This is a Illustrator tutorial for beginner level users of Illustrator. I am using Illustrator CS2.

Symbols are a very handy tool in Illustrator and can make the life of a designer quite a bit easier. This introductory tutorial will go over Symbol basics and show you where to find the menus and commands you will need to start using symbols in your artwork.

1. What is a symbol?

A SYMBOL is basically a prepackaged art object that is stored in the Symbols Palette. Symbols can be used multiple times throughout your artwork without having to recreate or duplicate the object. Each time a symbol appears in a document is considered an “instance”. Each instance is linked to the same object in the Symbols Palette. Similar to style sheets, this allows you to edit the symbol within the palette and all instances of that symbol will be updated. This can save loads of time and reduces file size greatly.

2. Locate the Symbols Palette

In the default workspace, the Symbols palette appears bundled alongside the Color Swatches and Brushes palette. To open the Symbols palette, go to Window > Symbols. While the palette shown below does not contain any symbols, the default palette will usually contain a few standard symbols.

3. Finding Symbols in Illustrator

Illustrator comes with pre-loaded Symbol Libraries containing a wide variety of art objects that you may find useful. To access the Symbol Libraries go to Window > Symbol Libraries > Pick a Library. For the purpose of this tutorial I have chosen the Flowers library.

4. Adding Symbols to your Symbols Palette

Clicking on a symbol in the Flower Library will automatically add it to my Symbols Palette. You can also select mulitple flowers and select Add to Symbols from the drop down menu at the top of the library window.

5. Placing Symbols onto the Artboard

There are a few ways to add a symbol to your document. The easiest way is to select the symbol in the Symbols Palette and drag it to where you want it to appear on the artboard.

You can also place the symbol by selecting it in the palette and click on the Place Symbol Instance button at the bottom of the Symbols Palette.

The last way is to select the symbol and choose Place Symbol Instance from the Symbols Palette menu.

6. Using Symbols in your Artwork

There are lots of benefits to using symbols in Illustrator. For instance, by using symbols and the symbol tools you can:

Create detailed illustrations rapidly

Make revisions and changes quickly and easily

Reuse artwork again and again

Build custom art object libraries

Reduce file sizes

The subsequent parts of my “Simply Symbols” tutorial series will go over each of these benefits and how to effectively use symbols. Some of the most important reasons to use symbols are listed above, but as you become more familiar with these powerful tools and how to use them you will likely find you own reasons to dig symbols!

Look for part of “Simply Symbols”  2 coming next week!

This is a typography tutorial for beginner level users of Illustrator. I am using Illustrator CS2.

First, type the text that you want to stylize onto your artboard. Because I am feeling in a superhero kind of mood today, I decided I would play with the word SUPERMAN. In order to make things easier down the road, set the fill color to anything besides black.

I want to style my text to appear strong and fast (like Superman), as if I am standing still and it is flying by me. So, in sticking with our mood, I am going to play with my text a little before applying the 3D effect. This step is not necessary to create your 3D text, but it will give it even more perspective.

Go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Warp (shown below). The Warp Options dialogue box below shows the settings I used to get my desired look. If you are going for a different look with your text, play around a little. (If you check the Preview box along the right you can click around from Warp to Warp and change your settings while seeing a preview of them without committing to them.)

Here is what my text looks like with the above Warp applied.

Once you have applied the desired Warp, it is time to apply the 3D effects to the text. Go to Effects > 3D > Extrude & Bevel. Listed below are the settings I am using for my text.

Here is what my text looks like with the above 3D Effect applied.

In order to edit and tweak the 3D text, we will need to Expand and Ungroup. First, go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Once the text has been expanded, go to Object > Ungroup to separate the pieces so that we can edit them individually. Note: You may have to repeat the Ungroup steps a few times before all the groups have been separated.

Select the “front face” of each letter and apply a new fill color/effect using your Color Palette. I chose a linear gradient and used colors that create the look of a reflective surface.

Here is my final 3D SUPERMAN text.

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BONUS TUTORIAL!
The Reverse Effect ~ Let’s go over how to reverse the look of our 3D text, while reviewing some other basic tips and tricks.What we want to do is select all of the gradient “fronts” and make them blue and select the blue drop effect and apply the gradient.The first thing we want to do is save our gradient to the Gradient tab in the Color Palette so that we do not have to build it again when reapplying it to another shape. Select any of the “fronts” so that the gradient is showing as the current selection Fill in your Toolbox as shown below. Next select the Gradient tab in your Color Palette, also shown below. Now simply drag the Fill from you Toolbox into the Gradient Palette.To make our lives easier, we can put the fronts and the drag effect each on its own layer. For a review on how to do this, see my tutorial called “Shortcut to Moving an Object to a New Layer”Now that we have each group on a different layer, we can easily select only the part of the text that we want to work on. First, click on the little circle to the right of the drop effect layer in the Layers Palette to select the entire layer.Now click on the new gradient swatch you just placed in the Gradient Palette.

Next, select the fronts layer by clicking the little circle and change the fill to blue or whatever color you were using.

Now you have a reverse version of the 3D text we created above.

There are all kinds of fun ways to spice up your text. Once you’re done, you’ve got a great looking graphic for promotional items, postcards, or even your website.  MAKE IT MORE THAN WORDS…MAKE IT ART!

This is a fun tutorial for beginner level users of Illustrator. I am using Illustrator CS2.

First, using your Ellipse Tool, create an elongated ellipse like the one shown below. This is the first petal of our flower.
The Ellipse Tool looks like this:

Next, with the petal selected, click on the Rotate Tool in your tool box.
The Rotate Tool looks like this:

Once you have clicked on the tool icon, hold the Option(mac)/Alt(pc) keyas you move the cursor to the point you want your petals to rotate around and click. You will see the light blue rotation point on your artboard as shown below.

Once you select your rotation point, the Rotation dialogue box will appear.

Select the angle at which you want your petals to rotate around the rotation point (I am using a 30 degree angle) and hit COPY. Do not hit OK as this will simply rotate your original petal rather than adding a new one.

Next, add the rest of your petals by hitting Command(mac)/Control(pc) and D keys as many times as necessary. You can also repeat this step by going to Object > Transform > Transform Again.

Now that you have all your petals in place, create a circle (or a shape of you choice) and place it on top in the center.

There you have your quick and easy flower.

Once you get the hang of the steps, you can get a little more elaborate with your flowers. A few samples of flowers I made using these steps can be seen below.

Have fun with it!