Pattern Bites: Discover 2 WORKFLOW SECRETS in Adobe Illustrator, so you can make more art.

1. Intro: You know how it takes just a minute to set up a new document or delete default swatches, or find the right tool panel and the Window drop-down menu. Now, think of how many designs you want to create. A lot of time and room for error that I want to help you avoid. Hi, I'm Leanne Friedberg and I'm a professional surface designer from Canada. I'm actually really excited to share these to Adobe Illustrator secrets with you, because using them can have a huge impact on your workflow and give you more time to make art. This course is intended for an intermediate or advanced designer, but I'll make it accessible for those of you with less experience by narrating each click or selection, by sharing my own preferences. A surface pattern designer. In case you're not quite sure how you would like to customize your experience yet. I'll be demonstrating with Adobe Illustrator 2023 on a Mac, but encourage you to use the Discussion tab to get or provide help on adapting these skills to other versions or operating systems. Join me in the next class to go over the class project. 2. Project: Because this course was designed to save you time, the class project is simple. Just a screenshot of what you have learned. I think it would be really helpful to other students if you also include a sentence or two describing what kind of work you do and what choices you made to optimize your workflow. To take a screenshot on a Mac, you can hit Command Shift three, windows users can hit the windows and Print Screen button. If you don't have a Windows Key, tried Control Print Screen. If you don't have a print screen key, trig function windows in the space bar. And if none of these options apply, visit the link provided in the course description. Join me in the next video so we can get started. 3. Secret 1: The first secret to optimize your workflow so you can make more art is all about workspaces. In Adobe Illustrator, a workspace refers to the overall layout and organization of what you see on the screen. In this video, I'll show you some ways you can customize your workspace and have the skills to make as many workspaces as you need. This is often one of those things that you hear about that either aren't sure how to do it or if it's worth the effort. Well, I'm here to show you how and insist that it's more than worth it, especially when combined with secret number two. Let's get started by opening adobe Illustrator on your computer. At the top left of your screen, click on new file. Now, set up your file with your most commonly used specifications. For me as a surface pattern designer, I like to start with a 3,500 pixel by 3,500 pixel canvas with one art board in RGB color mode at 300 ppi. Once you're happy with your settings, click Create. I actually don't work with multiple panels scattered about anymore. Especially since discovering the intuitive and robust utility of the properties panel. I addressed this in more detail in my last pattern bytes class, which of course I encourage you to check out. I'll drop a link to it in the course description. So you're not afraid to make changes. Let's just save whatever you have showing to do that, go up to the top of your screen and click on Window, Workspace, manage workspaces. And click on the plus sign. Name your space, whatever you would like and click. Okay. Now had up to Window, Workspace and select essentials. And so we're all starting with the same interface. Go back up to Window, Workspace, Reset Essentials. Now your screen will look like mine, and it will make this next part easy to follow. Let's begin by customizing the toolbar. On the left side of your screen you'll see a vertical column of basic tools. Click on the three dots at the bottom of that column to edit your toolbar. Unless you're really familiar with the tools, I recommend switching to list view by selecting the horizontal lines at the top of the panel. The grayed out tools are already on your toolbar. Take your time to scroll the list to see if there's anything you would want to add for easy access. The first ones I'd like to add are these three pen tools. Add, Anchor Point tool, delete an anchor point, and the curvature tool. I'm going to select the add anchor point by clicking on it. Hold down my Shift key to make multiple selections, and click on the other two as well, and then release. Now I'll click on them and hold, drag them over and hover over the pen tool until I see a blue square around the pen and then release if you accidentally let go somewhere else on the toolbar, don't worry, you can still move things around by selecting, dragging, and releasing. Now, if I click and hold that pen tool, I'll see everything that's group there and can select any one of them. I'd like to add the polar grid tool, which I sometimes use as a drawing guide for Mandela's. I want this to live on its own. So I will select and hold, drag it over between two tools. You should see a horizontal line and release. I'll do the same for the smooth tool which I often use when vectorizing. Take another moment to see if there's anything else you wanted to add. I do see a couple of things here that I don't need. So I'm going to remove them. Click and hold, drag and drop. Click and hold. Drag and drop. Take another minute to see if there are any other changes you'd like to make to the toolbar. If you're good, click on the three dots again to close the tool library. Let's move on and look at the right side of your screen. I don't use comments, so I'm going to select the darker gray bar above the speech bubble, drag it out and release. Then select the X to close. As mentioned, I'm a big fan of properties, so I will leave it open, but would like to see my layers at the same time without having to switch between tabs. So I'm going to click the Properties tab and hold, drag it to the bottom of the screen until I see the blue line. And then drop it so it appears below the other tabs. I'm going to drag out libraries and close it, knowing I can always find it in the Window drop-down