Adobe Illustrator is a graphic design program that’s often used for professional logo design and branding. While it can be somewhat difficult for beginners, Illustrator allows users to easily make icons from scratch, which can be really helpful if you’re looking for graphics that you can legally use, or if you just need something specific in order to fit your project and match its design.
Using Illustrator in DH
Generally, visualization is often a big part of the digital humanities, and as one of the primary professional graphic design programs, Illustrator can play an obvious role in that. Using custom icons can help reduce word clutter in visualizations by indicating categories through images instead of words. It can also make projects more accessible to those speaking a variety of languages!
Step 1- Creating a document
Illustrator uses vectors instead of pixels, which makes graphics easy to resize even after creating the document. Settings shouldn’t matter much, but once clicking “file” → “new”, I usually start with a letter sized canvas and a 300 ppi resolution.
Step 2- Using Shapes
If you want a more symmetrical look, the shape tool is a good way to start. You can find it on the tool bar and right click in order to switch between what shape is being made!
Step 3- The “Curvature Tool”
To make shapes that are more abstract, use the curvature tool. It definitely takes some adjustment, but the general overview is that you should place points at the peak of all the curves in the shape you want to make. *Note* I didn’t use any corners here, but to make sharp points instead of curves, double click on the point.
Step 4- The “Shape Builder” Tool
One of the benefits of using Illustrator is that it allows you to create transparent icons that can be easily integrated into projects. In order to remove unwanted shapes (for example, the space in the middle of the donut) you can use the shape builder tool. Select your objects with the selection tool (the arrow in the top left corner.) Then, activate the shape builder tool by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + M. Clicking and dragging over shapes combines them, and holding down on the option key and clicking on shapes removes them.
Step 4- Colors!
Clicking on the square at the bottom right corner when an object is selected allows you to change its color. Clicking on the outlined square next to it allows you to change the color of the stroke (outline) of the object.
Step 5- Saving
You can export your file by using “file” → “Export”. Make sure to save it as a PNG, TIFF, or a different image option that allows you to save transparency!
Don’t Get Overwhelmed!
If you don’t feel confident enough to make icons from scratch, Google has a great library of symbols that you can download as SVG files, which are editable in Illustrator. The Wikimedia Commons is also a good place to look for public domain SVG files. You can still use Illustrator to edit these to match the color scheme of your project or to combine different files to make more specific icons. But Illustrator can definitely be stressful when you start, so it can be good to have a jumping off point as you practice your skills.
For more information on Illustrator, use the official user guide. Also check-out this tutorial for the pen tool, which is the more popular alternative to the curvature tool.
9 thoughts on “Tutorial- Using Adobe Illustrator to Create Custom Icons for ArcGIS, Python Graphics and More!”
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This is such a great tutorial! I love the way you set it up so it is clear how to get from one step to another, and I also love that you included an example of you using your figure in a GIS map — great way to connect your tutorial to what we learned in class! Overall, great explanations of each step, and really great post!
Wow, this a really cool tutorial! I have always wanted to learn how to use Illustrator as I think it is an extremely useful tool. I especially like how you talk about the fact that the icons can be used to show points on a map in ArcGIS as that helps customize the map.
This tutorial is very useful to beginners using adobe illustrate. I have some prior experience using adobe illustrator and I found this very easy to follow and had the steps clearly labeled out for us to use and interact with. Im not very good with digital art so I found ti hard to get the shapes right are there any tips that you can recommend that can help make my shapes a bit more standardized? Because your shapes look amazing in the tutorial?
Yeah, it can be pretty difficult to make things standardized! I always end using the “align” tools in the properties bar a lot, since they allow you to center selected shapes. As for making abstract shapes, I personally think using the curvature tool makes a big difference. Most Illustrator tutorials teach people the pen tool because it’s older, hence Illustrator experts are very used to using it. However, the curvature tool was added around six years ago, it does the same thing, and I think it’s much easier to learn. With either tool, the general rule of thumb is to use as few points as possible in order to keep your shape neat and avoid having awkward, wavy lines.
Wow!!! This tutorial is awesome. I think the ArcGIS example you used is amazing and very applicable to a variety of Digital Humanities projects and tools. I also appreciate that you showed a technique that can be used in a large variety of contexts, not just in Digital Humanities work. Your tutorial was very helpful and I really appreciate how thorough you were!
Hi Sophie! Thank you for putting together such a straightforward, hands-on tutorial! Back in high school I tried using Illustrator to create some text art, but I quickly got bogged down by the variety and intricacy of the different tools. Since that art project I haven’t picked up Illustrator again, but your step-by-step demonstration is inspiring by showing that a delicate image can be achieved through just a few simple functions. It was impressive to see how you incorporated your donut graphic into both your Python program and the ArcGIS map of local cafes! Such engaging visualization not only makes a DH project more fun to look at and interact with but also allows the developer to apply more creative strokes. I definitely agree that graphic design plays an important part in drawing viewers’ attention and making DH work universally readable.
Hey Sophie! This is a really good idea to use Illustrator to create your own images! Previously I had just been looking up PNGs to use as icons in ArcGIS and had not thought of creating my own. I love using various Adobe apps but I mainly use Photoshop since there is a bit of a learning curve to learn how to use new applications. But after reading your tutorial, I think it could really help me get more familiar with Illustrator.. Well done!
How COOL!! I always love learning more ways to think about design elements, and I think I am always a little afraid of making my own elements because I think they won’t look good enough. I think your tutorial is very easy to follow and might inspire me to try my hand at making some of my own elements for projects in the future.
This was very interesting to learn about! You made it such an easy process to learn and go through this tutorial. I also loved how you incorporated arcGIS into this example. It is amazing that software like this exists and I love that you were able to bring this to our attention. Great job!