Illustrator by Example

Aulia Muchtar, Indonesia "For this Swatch project, I propose a collection of three watches that illustrates 2 of the 4 elements (fire, and water)."

Learn how to design using Illustrator. Complete a professional design project and master Illustrator's most important features.

Students will design a series of Swatch™ watches — faces, bands, promotional materials, and all — with a design plan based on a fictional client's brief from Swatch headquarters. The course also covers many essential features of Illustrator and how it interacts with its "partner" software, Photoshop.

Course Developer/Instructor: Michael Hamm is a freelance designer, Web developer, and creator of Points&Paths.com, a Web site devoted to all things vector ... get bio

Create in Illustrator three watch designs and a promotional piece with an imaginative design theme.

Use consistent design elements and imagery to unify the design of the watches and a promotional piece.

Use Illustrator drawing and selection tools to create and manipulate basic shapes, producing custom objects.

Fine-tune shapes using the Direct Selection tool to produce smooth, symmetrical curves.

Import bitmap images into Illustrator documents and incorporate them in a design using clipping masks.

Apply custom gradient color effects to custom-drawn objects.

Use the Stroke palette and Pathfinder palette to create fine details.

Use type tools to create interesting typography that is appropriate for the design theme.

Lay out a promotional poster incorporating various Illustrator drawing and typographical techniques.

Make a three-dimensional package mock-up using Illustrator transformation tools.

Outline:

LESSON 1 The Swatch Job In the first lesson, you'll get a quick refresher in Illustrator basics, then dive into step-by-step creation of the main features of a watch. We'll take a close look at important features like clipping masks and reshaping objects in the process. Then onto the exercise, where you will prepare a project proposal and design the faces of your watch series.

LESSON 2 Working the Details With some additional tools and features, you'll use Illustrator to create the important details of your three watches, following along with each step. Everything from the watch bands to the buckles will be tackled with gradients, the Pathfinder, alignment, and other useful features.

LESSON 3 The Final Presentation To present your fabulous new set of Swatch watches, you'll take a step-by-step look at the Illustrator techniques and design decisions involved in promotion and packaging design. This involves typography, layout, and even the creation of 3D mockups. In the exercise, you'll design your own promotional or packaging material and integrate it with your watches for a professional presentation.

Tuition: $421 US