S | 1 | Illustrator Recreation
This is the one part of Unit 1 that touches a device. You’re in the computer lab today. Bring the photo you took of your strongest comp (from Line, Shape, Texture, or Color).
You’ve spent this unit generating and refining paper designs through thumbnails, roughs, and a final comp. Today, you’ll try to recreate your single strongest comp in Adobe Illustrator. Your first time opening the software. You won’t have had a formal lesson on the Illustrator interface yet (that’s Unit 2). Today is about exploration and a first hands-on try, not mastery.
Choose
- Look back across all four of your comps (Line, Shape, Texture, Color).
- Pick the one you’re proudest of, or the one you think will translate best to a computer screen. You’ll be recreating this one, not all four.
Set Up Your Document
When Illustrator opens, click File > New. Match the settings below. Letter, Portrait, CMYK Color. Then click Create.
Recreate
Using only these basic tools, try to approximate your chosen comp as closely as you can:
- Shape tools (Rectangle, Ellipse) to build up any geometric forms.
- Line Segment tool for straight lines. Hold Shift while dragging to keep them perfectly horizontal, vertical, or at a 45° angle.
- Fill color: click a shape, then pick a color from the Swatches panel to color it in, matching your paper piece as closely as you can.
- Selection tool to move, resize, and layer your shapes on top of each other.
Don’t worry about matching your comp exactly, and don’t worry about tools you haven’t learned yet (the Pen tool, gradients, effects. All coming in later units). The goal is to see how much of your idea you can rebuild with just these four basics.
What was harder than you expected about recreating your paper design on the computer? What was easier?
Save & Submit
Organize (File Management)
- Ensure that Google Drive for Desktop is syncing to your computer.
- Create a Project Directory (Folder) in your Google Drive
Google Drive/My Drive/Digital Design/YYYY-MM PROJECT NAME - Try to keep all of your project files for this project together, so your work is not interrupted due to technical issues.
Storing all your files in the /Downloads folder in your computer is a BAD idea. If any of these files are lost/deleted you will have to reconnect them. Put them in your project folder directly. This will also be helpful in the event of any computer issues.
- In your project directory, maintain subdirectories for every category of resource you will be using.
| YYYY-MM Project Name |
| 📁 Graphics |
| 📁 Sketches |
| 📁 Photos |
| 📁 Notes |
- It’s also good to include directories for related files
| 📁 Project Files |
| 📁 Exports |
- Save your file as
LastName_FirstName_S1_Recreation.ai. - Export a copy as a PNG for your portfolio:
When you're finished, export your design as a PNG image for your portfolio.
1Open the File menu. Choose Export, then Export As…
2Choose PNG as the file format. Check the box for Use Artboards.
This crops your export to the size of your artboard (the page). Always check this box.
3Set your export options, then click OK.
Publish your work to your Google Sites Portfolio
- Create a new page on your Google Sites Portfolio to catalog your work.
- Your work should be exported in a web-safe format in a manner that allows for the work to be embedded without requiring Google Drive permissions
- Your work should be accompanied by a detailed project description
- Submit the published portfolio page to your LMS (Schoology)
Submit both your original paper comp photo and your Illustrator recreation side by side, with one sentence describing the biggest difference between the two.