Why Learn Illustrator?

Adobe Illustrator is the most commonly used vector graphics design tool across many creative and graphic design industries. The program lets users build resizable vector graphic illustrations that are ideal for use in promotional material and advertising. Have you ever explored all of the things Illustrator can do? Professional Graphic Designers use the program in various industries, such as advertising and fashion. Still, it can also be used in a non-professional capacity to help budding creatives make a name for themselves or expand the scope of their creative projects. Here, you’ll learn more about the careers that benefit from Illustrator and how it can enhance your professional life. Regardless of your overall goals, learning Illustrator is a valuable and impressive skill to add to your resume.

What is Illustrator?

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics design tool used in several industries, including graphic design and web design. The program allows users to build graphics and illustrations out of vectors, meaning they are composed of lines, shapes, and points. These illustrations are easily resizable with minimal decay in graphics quality (unlike pixel-based graphics, which do not resize without becoming blurry or blocky). Images designed in Illustrator are perfect for packaging, advertising, or branding endeavors that allow the same image to be placed on both a business card and a billboard.

Illustrator is also a key part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, a collection of creative tools that give graphic designers a wide range of tools for creating stunning visual imagery. These programs are seamlessly integrated and built to allow optimized crossover. Illustrator is frequently used alongside Adobe Photoshop (a program with a similar but distinct function) and Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, video editing programs that utilize Illustrator to create animated effects.

Read more about what Illustrator is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with Illustrator?

Illustrator is a vector graphics design tool that lets users create their own illustrations. Using points, lines, shapes, and text, the program lets users build vector graphics illustrations designed to be infinitely scalable, letting users resize them at will. Therefore, Illustrator is ideal for drawing images that will be mass-produced and placed in multiple contexts, such as art prints, company logos, branded merchandise, official letterhead seals, and many other uses. Illustrator lets users build an image once and repurpose it on everything from water bottles to billboards.

Using Illustrator, creatives can build recognizable logos and iconography to help define a client’s brand identity. The most common uses of Illustrator are within the graphic design and advertising industries, though other industries, such as the fashion industry, have their uses for Illustrator. In these professional settings, users can construct illustrations that quickly and effectively convey meaning and help consumers recognize the products being sold. Almost all product packaging is made using vector graphics, meaning that almost every company selling a product to consumers will use Illustrator.

For non-professionals or aspiring entrepreneurs, learning InDesign can help users build their online identities. Small business owners, crafters looking to break into Etsy, local musicians looking to sell decals, or even activists wanting to build memorable logos and signage for their organization all benefit from learning Illustrator. Quick, efficient graphic communication is vital across many fields, and Illustrator can make building these graphic designs faster and more efficient.

Common Professional Uses for Illustrator

Learning Illustrator can be a helpful early step for aspiring creatives who want to turn their artistic passion into a career, as the program is the industry-standard design tool in many industries. Since Illustrator is used in advertising and brand management, industries that aren’t traditionally associated with creative imagery will want to contract firms or free-lancers to design logos, packaging, advertising, or other branded merchandise.

• Graphic Designer: Graphic Designers utilize tools like Illustrator to build the graphics, logos, and other media assets for contractors to use in branding, advertising, or messaging. Graphic Designers are responsible for creating recognizable, evocative imagery that can be used to quickly and effectively communicate information. As such, graphic designers work on various projects ranging from traditional advertising such as billboards to web logos, packaging materials, infographics, and branded merchandise.

• Digital Designers: Digital Designers build graphics, animations, and other visual assets for digital distribution. Often working as part of a large team, digital designers will build assets for webpages, mobile applications, online advertisements, and other digital publications. Digital Designers will often be building more complex assets intended to be animated or made dynamic, often through Adobe After Effects.

• Fashion Designers: The fashion design industry uses Illustrator to draw and design mock-ups and prototypes of clothing. This is often done to streamline workflow, replacing the practice of drawing and designing complicated clothing features such as patterns or color gradients by hand. Noble Desktop offers a specific Illustrator for Fashion Design Bootcamp for aspiring fashion designers.

• UI/UX Designers: Illustrator is an essential tool for User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) Web Designers. These designers build and optimize the appearance and functionality of the user interfaces of digital and web applications. They will frequently use Illustrator to construct the assets tied to various icons, patterns, and buttons that help users navigate web and digital applications.

Build your Brand

Some smaller businesses and start-up entrepreneurs don’t have the luxury of hiring firms or contractors to build their essential advertising assets. If you have a product or business that you are starting up, or you want to improve the brand identity of a project or organization you are a part of, learning Illustrator can be a valuable way to ensure that your merchandise and material match your vision.

