Explore the intricate process of designing an icon using Adobe Illustrator, with a focus on creating a wrench icon. Learn how to copy, rotate, and alter images for optimal design and gain insights into the specific tools used in Adobe Illustrator.
Key Insights
- The article discusses creating a wrench icon in Adobe Illustrator by making a copy of an existing wrench figure, rotating it to a 90-degree angle, and splitting it into two pieces.
- The process involves using shortcuts like Ctrl-C, Ctrl-Shift-V, and Ctrl-Shift-A for copying, pasting, and deselecting. Tools such as the Shape Builder and Direct Selection are utilized to adjust and modify the icon.
- Adjustments to the icon including creating distance between the two wrench images, rounding off sharp edges for a more aesthetic look, and resizing the icon to fit the artboard are demonstrated.
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In this video, we'll be finishing our wrench icon. To start, let's first select our wrench icon as we'll be copying it and shifting it to the right. Looking at our PDF example, we'll see that while we have one wrench that's complete, we have a second wrench that is incomplete.
So let's go back into Illustrator and we'll create the second wrench as a copy from the first. To do this, with the wrench selected, we'll hit Ctrl + C and then we'll hit Ctrl + Shift + V to paste a second wrench in place. We'll then rotate this wrench, rotating at one of the corners, and click and drag, holding Shift until it's rotated at a 90-degree angle.
Next, we'll need to separate this wrench into two pieces. To do this, we'll use our Shape Builder tool, but first, select both wrenches. We'll then go to our Shape Builder tool, and we want this first wrench to be one complete shape.
Therefore, we'll drag from the top left all the way to the bottom right until we've completed our shape. We'll then hit Ctrl + Shift + A to deselect, and we have one complete wrench and one wrench into two shapes. However, in the case of this icon, we actually want a little space between the first wrench and the wrench behind.
Therefore, we're going to need to zoom in using Ctrl + Plus on the keyboard and shift our view, and we're going to actually want to create more distance between this wrench and the wrench in front. To do this, we'll want to move the anchor points of the corners of the bottom shape, as well as the top shape. Therefore, we'll use our Direct Selection tool, shortcut A on the keyboard, and we'll first select the entire shape of our split wrench.
We'll then select the top anchor point, and holding Shift, select the bottom right anchor point. Next, we simply need to slide these along the given path. If we hold Shift, we'll ensure that we maintain the same path and simply slide it out to about here.
Here we have some distance between the two, and we'll do the same on top. We'll first select the top shape, select both anchor points, and holding Shift as we slide, move it up, and in this case, move it up a little bit further, until we're about there. We've now created our two wrenches, split in the middle, and let's now expand the total size of this icon using V, and drag in the selection box, and resize the object.
Remember to hold Shift to maintain the proportions, and adjust it so it mostly fills our artboard. We'll then right-click to group the icon, center it horizontally and vertically, and rename it in the layers panel. In this case, we'll name it nine wrenches, and hit ENTER.
As one final change now, before we move it into our final layer, we're going to round off the edges of our wrenches. To do this, we'll use our direct selection tool, shortcut A, and we're going to select all four points, holding Shift as we select the edges of our wrenches, and then we're going to use live corners to drag them in so they're not as sharp. We'll click outside, and I think this is a good improvement to our icon.
Let's now drag wrenches, select it, into our final layer, and save our work using Ctrl + S on the keyboard. In the next video, we'll be working on our eco icon. See you there!