Flat vector icon design with shapes in Adobe Illustrator

1. Introduction to flat vector icon design class: Hello everyone. In this class, we are going to design flat vector icons using Adobe Illustrator. We're going to use shapes like triangles, polygon, rectangle, ellipse to design those flat vector icons, I will show you quick and really easy design technique to make awesome flat vector icons without spending too much of your time by design those icons, My name is Karunarathna and I am a full-time UI UX designer. I will guide you step by step process of design. Those flat vector icons and here is the icon that we are going to design to make those icons only you need a computer with Adobe Illustrator tool. most importantly, you must have a desire to learn how to make flat vector icon. So I will see you in the next lesson. 2. Pros and cons of Adobe illustrator: Let's talk about the pros and cons of Adobe Illustrator tool. So let's start with pros. The first and most important thing is Adobe Illustrator have a best tool collection to create awesome vectors using those tools we can design awesome vectors. The second pro is, Adobe Illustrator works on both Mac and Windows computers. Next pro is Adobe Illustrator designs don't have any pixelation issues, which means you can increase Adobe Illustrator designs without getting any pixel damage or changing the quality of the design. So let's talk about the cons of Adobe Illustrator Tool. The first issue is Adobe Illustrator can't edit photos.  if you have to do things like color corrections, image enhancement, or improve the quality of the image, you have to use different tool like Adobe Photoshop, the second con is, we should have some kind of knowledge and skill to design vector icons using Adobe Illustrator. Most importantly, if we going to make custom designs, we must have knowledge and skill to use the tools of Adobe Illustrator. So those are the pros and cons of Adobe Illustrator. In the next lesson, I will open Adobe Illustrator on my computer and start to design. 3. Adobe illustrator tools guide- part 01: Okay now let's check the tools on tools panel. so I will select the first tool as rectangle tool I will click on it and the shortcut will be M and now I will draw a rectangle like this if I want to get same sides I can press "Shift" and now I just create a rectangle so if we go to the properties panel we can see the properties of this rectangle. as example if I want to change the color of this rectangle I can click this fill and change the color as I like. I will select the color as light blue and also. I will add a stroke increase the size of a stroke to 10 and also. Can change the color so. if we go to the layers panel and click here I can see the rectangle layer. so now I will click can hold on this rectangle icon and now I can see other tools like ellipse polygon tool start tool line segment tool and let's create an ellipse with ellipse tool so. I will just click here and drag It like this and press shift to make perfectly rounded ellipse and as I did before I can change the color as I like and let's remove the stroke. okay. and now I will click on line segment tool and click one point click and drag to create a line so. If I want to get a straight line. I have to press shift then I can add stroke color then. I can increase the size. okay. also. if I select the polygon tool. I can create objects like this and if I want to create a rectangle I can press up and down keys of the keyboard so if I press up key I can increase the size. if I press down key I can decrease the size. so I need to create a rectangle. so. I will make those sides to three and I will click shift to align it and let's increase bit. okay now I can change the field color as I like Also. I will remove the stroke by adding 0 hear. All right now I will go to the selection tool using this selection tool we can change the position of the object and also we can change size of the object. if I press shift and drag I can change the size like this Also. if I go to the triangle and click this. white dot and drag it we can change the corner of this object and now we have direct selection tool before I click it I will select all of these objects by clicking and dragging with the selection tool then I can right click and click on group to make a group or I can press Cmd+G or Ctrl+G to make a group. so. let's press Cmd+G on Mac and now if I go to layers. I can see a group. so. if I click here I can see all of objects in this group so. if I hide this group. All of objects will be hide. And if I move this one object. I can move all of objects. and now I will click on this direct selection tool. and using this direct selection tool I can select individual objects on the group so. if I only want to change the position Of this circle I can click it with direct selection tool and change the position. If I want to change this I can. click it and change it Also. with the direct selection tool we can. adjust anchor points so. when I click on an object I can see the anchor point of that object. Now I will double click on that anchor point and now you can see a handle so. using this handle. We can change the shape of the object. I'll Click the object and bring it here. Then I'll click this anchor point. And now I can change the anchor points as I like. Also. We can do that same thing to other objects. Like this. And then we have. Pen tool the shortcut is P used in the pen tool we can create paths I'll click on direct selection tool and change the position of this yellow color object Also. I will make it. Bit smaller. Now I'll select the Pen tool Then I'll. click one point and click another point. Now I have two anchor points I can create it as I like and. Now if I click on the first anchor point I can. make it as a object. Also. we can this pen tool to add anchor points to other objects. so as example. if I want to at anchor point