tool icons. These are the classic tools that have been a part of the program from the beginning. Tools such as the Selection and Direct Selection tool, the Type tool, Color and Color Guide tools. Many of these tools are contained in tool groups nested on the taskbar. These can be un-nested and moved in the program like the Character, Paragraph and Open Type tools.

These are some of the classic tools that everyone utilizes daily who uses the program. Adobe Illustrator has released new versions of the program consistently for the past 30 years and has released new tools recently with the emergence of the Creative Cloud service.

New Tools

The launch of the Creative Cloud service in 2011 provided new tools within Adobe Illustrator, tools that changed the game. Among these tools, include the Creative Cloud library, Shape Builder tool and the Shape Blender tool. These are particularly useful to improve efficiency when designing and illustrating under tight deadlines. The Creative Cloud library allows you to connect to saved assets, illustrations and colors within the program quickly rather than searching for external files in the computer and importing them into the program.

The Shape Builder tool is relatively new that unites shapes. It has replaced the Unite tool in the Pathfinder tool group. The Shape Builder tool is in the main toolbar which allows for quicker and easier access.

The Shape Blender tool lies next to the Shape Builder tool in the main toolbar that has replaced the shape-to-shape blend process. Instead of selecting the shapes to be blended and choosing Blend from the Object toolbar, the Shape Blender tool is instant. Select the objects to be blended and click the Shape Blender tool, it saves time from searching through toolbars.

These were a few quick tips and tricks to help improve your efficiency. Try them out and see how much faster your projects get done especially utilizing the keyboard shortcuts and new tools.

See You Soon Creatives!

Cause Design

Hello Creatives!

Designing for a cause, charity or non-profit is a different experience than a typical client; it pulls at the heart strings of the audience you are trying to reach through promotional materials, infographics and motion graphics/ animation.

Designing for a cause is meant to inform, be memorable and encourage a call-to-action through charitable giving.

Infographics

Infographics, or information graphics, are meant to convey a clear graphical representation of bulk information that is easy to understand. Designing for causes, charities and non-profits utilize these simple symbols to convey their messages in an attractive way. Designing for a cause relies on attracting attention and spreading an important message like the one below about donating supplies for children globally to have an education.

Infographics make bulk information more engaging to read rather than reading paragraphs of type on a page. In order to be effective, the infographics must be simple, easily recognizable and attractive to draw attention from the target audience. Negative space, color and balance are key when creating infographics. For the example below, you have what the charity is for, what is needed, where the supplies are going, and a call-to-action to give in various ways. There is also a graph showcasing how much the charity has raised.

Charitable Marketing

For a design to be successful, it has to convey a clear message to an audience. Designing for a cause has to allow the audience to feel they can give to something beneficial. In return for their generosity, it is common to gift the giver a product more commonly known as swag.

Swag bags or product giveaways and materials are a gift for the giver to encourage awareness and attract more of the target audience. More often than not, the audience will not be willing to be charitable or giving unless they recieve something in return. These items are meant to be a representation of appreciation. These promotional items can be designed simply, they do not have to be complex designs but they need to be useful to the recipient. For instance, if the fundraiser or charity is for education, like our example above, then the most common swag would be a notepad/notebook, folder/binder and totebag. The promotional items have to make sense with what is being marketed, even if it is for a cause, charity or non-profit.

Promotional items are also an encouragement for further call-to-action by the recipient spreading the message through word-of-mouth. If you are looking to expand your portfolio, try doing some work with non-profits and charities because you will benefit them and yourself with what you create.

See You Soon Creatives!

Every Professional Was You

Hello Creatives!

At one point, every professional or admired colleague, was you. They started somewhere and became someone. The road to success only happens when you begin. You can nor succeed or go anywhere if you don't start. Get ready, begin!

Start?

You have a dream, or dream career, but where do you start to achieve that? How do you become like the people you idolize?

Start with your best skills

Master your strengths

Share your skill

Learn what you don't know

Strengthen your weaknesses

Start with what you know, your best skills. This will keep you confident as you reach toward your goals. When you work with your best skills, you naturally would like to show them off. Feel free to showcase your work and best skills by sharing it on social media, aka self-promo. People love to see work from passionate creators. When you produce great work with your best skills, it boosts your confidence to learn new skills.

Once you start sharing your work, you can learn new skills to broaden your reach. Success is a journey, the more skills you master, the farther you can go. These days there are a multitude of tools to help you, including Skillshare that allows you to start for free, as well as Adobe Creative Cloud on YouTube. They provide tutorials and live streams with real design professionals where you can interact with them and other creatives who attend. This can be a long process so patience is key. Remember it's all experience to benefit you and turn your weaknesses into strengths.

IT's TOO MUCH

Learning new skills can be overwhelming, especially when you realize all the things you don't know, don't stress out. Pacing yourself and creating a schedule for learning will help you stay on track and avoid burnout.

Perseverance is your friend , don't allow small mishaps or early failures dishearten your resolve to learn new things. It's okay if you find this difficult, you may not be successful the 1st time, or the 2nd, or the 5th. No successful professional ever reached their success by giving up.

"Many of life's failure's are people who did not realize

how close they were to success when they gave up"

- Thomas A. Edison

Don't give up, take a break when you feel overwhelmed and come back to it. You will conquer the hurdles, remember patience is key.

SUCCESS in STAGES

Many interviews and autobiographies with career professionals frequently say that success is for only a moment. Success is fleeting but when it arrives, it's exciting. It sticks around long enough to inspire and motivate you to keep going. Success has a different definition to everyone based on how you measure it.

What is success to you?

Cameo in a prestigious magazine

Live television interview

Global recognition

1st time published

1st product sale

However you measure it, success can happen even if the success is small. Don' t filter out the little victories that could mean success to those who admire you.

Every professional was you when they began their journey, you can reach the success you want. Get ready, begin!

See You Soon Creatives!