GDES-360 spring 2023 / David Ramos, American University Design

Learning Illustrator

In this class, you’ll rely on a number of software programs, including your choice of Illustrator or an equivalent vector drawing program. (See the software section of the syllabus.)

If you already know Illustrator well, you might be able to rely on your existing skills. You will probably need to review details about how to work with paths and select objects.

If you’re new to Illustrator, or your Illustrator skills are limited, you’ll need to learn Illustrator in order to complete assignments in this course. (We will not cover Illustrator in class.) Start working through the LinkedIn Learning tutorial on the program.

You can also use a different vector drawing program. If you do this, you’re responsible for your own support and answering your own questions. Inkscape is a good, free/open source program, with tutorials online.

Getting Illustrator

Illustrator is available in the design program labs in Katzen. If you want to run Illustrator on your own machine, you can subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud, which costs $20/month with a student discount.

Using LinkedIn Learning

You have free access to LinkedIn Learning through the AU Library. The library provides instructions on how to get access to your LinkedIn Learning account.

Illustrator tutorials

Focus on these key tutorials, in this order:

Illustrator basics (~20 min. runtime)

Selections and basic line tools (~12 min. runtime)

Color and strokes (~20 min. runtime)

Drawing (~13 min. runtime)

Organizing projects (~10 min. runtime)

Alignment, stacking, and transformations (~9 min. runtime)

Type (~12 min. runtime)

Raster images (~6 min. runtime)

Output (~5 min. runtime)