to this line I can click already exist anchor point and. Add more anchor points. also. if I want to create a curve shape can just click one place and drag like this then I can create that curved line So. I can make it. Like this. Then we have curvature tool With this curvature tool we can create a curved object. before I used curvature tool. I'll remove some of this objects. so. click on direct selection tool and let's remove this one. now I will click on curvature tool and I can create a carved objects like this. And I can change portion of the dose anchor point and change the shape of the object and if I want to remove these anchor points I can just press on. Becky space and remove their and anchor points and we have type tool. The shortcut is T I'll click here and. Now I can change the font. font size font style and Make changes to the font so I will select the font as Robert. Then I'll change the font style to bold then change the font size to 100 and now you'll see the. text on artboard I will change the text to hello designers and. I can select it then change the. text color let's add two hundred as the size then. let's change the position okay Also. we can create text box using this text tool to do that I will click on text tool. and click and drag like this now we have. Textbox in this textbox I'll change the font size to 28 and font size will be. Regular Let's make it like 48. And now I will copy Lorem ipsum text like this and I will. Select the text by pressing. Cmd+A On Mac or Ctrl+A on Windows and I'll make it center Here are the most fundamental and essential tools of illustrator. 4. Adobe illustrator tools guide- part 02: Now we have Brush tool. We can use this brush tool to create path with brush styles. So I will click on this brush tool and make a simple design like this. Then I can click on direct selection tool and select this brush path and change the style. Let's change brush style to this and increase the stroke. Okay, and now if I click on brush and create another style, the brush will draw the selected style. So if I want to change it, I can click on Direct Selection tool and select the style. then change the brush style.  Let's select basic add stroke to 20.  Also, we have pencil tool, the shortcut is N. We can use this pencil tool to draw part and row object like this. So I will select all of those objects and change the stroke to 10. Okay, now we have Eraser tool. We can use this eraser tool to remove paths or objects. As example, if I click on eraser tool and let's changed the stroke to 40, and I will remove this part like this. And then we have Caesar tool, using this Caesar tool, we can cut paths at anchor points. So I will select this drowing, or let's create a rectangle and I will change the fill color, and now I will select the Caesar. Before I do that, I will go to Layers panel, and here is our triangle layer. And now I will click on Caesar and click here. then click here. Now, our rectangle become two parts. So if I click on this eye icon, only one part will disappear. So this Caesar tool will be very useful for this class. Now, I can select those paths separately, and now we have Shape Builder Tool. I will create another rectangle set like this. I will change the position okay in layers panel, we have three separate rectangles. Using this Shape Builder tool, we can create a single shape or we can design different shapes using these rectangles. So I will click on direct selection tool and select the object. Then click on Shape Builder Tool and drag a line like this and this, then those rectangles become a single path. This tool will be useful tool for this class. And finally, we have eyedropper tool. This eyedropper tool can change the color of selected object. As an example, if I create a rectangle, if I want to change the color of this triangle to this color, I can click on the eyedropper tool and click that color. And if I want to change it to this color, I can click eyedropper tool and select this rectangle or path and click on this color. Okay, those are the most essential tools for start this class. 5. Design a map pin icon: Okay, Now we're going to create this map pin icon. So this will be the first design of our class. So let's start it from scratch. I go to files in Adobe Illustrator and click on New. Then I select the preset 4,000 by 4,000. And color mode, CMYK and the resolution is high. So then I click on Create, and now we have this blank canvas. Now let's create this circuit. To do that, I will click this Shape Tool area and select ellipse. Then I will click on this canvas, and now I will add the width as 2000. And the height will be 2000. Then I click on, Ok, now we have a circle. I will click on selection tool and make it center. Let's make it like this. And now I click on this property panel and click on Fill, then select color as red. So I can double-click here and get the color picker, and let's make it red. Okay, Now I will click on Ellipse tool again and click here. Then I will create a small circle, width as 800 and the height, as 800 and click, Ok. Then I will change this second ellipse color to white. Then I click on selection tool and select both of this objects and go to Properties panel then align it center. And now I will drag it like here. Okay, our first part is complete. Now we have to create the pin part. To do that, I can use a rectrangle. Now I go here and select Polygon tool. Then I pressed Shift and create a rectangle. If you see more than three sides, you can press down key of your  keyboard and decrease the sides. So then I pressed Shift and make it aligned correctly and release the mouse and Shift key. And now I will click on direct selection tool and select the rectangle. Then I go to Properties panel. In Properties panel, I will change the width to 1800 and the height will be 1800px. Also, I will flip it vertically like this. Okay, Now I will select. all