if I change my mind. Now, I'd like to add swatches even though I can access them through properties. So I'll go up to window and select swatches, swatches out of the group and drop it above my layers so that it is always visible. I'm also going to select symbols, which I also demonstrate how to use in that class I mentioned, but this time I want it to appear that tab next to my layers. I will select drag, hover and wait for the blue box to appear and drop. And I'll close those brushes. I'm pretty happy with the way this looks for my pattern design needs. Take a few minutes and make any changes that you would like so that your workspace better reflects your needs. Just pause the video if you need more time. Now let's save it. Select Window, Workspace, manage workspaces plus sign, and give it a name. Now go back to window workspace and make sure that your newly named workspaces there. Notice that all of those saved illustrator did not switch which one is active. So Essentials is still checked. Let's go ahead and select the new one. Now, let's say you want to make an additional workspace, e.g. I. Also designed and greeting cards and would want my default set a bit differently. Now, don't follow me here. I just wanted to demonstrate something for you. So I'll hit Command N to open a new file and enter my greeting card specs. Then I'll head to Window and add some text tools. I would ideally customize this further, but I'll leave it for now because you already know how to do that. I'll quickly save it as greeting card. Now we'll go back to window workspace and ensure that it's saved. But notice that my first custom workspaces checked. This means that the topography changes I made were to my pattern workspace, but bear with me. It's all good. I can now reset my pattern workspace to the previously saved version and easily toggle back and forth between the two saved versions. As is, workspaces are super-helpful. But wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to toggle between them or reset them if you accidentally mess them up just to get started on a new design, wouldn't it be great if all the specs that you entered just to open a new document where automatic. One big mistake I used to make was forgetting to switch colors spaces for different types of work and when realize it until it was time to submit. Well, now I have a quick and easy solution. So let's head to the next video to learn how to further streamline your process in a way that you may not have known you were missing. 4. Secret 2: In case you took a break, I have an Adobe Illustrator document open with my ideal specifications for pattern design, including number of art boards, height and width, color space, and resolution. I also have my preferred workspace selected and reset the one that pairs with these documents specs. I also know that if I make any changes to any of these things, they will not automatically appear when I create a new document. So this brings us to workflows secret number two, customized document templates. Before I start, I want to make two other time-saving changes that do not carry between documents when using just workspaces. But will with templates. I'm going to delete the default swatches by selecting the first, holding down the shift key and selecting the last release and delete. I'm going to do the same for the default symbol's. Select Shift, select the last release, delete. Now, I never have to do that again, which is great because sometimes I forget. Now this is where you can get fancy if you'd like. Some people like to have their logo or watermark sitting just off their art board. Sunlight to start with guidelines are bleeds. Some have symbols or pattern layout templates they like to use, and others load up their most commonly used color palettes. Actually, maybe I'll do that. I'll click on my swatches library icon, select user-defined, and the palate I want. Then click on the folder to add the colors to my swatches panel. I'd like to keep this document template very simple, just what you see on my screen. Feel free to pause the video here and add all the things you want to see automatically when you open your template to create something new. Now let's save it as an a I T and Adobe Illustrator template. This is the file format to use if you want both your workspace and all other document attributes to appear when you open it. Go up to File, save as template, name it, and hit Save. Most of you will get this error message. If you are not on your own computer or not comfortable adjusting security permissions, you can save this AIT file where you save your other files. Just make sure it's in an easy to find folder. If this is your computer and you're on a Mac, go back to Save as Template. And right-click on the file area and Show in Finder. In Finder, right-click right on the templates folder and click on Get Info. At the bottom of this window, you may need to scroll down, click on the lock to unlock it. Enter your computer login password if prompted, change the privileges to read and write. These privileges are only adjusted for this subfolder. Relax by clicking on the log. Now go back to Illustrator, name your file and save it as an AIT. I'm now gonna go back to my greeting card file, which I added some things to, and select my saved greeting card workspace, which I also modified a bit. Save as Template greeting card. That's it. Create as many as you need and then choose the template you want to work from by pressing Command Shift N for a Mac or Control Shift N for Windows. Before heading to the next video, grabbed that screenshot and upload it to projects. Join me in the next video to go over next steps. 5. Next Steps: I'm so happy you stuck with this. I know it doesn't seem like the most fun you'll ever have using Illustrator. But the whole point is to make more time for the fun part. After you use your templates and workspaces for a bit, I would love to hear what you think. You can drop me a note here in discussions, add it to your project, or even on my Instagram, my username on Instagram is just my name at the end, free Berg. See you soon.