Introduction to Graphic Design: Illustrator

Design is complex art that involves many different skills and tools. In this course, instructor Tony Harmer uses the process of creating a poster to teach you the core Adobe Illustrator skills that every designer needs to know. Tony shows you how to set up the document and working space for the poster in Adobe Illustrator. He walks you through importing the sketch, adding the print area, and creating a modular grid that will help you position objects in the layout. Tony covers area type and type hierarchies, then shows you how to rotate and scale area text. He steps through adding images and recoloring artwork. He goes over how you can change the blending mode and opacity of the artwork, create a clip group, and place another Illustrator file into your working document. Tony wraps up by showing how you can check your file for accessibility issues and package your file for easy hand-off.

Instructor’s note:

Graphic design is everywhere you look. On any publication you look at, or in anything you watch, on the packaging of your favorite foods and drinks, on your clothing, that interface of your phone and your devices everywhere. The Intro to Graphic Design Course, or I2GD, as we affectionately call it here, teaches the basic concepts of graphic design. And this practical course takes you through a project in Illustrator where you will apply some of those concepts just as you may do in the real world. Although it’s been made easy enough to follow if you’re new to the software, this course isn’t an introduction to Illustrator. And if you’re keen to learn more, you could check out my own Illustrator Essentials Course for that. You may also use something other than Illustrator. And if that’s the case, then I would probably watch through and note how the project links back to the concepts course before trying out in your own software. My name is Tony Harmer and my career spans almost four decades in the creative industry. I know it’s hard to believe when you look at me, but I’ve been in several different roles and I’ve managed to build up a lot of practical experience. I’m also an accredited expert in all of the Adobe Creative Cloud Design apps, and Illustrator is my favorite. So you’re in good hands and I’m really excited that you’re here. So let’s get started and begin this I2GD project course in Illustrator.