of those objects and align it horizontal, center, okay, now I have to align this rectangle corners to this circle. To do that, I will increase the canvas by pressing Alt key and mouth-feel. Or I can select this zoom tool zoom it. but I will do it with keyboard and mouse like this. And now I can drag it as I like when you drag it, don't kinda horizontal position. only change the vertical proposition. Now, I will increase like this, then I will increase  it like this. Ok. Now there has the stroke, so I will remove the stroke by adding 0 here, and also I will remove the stroke here. Okay. And let's increase bit more. Okay. Let's align it correctly. Okay, and decrease the size. Then let's check this side, it's fit well. And now I will click the rectangle and select the direct selection tool. And I can round the corner of this rectangle. So I will click this dot and rounded it like this, okay, and let's see what happened Everything looks good. And now I will select both of these objects, then I go to shape builder tool. Before I do that, if I go to Layers and let's see our layers, we have this polygon shape and we have this ellipse. So now we are going to make those two objects to a single path. To do that, I will highlight both of the objects and click the shape builder tool. Then click here and drag it like this, okay, now it become a single path. all right, And then if I click here, it is just a ellipse. So if I hide it, it just hide. But we can do better. And we can remove this ellipse and make this whole as part of this drope pin. To do that, I will highlight both of this ellipse and path, then go to Properties. In properties, I will click here and click on this path finders divide option. And now if I go to layer, I can see a path and compound objects. Now I will remove this white part by selecting it, pressing Delete button, and now we have a solid map ping. Now let's make this 3D effect. To do that, I will use selection tool and select this object. Then press control C to copy the object and press Shift Command and V to paste this object. Now we have two objects. So here is the first one, here is the second one. So let's change the color of the second object. I will select the object and click on color picker. And let's add dark color like this. And now if I hide the first object, I can see the second object, and now I re-select the second object and, make it little bit right, send it to right like this. And now I will click the second object and click curvature tool and increase the size of the canvas. And click here. Then click this little dot, then make it like this. And now if I check the design, it will look like this. So we have two different object and we can make this to 1 path by highlight all of the object and go to Properties. Then Pathfinder, click More option and click this divide option. And now we have this single object. okay. Now I can change the size as I like, okay, now we successfully design our first vector icon. 6. Design a camera icon: Okay, This is our second design. Let's start to create the design I will create a rectangle. That rectangle size will be 2500 and 2000  the width is 2500, the height 2000. Then I will change the fill color to something like this. And now I will reduce the corners. Okay, let's reduce it little bit more. And I will change the fill color to something like this, and you can change it as you like. Then I will select the ellipse tool and create a ellipse. The ellipse size will be 1000 by 1000. Then I will change it color to FFA200, so it's an orange color. And now I will select all of these objects and align it horizontally and vertically center. Then I will duplicate this circle. To do that, I will press Alt and left-click mouse and just drag mouse to right and we get that duplicate of the circle. So now I will decrease this circle size to 800. When I decrease the size, if I click this, maintain width and height properties, I can only change the width and height will automatically change, okay, Now, I will change this circle color to light black. All right. And then I will duplicate this circle as I did before, press Alt and just left-click of the mouse and drag it a little bit like this, then I will change this color to dark black like this. It's too dark, so let's change it to something like this. Okay. Now, I will gain this circa size to 300, 500, okay, And now I will make it center. Then I will create a  duplicate again. ok. And now I will change the circle size to 100 and also change the color to ash. Let's add ash color like this and make it center. Let's make size to 150 by 150, like this. And now, if I go to this fill, I can see this color chart. In this color chart, I will select this, this one is better. ok and again, I will duplicate this small circle and let's make the size to 50 by 50 and change it position like this. All right, now, if you didn't align all of those objects, you can go to layers and select the first circa and press Shift and select seconds and circle, third circle. And for forth circle, then you can go to Properties and align it horizontally and vertically. Alright, now I will create a rectangle and click here. Then the rectangle size will be 400 by 200. Let's add width as 500.200. Let's add it as 500 and 250 and fill color will be light blue. Then let's reduce the corners Like this and make the position like this. Now, I will increase the design by pressing Alt and using the mouse wheel.  