Adobe Illustrator…
Adobe Illustrator is my go-to software for anything and everything design-related. It’s the one program I truly couldn’t work without.
And while it’s easy to assume that the program’s primary focus is an illustration based on the name, there is so much more to this design software.
With tools for type, color, photo cropping, image tracing, drawing, and much more, it has innumerable benefits for bloggers and business owners, alike.
1 | Logos
While programs like Photoshop work with raster images (which are made up of pixels), Adobe Illustrator creates vector graphics (which are created with mathematical logarithms). Unlike raster images, vector graphics can be sized to infinitely large proportions, which are ideal for creating logos.
Illustrator also makes it easy to manipulate text, change colors, add illustrations, and stick to a grid — all of which are important for creating a strong logo.
2 | Sidebar buttons
Custom buttons in your sidebar and other pages of your website are a great way to differentiate your blog/business, make your website more interactive, and add interest to your brand.
I’m often asked how I create those colorful category buttons in my blog sidebar, and Adobe Illustrator is my secret. I simply used the ellipse tool to create each circle, drew some icons with the pen tool, eye-dropped my brand colors, saved the graphics as transparent JPEGs, uploaded them to my sidebar using Squarespace’s gallery block, and added links to make them “buttons.”
3 | Infographics
Infographics are a great, engaging way to display information and data on your site. They are also highly sharable, meaning they’re often pinned to Pinterest, mentioned on Twitter, and linked to on Facebook.
Adobe Illustrator gives you all of the necessary tools to create custom infographics for your business.
4 | Social media icons
Like I said before, it’s all in the details. Even something as small as a social media icon can reflect the rest of your brand and make your site appear more professional and cohesive.
In Illustrator, you can change the colors and styles of the typical social media icons and make them more your own.
5 | Illustrations
Illustrations are a fun way to add personality and interest to websites, collateral items, and more. Use the pen tool in Illustrator to create your own custom illustrations that fit in well with your brand.