For entrepreneurs, amateur musicians, or other creatives who feel that Illustrator training might be helpful for building their own branded material, a lengthy Illustrator bootcamp might not seem like an ideal choice. For those learners, Noble Desktop offers Illustrator in a Day, where students will receive hands-on training in the basic features of Illustrator, helping them learn to draw simple images, trace from references, and use colors, layers, and brushes to build professional quality illustrations quickly.

Expand your Creative Skills

As a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, Illustrator is closely linked to several other creative design tools that aspiring artists and illustrators can use to enhance their work. Learning Illustrator will make learning other programs easier, as students will understand the basic functionalities of the platform. Beyond this, Illustrator is used to create assets for many different Adobe creative products, so students looking to work with motion graphics may pair Illustrator training with enrollment in an After Effects Bootcamp, or students looking to build web interfaces may wish to learn Illustrator as a prerequisite to enrolling in an Adobe XD Bootcamp.

How to Start Learning Illustrator

Students tend to find that the best way to learn a new skill is through live Illustrator instruction, either in-person or online. These courses provide students access to professional instructors who can respond to questions and provide feedback in real-time. In-person training seminars are ideal for students hoping to replicate the feel of classroom instruction as closely as possible. However, this can limit a student’s options, as they are restricted to the in-person training options near them. Live online classes can be taken from anywhere, giving students more control over how they learn. Live instructors can guide students through difficult sections and explain challenging concepts virtually.

For students whose schedule doesn’t allow them to take a live course or who feel that they will benefit more from a different pace of instruction, on-demand and asynchronous learning options may be ideal. These classes give students flexibility in how much time they spend training in Illustrator on any given day, which can be incredibly helpful for students with work or family obligations that keep them from attending regular classes. The downside to these courses is that they require a great deal of self-motivation on the part of the student, and while students have more freedom to pace themselves and repeat material, lacking an instructor can risk students feeling lost and overwhelmed.

Some free learning options are also available for students hoping to learn the basics of Illustrator. These tutorials and resources won’t be enough to replace professional instruction for students looking to use Illustrator professionally, but they can help students get accustomed to a new program. Noble Desktop makes many free Illustrator training resources available through their Learn Hub and the Graphic Design playlist on their official YouTube page.

Read the full guide on how to learn Illustrator.

Learn Illustrator with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers an array of Illustrator classes and bootcamps for students hoping to receive Illustrator training through a live online course. Noble’s Illustrator in a Day course offers introductory instruction in the basic functionalities of the program, such as the pen and pencil tool, the function of different layers and brushes, and the process of preparing a file for publication. This course is ideal for students who expect to work with Illustrator in the future but don’t imagine that they will do so every day or that they will need to engage with the complicated features of the program.

For students who do feel that they will need to work with the more advanced features of Illustrator, Noble’s Adobe Illustrator Bootcamp offers in-depth training in the tools that allow Illustrator to create complex and vibrant vector illustrations. Students will learn to work with masks, alter colors and gradients, and build custom patterns. They will also create practical sample designs such as T-shirts and signage to include in a design portfolio. These exercises mirror the projects that professional Graphic Designers undertake, and this course is an ideal place to learn how to use Illustrator professionally.

Aspiring career Graphic Designers can build their skills in many different design programs by enrolling in Noble’s Graphic Design Certificate program. This program confers upon students a state-approved certificate in the mastery of Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Beyond learning the functionalities of these programs, students will receive lessons in theories of design and composition. They will work towards building various sample designs to be included as part of their sample portfolio as a prerequisite for completion. Students looking to expand their design skills further can enroll in Noble’s Digital Design Certificate program, which covers all of this information, plus lessons in user interface and web page design for digital publications.

These Design Certificate programs are career-focused courses that provide students with one-on-one career mentorship. As a student’s final project, they will build a sample design portfolio to showcase their skills to prospective employers. By the end of these programs, students will be prepared to enter the workforce in a new, high-paying career.

Key Insights

• Adobe Illustrator is the industry-standard tool for vector graphics and design. It is used in several industries to design logos and branding icons.
• Adobe Illustrator is used in several creative careers, and aspiring Graphic Designers, Fashion Designers, Digital Designers, and UX/UI Designers stand to benefit from learning Illustrator.
• As Adobe Illustrator is a more user-friendly program, it benefits entrepreneurs and creatives looking to build their brand identity. New users can pick up the fundamental skills in the program quickly.
• Owing to its integration with the Adobe Creative Cloud, Illustrator is a valuable tool to learn alongside other Adobe creative software. Web Design and animation will require more training than just learning how to use Illustrator, but it is an essential tool in those fields.
• Students interested in learning Adobe Illustrator can find a wide array of in-person and online courses available through Noble Desktop.