Create shapes faster in Illustrator

Every illustrator will have experienced the pressures of a last-minute job – the one that comes in at the end of a Friday afternoon and is due to be signed-off first thing Monday morning. It’s at times like these where you really need to be aware of all the tools at your disposal in Illustrator that can help save you time. In this walkthrough we’ll be using a recent promotional poster that I created for Ford, looking at how the Pathfinder panel played a key part in speeding up my workflow, giving me more time to incorporate client feedback and amendments.

The Pathfinder panel is the quickest and most efficient way of manipulating paths and shapes, providing you are clear as to the outcomes of each action. Mastering the tools on offer can make creating the most complex shapes almost instantaneous. By the end of this tutorial you’ll have a good grasp of the basics, and be able to develop and incorporate these skills into your own workflow.

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