all right. Then I press Alt and duplicate this rectangle. And now I will change the width to 400. And now I will change fill color to a little bit darker gray and then click this point and change the round, change the rounded corners Ok. let's increase the width little bit more. Let's add the like 540. I click this link icon and unlink it. Then I only gender width to 440, and click the both objects then align it center. Ok. Also, I will change the corner of the lightest color red triangle that match to dark ash color rectangle. Okay. Now I will click the rectangle icon and create new rectriangle like this ok. Now, I will add some. Rounded corner to that rectriangle like this. Then click on Selection Tool and decrease the size and now make it like this. And I will change the height to 60, and width will be 400. Now, if I decrease the design and check it, it will look like this. And again, I will increase the height to something like 80. and put it like this, ok, looks good. And now I will click on rectriangle tool and create a rectangle. And the height of this rectangle will be 1,500 and height will be 400, okay. Then I will make it align center like this and I decrease the corners. Then I decrease the width to 1200. Okay, then I increase the design. and make it fit to center of the red triangle. Also, I have to remove the stroke again. And this one also have a stroke. Okay, then I will click this rectangle and click on Eyedropper tool. Then click the lens color. And now I will right-click it and go to arrange and click on Send backward or send to back. Now, we have to create that switch. To do that, I will click on another rectangle and create a rectangle like 200 by 200. Let's make it a little bit bigger and make the corners rounded. And now increase the design little bit. Then we have to send to back it. Okay, then I will click the Eyedropper tool and select this color. All right, now, I will make a duplicate of this triangle. To do that, I will select selection tool and click hold and drag it a little bit like this. Then change the size. And let's click eyedropper tool and click this color, then send it to back. Now, we have to do some changes. So this one will be look like this and click here, then do some adjustments and the size like this. Okay.  Now we complete the camera design so you can change the colors as you like. Also, do some edits and change the appearance of the icon. So now we have to change these objects to path. Because if we don't change them to path, and if we try to increase the design, our design will be changed. As example. If I change it, you can see the corners of the design are changing. So we have to make those objects to paths. To do that, I will click the main design and click this one, this one, this one. and click this one. Then go to Properties. Click here, click Divide, and now this is still ellipse. So click this ellipse and press Command C to copy and Shift Command V to paste. And now you can see new ellipse. So this is the new one, and this is the old one. So I will select the old one and new one, then go to the property. And in pathfinder, I click on Unite and that ellipse becomes a path. Also, we have this ellipse, click on it, command C, shift Command V, and this one, and this one. Then properties, click on Unite and unite it, then we have those parts. So I will increase the design and click on Divide and they become a compound object. And now we have this rectriangle. So I will create a copy and Press Shift Command V to duplicate the copy and select it. Then go to Properties. Click on Unite. All right, and we have this one. So click here and click here. So select this one and press Shift and then select this one. Click here, and click the divide of the path finders, ok. Now, if I go to layers, the all objects become paths, then comfound objects ok. Now, if I increase the size, we will not get any issues. Alright. 7. Design a bag icon: Here is the 3rd design that we are going to create. okay, our canvas is ready. So let's start the design. First. I'll select the polygon tool and create an object that has 5 sides. Then I will press Shift to make it aligned correctly. And now let's send it to center of the canvas. And now I will increase size a little bit. So I can this link icon and let's increase the size to 2,500 and the height will be automatically adjusted. And again, I had a stroke here, just remove it. ok. Now I will add a background color. Let's select. color like something like this, will be good. Or maybe let's make bit lighter it. Okay? Now I will flip this vertically. So to do that, I select this object and click this flipped vertically icon. And now I will click this scissor icon. You can see it here. Then I will increase the design. And now I will click this anchor point, then decrease the design, then increase the other side, and click the anchor point. Now, if I go to Layers, I can see two paths. So I don't need this below paths, so I will just remove it. And now I go to Pen tool, click this anchor point, press, Shift, and click here. Okay, Now we have an object. Now I will increase the height to 200. So go to Properties and make the height, sorry, it's 2000, like this ok. And click the direct selection tool. And let's make the corners rounded like this ok. Now, I will create  an ellipse and the size will be 50 by 50. or let's increase it to 80 by 80. Okay, and click it and put it like this. Then let's change the color to light black. Let's change the width and height, 100. Ok, and now press Alt. Click on Selection Tool, press Alt and duplicate it. Then let's make it vertically center. Ok, let's make it like here, ok. And now I will click on the Ellipse tool and create an ellipse. So the size will be 400.400. And now I will click this fill color and make it transparent. Then I will add the Stroke with, light black color, or light ash color. And now I will add a stroke. This stroke will be 200. It's too much. Let's make it 100. And let's make the stroke as 80, ok. Let's make it bigger like this and just make it center. Now I just select this one and this one. Then let's make it center ok. And now I click on this circle and click scissor tool and increase the design. Then I click this anchor point. So I click this anchor point and now it become a separate object. So let's go to Layers and here is that object I just click Delete button