As a digital marketer, you might not realize how much you could benefit from learning Adobe Illustrator…
And why should you if you already have an incredible online presence, great branding pieces and an effective bottom line on ROI. But wait… what if you, well, need some help in one, two or maybe all the above areas Adobe Illustrator CC is your ticket as a digital marketer to customize, illustrate and repurpose your marketing skills. Let’s talk about some specific ways in which you can do this.
Here are several ways your knowledge and use of Adobe Illustrator are going to help you not only promote but engage by bringing a burst of life to your marketing campaigns. In each of these areas we are going to analyze first, why as a digital marketer you need to pay special attention to this specifically in your field, and secondarily, how Illustrator can help you.
#1 Digital presence
Why you need it?
To build digital presence you must have a plan and some strong distinguishing markers. Marketing is all about standing out from other sellers. Whether it’s a product or service you are marketing, ask yourself: How am I distinguishing myself from my competitors?
Creating collateral that is recognizable will improve your overall marketing technique. Remember this key phrase: good design is good marketing.
Create online campaigns that utilize custom illustrations that tell a story to your audience. Stock photos or footage can only go so far in accomplishing this and it’s impossible for you to stand out when you use a material that’s already been used by hundreds of other brands for their campaign, whether similar or not to yours.
How Illustrator Helps
While many may use other programs, even Adobe Photoshop for creating branding materials, Illustrator will give you the customizability and freedom since its files are vector-based*, allowing for flawless resizing capabilities.
*You may be asking, what is a vector-based graphic? There are vector-based and pixel-based graphics. Vector graphics are typically used when a design will go through various size changes and used across a variety of uses. A vector program, such as Adobe Illustrator, draws outlines of shapes, which are called objects and displayed as separate and singular. Benefits of vector versus pixel include scalability, since they are not resolution-dependent, simple color editing, and outline or wireframe modes for cutting or engraving imagery.
#2 Creating Infographics, Charts, and Graphs
Why you need it?
According to an analysis in 2019 of the visual content performance of 500 online marketers, it was found that 40.2 % said original content, including infographics, continually performed best in their campaigns.
What’s the advantage of slapping a long list of data on a page that readers have to scroll through, without retaining half of it? Transform that information into an engaging and informative graphic.
How Illustrator helps
Illustrator has the capability for you to layout precisely measured templates for infographics using several of their built-in program features:
- Chart/graph tools
- Grids
- Linked assets
- Create shapes
- Direct Selection Tool
- Creates hip vector graphic illustrations
#3 Social Media Content
Why you need it?
On social media, visuals that converted followed some of these basic principles:
- Targeted ideal audience
- Conveyed important facts
- Was easily readable
- Visually appealing
As a brand on social media, you need to have clearly defined messaging and visual pieces to use as engagement tools with your audience. If you do not, your social channel will look scattered and unorganized and reflect negatively on you as a marketer.
How Illustrator helps
Little known to many is Illustrator’s capabilities to create custom social media templates. Here’s a couple built-in tools you should try:
- Document Guides
- Layers
- Color Groups
- Paths
#4 Custom Logos and Trademarks
Why you need it?
Logos will always be needed for your brands and those whom you market. As a digital marketer, you are familiar with people coming to you to create them a plan to market their product or service, but they have marketing pieces yet, not even a logo. This calls upon you as the marketer to help your client find a quick solution that will help you begin your work. But, what if you could offer this service to your clients too instead of having to outsource to a designer?
How Illustrator helps
Illustrator really is built for creating logos. For example, once designers have sketched out an idea, they can scan in their illustration and use it as a background and then trace on top of the design, making it fully scalable using the Pen tool and Shapes panel. You can also duplicate shapes and layers or combine them for unique layouts.
#5 Graphic Titles
Why you need it?
It’s easy with Illustrator to create graphic titles to be used repeatedly at the start of videos or as social media covers on your channels.
How Illustrator helps
Layout your text and graphics using multiple Artboards in Illustrator. You can begin your design on one and then drag and duplicate to the other to change elements. Then save as separate files to be able to overlay on videos in Premiere Pro or online video editors.
#6 Resizing
Why you need it?
Now every design is expected to be versatile across different size devices. You may also have the need to use the same design in a large print order, at the same time while scaling to thumbnail size.
How Illustrator helps
Don’t worry! Illustrator totally takes the pressure off of you by being completely scalable vector graphics. This means you can resize without distortion or losing quality. Pro tip: When you are scaling objects in Illustrator, but don’t want to change the strokes or effects in Illustrator, make sure to check your settings under “Scale Strokes and Effects” in the Transform palette.
#7 Print Collateral
Why you need it?
Business cards, one sheeters, flyers, you name it, you’ll need a reliable program that can quickly duplicate branding pieces and create flawless layouts in large printable quantity.
How Illustrator helps
Since Illustrator was created first by Adobe Inc. in 1985 as a vector graphics editor, that should tell you it’s pretty much your go-to buddy for print needs. See point #6 and #8. Vector illustration from Illustrator is a hot trend right how— more hip, expressive and personalized than an ordinary photo.
#8 Repurpose or Reuse
Adobe illustrator is a wonderful tool in that it is easy to work with to recreate and repurpose your designs across many outputs once you are finished. Since Illustrator makes use of paths and vector-based graphics*, your projects are fully scalable and will not lose any quality. You can also further use your “Illustrator-tions” across other Adobe programs, including Adobe Photoshop and Indesign. Save your files with an .ai or .pdf extension and you’ll always be able to go back and edit it!
Need some help learning Adobe Illustrator? Visual Persuasion is tracking the Covid-19 response, and will resume classes when it’s safe to do so, probably later in the summer. Sign up for one of our small-sized classes or book us for an onsite team or one on one training. Our classes are intensive, kinetic, exciting, fun, gratifying and tailored to meet your needs as a professional.
Learn more about our Illustrator classes or call us with questions. 303.941.1727.
