Whether you're an experienced user of Illustrator or just starting out, our experts have handy tips and advice for you.
Of all Adobe's tool, Illustrator is increasingly the one we write about most often, and for good reason. Indisputably the industry standard tool for vector drawing and illustration, it's used by a wide variety of creative professionals including editorial illustrators, identity designers, textile and pattern designers, UI designers, motion artists, web designers and many others.
With a broad feature set, Illustrator has always long an incredibly versatile tool for creating vector graphics are infinitely scaleable and in most cases relatively lightweight. And in the last few years cool new features added to Illustrator CS6 and the new Illustrator CC 2014 have consolidated the software as the go-to tool for pro designers.
In this post we've grouped together the best resources and tips features on Creative Bloq on the subject of Adobe Illustrator. But if you need some further in-depth training in the software, don't miss our round up of the best Illustrator tutorials from around the web. Whatever your level of expertise, you're bound to find something to help your understanding and improve your technique. And we'll keep coming back to the post and updating it, so make sure you keep it bookmarked!
Take a look at our quick list of Illustrator shortcuts, covering layers, selecting, transforming, and saving. They're guaranteed to boost your productivity!
Graphic designer Andy Cooke explains how to make full use of Illustrator's artboards to easily construct and output a wide variety of brand collateral.
Design a pixel-perfect vector icon using effects to achieve unique shapes. Jory Raphael provides the basics and introduces some core Illustrator tools.
Ben the Illustrator reveals how you can generate colour palettes on the move using the Kuler iPhone app – and then take them into Illustrator CC to create a stunning illustration.
Which of the two design tools is better for which tasks? Jason Cianfrone of BaseCreative compares Photoshop and Illustrator to see which comes out on top.
The second in the series of Studio Training guides from Computer Arts focuses squarely on Adobe Illustrator. Over 100 pages you’ll learn in-depth design and illustration secrets you can put to use in your daily design work. This special is divided neatly into four sections – and although you’ll get something from each no matter what your discipline, you can quickly jump to the features that are most relevant to your workflow and design goals.
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Tom May is an award-winning journalist and author specialising in design, photography and technology. His latest book, The 50th Greatest Designers, was released in June 2025. He's also author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine.
