Illustrator, by what you need it for

Logos are built as vectors so they stay crisp at any size, from a business card to a building. Start simple and refine the shapes.

1. Sketch the idea, then rebuild it with the Shape and Pen tools.
2. Keep it to a few clean shapes — simple logos travel best.
3. Set your type and pair it with the mark.
4. Save master versions and export a set of sizes and formats.

Image Trace converts a drawing or photo into editable vector paths, so a rough sketch becomes crisp, scalable artwork.

1. Place the image (File, Place) onto the artboard.
2. Select it and open Window, Image Trace.
3. Pick a preset like Black and White Logo or High Fidelity Photo.
4. Click Expand to turn the result into editable paths, then clean up.

The Pen tool draws with anchor points and curves — the core skill in Illustrator. Click for corners, drag for smooth curves.

1. Pick the Pen tool and click to place straight anchor points.
2. Click and drag to pull a smooth curve out of a point.
3. Close the shape by clicking the first point.
4. Adjust any point later with the Direct Selection (white) arrow.

Illustrator gives you fine control over type for posters and logos — spacing, size and shape — beyond what a word processor offers.

1. Pick the Type tool and click to start typing.
2. Use the Character panel to set font, size and letter-spacing (tracking).
3. For a logo, choose Type, then Create Outlines so the text becomes shapes.
4. Align it to your artwork with the Align panel.

Saving colours as Swatches keeps a project consistent and lets you recolour everything at once if the brand changes.

1. Open the Swatches panel and add your brand colours.
2. Group them as a colour palette for the project.
3. Apply swatches to fills and strokes as you work.
4. Use Recolor Artwork to swap the whole palette in one move.

Different destinations want different files: SVG for web and developers, PDF or high-res for print. Illustrator exports each cleanly from the same file.

1. For web: File, Export, Export As, and choose SVG.
2. For developers, tick 'Presentation Attributes' for clean code.
3. For print: File, Save As, PDF with the print preset.
4. Check the file opens correctly before you hand it over.

Illustrator is for vector art that must scale — logos, icons, illustrations. Photoshop is for pixel work — photos, retouching, compositing. If it must be razor-sharp at any size, it belongs in Illustrator.

Canva is fine for a quick, template-based mark if you are not a designer. Illustrator makes a true, original, scalable logo you fully own and can supply in every professional format.

Raster images are made of pixels and blur when enlarged; vectors are made of maths and stay sharp at any size. Logos and icons must be vector; photos are always raster.

A JPG is pixels, so enlarging it only enlarges the blur. You have to rebuild it as vector.

Run Image Trace to get a first vector version, then clean up the paths by hand with the Pen tool, or redraw the shapes over the top. Now it is sharp at any size and you can hand back proper logo files.

Consistency comes from shared rules: the same stroke weight, corner style, and grid for every icon.

Set up an artboard grid, decide one line thickness and corner radius, and build each icon to those rules. Save the palette as swatches so colours match, then export the whole set as SVG for the developers.

A poster is a layout problem — hierarchy, spacing and type doing most of the work.

Set your artboard to the final print size, place the images, then set the headline and body with clear size differences so the eye knows where to go. Keep generous margins, align everything, and export a print-ready PDF.

Illustrator is for making artwork out of shapes rather than pixels — logos, icons, illustrations, type and page layouts that must stay sharp at any size and in any format.

If the thing you are making has to scale, print crisply, or be handed to a developer as clean code, Illustrator is the tool.

A vector is a shape described by maths — points and curves — not by a fixed grid of coloured dots. Because it is maths, the computer redraws it perfectly at any size.

That is why a vector logo looks identical on a phone icon and a billboard, while a photo would fall apart.

Every job here falls into one of eight plain categories. Start from what you are trying to make.

• Logo — design a logo or mark
• Trace — turn an image into clean vector
• Draw — draw with the pen and shapes
• Type — set and shape text
• Icon — build an icon set
• Color — build and apply a palette
• Layout — lay out a poster or page
• Export — export SVG, AI or PDF

AI can spin up ideas and rough images fast, which is useful for exploring directions. But logos need to be exact, owned, and delivered as clean editable vector — and AI output is usually raster and hard to control precisely.

Use AI to brainstorm the look, then build the final mark in Illustrator so it is truly yours and truly scalable.

For simple, template-driven graphics, Canva may be all you need. Illustrator earns its place the moment you need something original and scalable — a real logo, a custom icon set, print-sharp artwork you fully own.

Many people use both: Canva for fast everyday posts, Illustrator for the foundational brand assets underneath them.