to remove it. And now I will click on Pen tool and click this anchor point. Then pressed Shift and click here. And press enter. Then I click here and press Shift. Then click here. Okay, press Enter. And now I go to properties. And in Stroke, I click this stroke text. And I will add cap to round cap ok. And now I click on this selection tool and click on these dots and make it center correctly. And let's see our design. Let's make this circle size to 1,150. So click here and the width to 150. And let's set it align correctly. oK. And let's change that color to a little bit lighter. ok. Now, if I want, I can click on direct selection tool and click, double-click on this anchor point, then increase the handle. Okay. Now let's create a star decide. So I will click here and select startled. And just press shift and create that star like this. Then stroke will be transparent and fill color will be dark red. I will make it centered and increase it a little bit more. Okay. Now, if you want, You can change the corners as you like. And now I will duplicate it by pressing Alt and drag it here like this, then decrease the size. Let's put it like this, then duplicate it and put it like this. Okay? So here is the final design. And okay, now we have to convert those objects to paths. Do that. I click here and Press Control or Command C. Then press Shift Command V, and right-click, then click on Arrange, Send to Back. I go to layers and here is our two parts. Those paths and click United. All right. And I do the same to those two buttons. Let's duplicate them. And let's go to Layer. Just bring those button to here. And now select the individual button. And united them and do the same click unite. ok. Then I will see that all of these objects and go to Properties, click on Path Finder and click on Divide ok. And now we have to change. This stroke path to object. If we didn't do eight and if you try to increase it, you can clearly see that path changed So to fix it, click on the path and go to object. Then in part, you will see an option called outline stroke. Click on it and it become a path, or it becomes an object.  8. Design a cloud icon: Okay, this is our 4th design and let's create it. This design is really simple. So I will select ellipse tool and create an ellipse like this. Then I will change it color to a light blue. Then I will duplicate this ellipse. Click the selection tool, and let's duplicate it for a few times. Okay, and now, put those ellipses like this And now I will duplicate this one again. Then I will change the size like this. And now let's make more ellipes as for this one here. Okay? And now I will make it center. Let's change the shape of this circle to this. Okay. And I will select all of these objects and click on shape builder tool. Then click here and drag it like this. Let's remove all of these unnecessary parts. Okay. And let's increase the size. We have some parts here just remove it too. Now, here is our cloud. 9. Design a lock icon: Okay, it's time to create this design. Our canvas is ready. I will select the rectangle tool and create a rectangle. The width will be 2,500 and height will be 2000 And then I click here and make it center. Now, I will change the fill color to this color. After that, I click on scissor tool and. Increase this and click right here, then click right here. Okay, Now we have two different layers. This is one, this is two. Okay. I will remove the stroke again. You don't need a stroke and click this one. Then I will change the fill color to light as something like this. Okay, now I'll select both of these objects and click on direct selection tool and make a rounded corner like this. Okay, now I will bring it to like here and now I will create ellipse and size will be 400 by 400, and I will change the color to white, put it here, then I will create a rectangle. The size will be 300 by 700 and bring it like here, then make the corners rounded. And again, we have a stroke just remove the stroke. I will increase this width and height to 500 by 500. And let's bring this below, like this. Okay? And now I will create another ellipse like this, then fill color will be none and we'll add a stroke of 80.  let's make it 200 And now color will be light gray and send it above like this, and let's make it 250, decrease the size. And now I will click the scissor tool and got it from here. And from here, then select this one and remove it. Then click the pen tool and click here, then press enter and click this anchor point and press Shift and click here. Okay. Now we have to make it align vertically like this, okay, and now it's perfect. So now it's time to change this to a vector object. So first I will click this one and this one, and then click on Unite, and then click here and Control C Control  Command V and this one, and this one. Click on this one okay and Also, click here and go to layers. In layers, click this one and this one. go to properties and click here. Ok, Now those two become a separate part and click this part then go to Object Path and click on our outline stroke. All right, Now our design is completed. 10. Class project: Hello, congratulations, you've successfully completed this class, and I hope you go through all of this design. And now you have a complete understanding of how to create flat vector icons with simple illustrator tools. And here is the class project. You are going to create this smartphone vector icon. Here are the rules. your Canvas size must be 4,000 by 4,000 pixels  And you have to create this type of smartphone design. Also, you can use any type of colors as you like. After you complete the design. You can export it as PNG and then send me the design. So you can go to File and Export, In Export, Click on save for Web and select the type as PNG, and you can save the design. So thank you for watching this class, and I will see you in another class thank you again.