Designing Thought–provoking Infographics in Illustrator – Laura Smith

By: Laura Smith

Run Time: 4h 21m

Skill Level: Intermediate

Software Used: Illustrator CS6

Project Files Included

Description:

In this Illustrator tutorial, we will learn how to create an infographic from scratch.

We start out by discussing why infographics are appealing and when are good scenarios to use them. We’ll then learn a little bit about the researching process and a step-by-step list for the preparations you need to go through when doing your own research on your topic.

Then, we dive into Illustrator and spend some time setting up our typography in an appealing and cohesive layout. We also learn how to use some of Illustrator’s built-in tools for creating custom charts and graphs and also some of the tools for creating illustrations and icons for the infographic.

This tutorial is great for any designer who wants to create an infographic, has a basic understanding of illustrator, and wants to know the best workflow for executing this type of process from start to finish.

By the end of this training, you’ll have created your very own infographic about coral reefs. You’ll also understand some new useful tips about typography, charts, icons, color choices, and many more essential pieces to creating a thought-provoking infographic.

Contents:

01. Introduction and project overview – 01:12
02. Why use an infographic? Where to start making your own – 14:27
03. Setting up the document and choosing our colors – 18:15
04. Creating the title layout – 16:45
05. Setting up the main headers – 11:33
06. Building the header for the tone-shift call-out text – 11:45
07. Setting the type for the secondary headers – 07:44
08. Setting the fact section’s pull-quote style type – 14:56
09. Building the animal life pull-quote – 05:30
10. Setting the type for the main call-out – 17:45
11. Setting the last two call-outs and all the remaining stand alone text blocks – 14:12
12. Creating pie charts – 19:32
13. Building a customized scatter graph – 14:12
14. Creating a column graph with customized shapes – 14:55
15. Placing images and accompanying text – 15:56
16. Planning and creating illustrations to use as design elements – 15:32
17. Creating coral illustrations with the blob brush – 12:08
18. Painting and drawing branching coral with the Paintbrush and Pencil tools – 13:56
19. Creating cohesive icon illustrations – 18:41
20. Placing the illustrations – 17:31
21. Placing the icons and their labels – 10:14
22. Exporting as a PDF with crop marks – 04:53