Introduction

The truth is that many designers, whether they’re students or seasoned professionals, struggle with building precise vector shapes. I’ve wrestled with it myself. There are times I have to access old art files from my personal archive, and when I open them, I cringe, thinking, “Why did I build it that way?” or “That could have been done a lot better.”

The point is: We all have room for improvement.

Vector Basic Training exhaustively documents my own creative process and approach to building vector artwork. The methods I’ll cover in this book (with the exception of the plug-ins covered in Chapter 2) are what I’d call application-agnostic. No specific software, or version, for that matter, is required because you’ll be able to use these core build methods in any vector-based application, be it Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, CorelDRAW, or even Inkscape.

Illustrator may be the industry-standard application for graphic design, but there are many new choices being developed that use the same universal vector technology. The process I cover in this book will help you construct vector artwork in all of them.

For the sake of demonstration, I’ll be using Illustrator, which is the current vector building application of my choice.

This book isn’t your typical software-oriented technical manual or a how-to for using the latest tools and pull-down menu effects. It assumes you already have a general understanding of vector applications and want to improve your skills so you can build more precise vector artwork.

My creative process is systematic. You may not agree with everything I have to say, but if you apply my methods to your own creative endeavors over time, you’ll be pleased with the results.

We all drew pictures freely and joyfully when we were children, with arms and legs protruding madly from the heads of our very first crudely rendered self-portraits. Many of you continued to draw as you grew older, and that creative passion is probably one of the main reasons you’re involved in graphic arts today.

Some of you, however, didn’t stick with drawing and have evolved into a designer who can’t, or simply doesn’t, draw. This is unacceptable.

If you drew every day, in five years you certainly would not say to yourself, “I wish I never would have started drawing again. I am a worse designer now.” Your creative skills will only improve by integrating drawing into your creative process. The practical benefits of drawing will be self-evident and a lot of fun.

I should point out that when I say “drawing,” I don’t mean that everyone needs to become a full-fledged illustrator. Being able to draw allows you to take the ethereal concept in your mind and formulate it visually. The more you draw, the better you’re able to capture and leverage ideas and expand your creative potential. Combine improved drawing skills with the vector build methods in this book, and you will definitely execute better artwork with more precision.

When it’s all said and done, you’ll be what I like to call a “drawsigner.” And that’s a very good thing, because drawing is a designer’s best friend.

Building vector artwork before you know exactly what to build is an exercise in design futility. In this book, I’ll show you how to utilize both analog and digital methods throughout the creative process. You’ll learn how to work in both realms to create effective and precise vector art.

As part of the creative process outlined in this book, I’ll ask you to start by drawing out your ideas as thumbnail sketches using good old-fashioned pencil, pen, and paper. After refining your sketches, you’ll scan them into a drawing application and begin the vector build process. My tried-and-true methods and build processes, which I’ll explain throughout this book, will give you a firm understanding of how to place just the right number of points in just the right places for any design. The end result? Precision vector graphics nearly every time.

I think a more accurate saying for our purposes would be, “Process makes perfect.” This book will help you establish a successful creative process that you can use on any project and that, over time, will improve your creative abilities so you can consistently design well-crafted artwork.

When you see this video icon anywhere in the book, it means that the content provided on that page has a video screencast associated with it.

When you see the AI or PSD file icon appear in the book, it means the content being discussed on that page has a vector source file (or layered Adobe Photoshop file) associated with it that is available to you as a download. Again, these are yours to explore and study.

To access these files, refer to the instructions on page ii of this book. On page ii you will find an access code and detailed instructions about how to download the files from www.peachpit.com

Imagine that a construction worker backs his truck over his tool belt and breaks his hammer in half, forcing him to head to the local hardware store and buy a new hammer. He returns to the work site to finish the job, but when he tries to use the new hammer to drive in a nail, the hammer shifts to the right, causing him to hit the board instead of the nail. Uh-oh—looks like the new hammer isn’t compatible with older version nails.

I know this is silly, but it’s the type of reality we designers have to deal with every day.

Our industry, more than most, is in constant flux because of the ever-changing technologies we work with. At times, keeping up to speed with everything can be overwhelming, but doing so is essential to staying creatively relevant with the larger design community.

A creative process should be flexible enough to accommodate new technology, methods, and tools that will improve its efficiency without compromising its effectiveness.

A good example of this is drawing on an iPad or a tablet instead of using paper and a pencil or pen. It exercises the same creative muscles, and you have the flexibility of digital as well.

This book won’t cover every possible tool for building vector art in Illustrator, but it will introduce you to an easy-to-understand creative process that you can use to create high-quality design work, regardless of which vector program you use.

Along the way, I’ll touch on additional tools and techniques that make certain vector builds easier to accomplish. My methodology may stretch your creative comfort zone, but unless you adapt to new methods and constantly strive to improve your design skills, you risk becoming a dreaded design-o-saur, and your once forward-looking design work will start to resemble a thing of the past.

So don’t fossilize your creative potential. Take time to read through this book and you’ll discover a creative workflow that will greatly enhance your vector creations.