This class is a quick and fun look at creating some strong black and white designs in Illustrator where both the 'colors' are strong design elements.

In the black and white designs we'll create the negative space – typically white - instead of being a minor player is a partner to the black or positive space. There are a lot of terms given to these types of designs including the Japanese term Notan which translates roughly to 'strength and weakness', 'light and shade' such as you might see in the classical yin yang design.

The designs we'll create include some inverted designs where the designs are created as black elements and then across half the design these colors are reversed. As we work though our examples, you'll learn the special requirements for designing these black elements so that they can be easily reversed.

We'll also create some designs using text both inverting the color of the text and intertwining two letter forms to create a logo. As well as designing objects we'll look at a couple of patterns one of which will be colored so you can see how you can take any of these designs we've created in black and white and create them also in color.

This class is suitable for beginner and intermediate Illustrator users. Some of the designs use the Shape Builder tool first introduced first CS5 (and which is included in CS6 and CC) and some require the Pattern Make tool which is in Illustrator CS6 and CC.

The designs you will learn in this class can be used in a variety of ways including as creative assets and scrapbook papers for sale online. You can also create them as designs for print on demand sites such as Spoonflower.